Yesterday designs for the redevelopment of Flinders Street Station were released. You can look at them in detail and even vote on them at voteflindersst.com.au — though the vote won’t actually determine the design used, only “
Categories
Pics: How they fix mobile phone towers
How do they fix or upgrade a mobile phone tower? With a very big crane, that’s how. It wouldn’t be a job for someone with a fear of heights. In my family, my sister gave up her landline when she moved last year, and in her household now relies totally on mobile phones for making ... [More]
I hadn’t noticed these before — these poles at the western end of the Bourke Street Mall commemorate the 1956 Olympics and 2006 Commonwealth Games. 2006: Delays expected â Blame the games
The state government continues to push the East-West motorway (a plan they barely mentioned in the 2010 election campaign) over major public transport projects. But what do the people want? As it happens there’s a pretty clear message from surveys going back at least five years. (Skip to the end for the latest one.) October ... [More]
A couple of years ago I wrote about Nissan Micra ads at Flinders Street Station directly criticising public transport. This time, it’s Kia’s turn, though it’s a little less overt. Spotted at Malvern (as well as other locations, such as South Yarra): You know, I’ve been using public transport for decades. I’ve seen people asleep, ... [More]
Last Saturday some of us from the PTUA did a tour of the Regional Rail Link project. Here are some photos and notes. The RRL project, for those who haven’t being paying attention, is basically a brand new railway from somewhere west of Werribee, through new stations in the fast-growing suburbs of Wyndham Vale and ... [More]
I assume this Anti-Hate advertising campaign from the Equal Opportunity & Human Rights Commission is a response to some well-publicised incidents recently: The small print says: The only thing more painful than racism is the silence that follows. If someone’s abused on this train, let them know you’re on their side. Help stop the hurt. ... [More]
If Tony Abbott’s Coalition won’t build rail, why do they include a rail icon on their infrastructure policy? At least, I’m assuming it’s an icon for rail — not giant white picket fences to keep out asylum seekers, or something like that. (The above is from the summarised version. The slightly more detailed policy document ... [More]
Categories
Photos from July 2003
Continuing my monthly series of photos from ten years ago… By mid-2003 it was almost four years since privatisation of trains and trams, but as you can see from this photo in Swanston Street (at Lonsdale Street), many trams still had The Met liveries. This tram stop (with interchange to many Lonsdale Street buses) has ... [More]
Magazines aren’t quite dead, but they’re in trouble. While places like MagNation in Elizabeth Street are often busy, that might hide the fact that it replaced at least two older specialised magazine retailers (Technical Book Shop and McGills) that were in the CBD previously. At Southland, the newsagency that had been there for decades has ... [More]
It’s often said that there hasn’t been a suburban rail line built in Melbourne since the Glen Waverley line opened in 1930. To be precise, that year it was extended from Darling to Glen Waverley. Others built or extended since then have either been electrification along existing lines, or re-openings of lines along old alignments: ... [More]
A few thoughts on Federal politics from the last few days. I think Gillard did some great stuff. Carbon tax (some don’t like it, but it works), National Disability Insurance Scheme, the Royal Commission into child abuse, and (along with her predecessors on both sides) keeping the economy afloat in dire economic times — and ... [More]