The bad news is I finally got COVID. The good news is it seems I didn’t pass it on to anybody else.
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The dreaded lurgy
Tag: COVID-19
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Southland station patronage
In less than five years, Southland has become the 7th busiest station on the Frankston line
The continuing use of masks on public transport came up last week when Premier Andrews remarked that they’d be around for some time yet. (For a segment on this topic on ABC Radio Melbourne last Thursday with me, listen here – it starts at roughly at 1:55:40.) So I thought I’d quickly review what the ... [More]
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The Clayton’s lockdown
I hope everyone’s doing okay. The widespread view is that government mismanagement has made this latest outbreak far worse than it needs to be. They don’t want more lockdowns – perhaps fair enough given high rates of vaccination – but they’re not ensuring the testing (PCR and Rapid Antigen Test) capacity can properly handle it. ... [More]
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PT fare revenue has plummeted
The pandemic has resulted in millions of people staying home, with overall travel demand dropping significantly. This is clearly shown in the annual public transport patronage figures from the State Budget Papers released in May. Now we have a new piece of info: annual fare revenue – from the Department of Transport annual reports, the ... [More]
Happy end of lockdown, Melbourne! On a related note: Last week Texan Republican senator Ted Cruz weighed into the news that the NT government will mandate vaccines for public-facing workers: I heard similar sentiments from an Australian recently, in the context of Victoria’s vaccine mandates for permitted/essential on-site workers. Here’s my view on this, if ... [More]
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18 months in
With spring now upon us, we’re now almost 18 months into this. Last month I had another birthday in lockdown. A nice dinner and a video call with family made up for it. I don’t enjoy being in lockdown, but it seems to be the least bad way to keep the virus under control while ... [More]
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PT cuts after 1am during curfew
Night Network cuts, the appalling comms, and the impact
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Sydney vs Melbourne PT patronage
Last year I wrote a blog pondering why Sydney’s rail patronage is 50% higher than Melbourne’s. This has got a fresh airing amid speculation that Melbourne’s COVID-19 spread is linked to greater urban mobility in Melbourne compared to Sydney. I thought I’d quickly look at public transport patronage specifically. Here it is summed up in ... [More]
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Go get vaccinated (if you can)
In our last exciting chapter, back in March, COVID-19 had settled down in Victoria, and largely disappeared. Life pretty much returned back to normal except overseas travel was near-impossible, and you had to wear a mask on PT. It couldn’t last. Another outbreak is now upon us in Melbourne. My view: no matter where you ... [More]
There’s been a bit of confusion about the rules around masks and public transport. I’m not here to speculate on whether the rules are needed. I’m not an epidemiologist and probably neither are you. While there’s been no COVID-19 community spread in Victoria for many weeks, the recent case of the gentleman who unwittingly caught ... [More]
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A year at home
A year ago today it all went off. The talk of theoretical disruptions from the COVID-19 virus became very real in Australia. I thought I’d look back over the past 12 months. Hopefully I haven’t messed up any of the chronology, but if so, please leave a comment. March 2020 It seemed sudden – cases ... [More]