I wrote most of this post late last year, so obviously circumstances have changed a tad, but my assumption is it’s all temporary – eventually things will get back to something approaching “normal”. Maybe not quite what it was last year, but the pattern of increasing travel demand will come back. Works on the northern ... [More]
Here’s a snapshot of Melbourne’s public transport patronage over the past five years, by mode. Tram and train are growing. Tram in particular saw strong growth thanks to the Free Tram Zone, but both those modes show increased patronage. The trams now carry over 200 million boardings on just 24 routes. But bus patronage is ... [More]
It’s time for my annual blog post about the mess that is Boxing Day public transport at Chadstone. 2017: Chadstoneâs Boxing Day bus debacle 2018: Boxing Day buses at Chadstone: still big problems It happens every year at Chadstone and the other big shopping centres: hordes of shoppers descend. Demand fills the car parks, which ... [More]
You might recall I had put in a request to Vicroads to resolve a 13 year old problem with a local bus zone. The bus zone hours hadn’t been updated since last decade. In 2006 the operating hours of bus route 701 were extended so it runs until after 9pm in the evening, and Sunday ... [More]
Sometimes I notice tiny things, and wonder what they’re about. Have you noticed that some bus stops have a small colourful stripy bit of tape? Intriguingly, many of them seem to match the colours of the logo of the bus operator for that route – even if the buses themselves are now all in the ... [More]
The Age’s Timna Jacks got hold of some bus punctuality figures via FOI, and published this story last week, which is worth a read: Late every second trip: Life on the delayed 232 bus The data provides a glimpse of something not normally in the public eye. Regular bus users know that some routes suffer ... [More]
There are undoubted challenges to writing information that has to fit into a limited space. Here’s one I noticed recently where perhaps they haven’t got the balance quite right. Bus route 605 was recently changed at its City end, to run via the Botanic Gardens, Southbank and Queen Street to Flagstaff Station, instead of the ... [More]
If you’re confused about tram and train compensation thresholds, you’re not the only one. PTV announced earlier this month that: PTV CEO Jeroen Weimar said both Metro and Yarra Trams narrowly missed their new targets for punctuality in February, but met their targets for reliability. PTV’s web site has figures for February 2018 that clearly ... [More]
One of the promises of the orbital Smartbus routes was to cater for crosstown travel. The Bracks Government’s 2006 Meeting Our Transport Challenges document said this: The Government will invest $1.4 billion to create a crosstown transport network for Melbourne. Major new SmartBus routes, supported by improved local bus services, will connect with the rail ... [More]
Monday was Labour Day, and I went for a long morning walk. Well okay, I caught a 703 bus from Bentleigh to Centre Road/Huntingdale Road — despite the PTV app incorrectly claiming it wasn’t running most of the day. Then I walked to Huntingdale Station, then west along North Road, and gradually back home. Here ... [More]
Smartbus was devised in the dying days of the Kennett government originally as a mostly hardware-based upgrade: traffic priority, real-time information at stops, distinctive bus stop signs and buses. Originally it didn’t include service upgrades (which sparked derision from the PTUA at the time), but this was changed early on during the Bracks government, with ... [More]
A mate of mine told me this funny story, which I posted to Twitter yesterday. Here’s a version with fewer emoji, and a bit more detail. He was on a bus heading out to Doncaster. Two young men got on, full of attitude. They sat in the back, and started playing music through a Bluetooth ... [More]