Metro has been trying modified carriage layouts on the trains. Some Comeng trains have had seats removed near the doorways, and now a Siemens train has shown up with a similar treatment. My immediate reaction (from a quick ride a few minutes ago)… The pros: the larger doorway area should help speed up loading and ... [More]
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Metro Bingo :-(
Given the Flemington/Showgrounds line isn’t running this morning, and the Stony Point line has planned bustitution, I’m going to go ahead and declare that we have Metro Bingo this morning due to the storms. And no, it’s not much better on many of the roads. Good luck to everybody (myself included, shortly) trying to get ... [More]
High-frequency trains (all day, every day) are critical for any big city, to ensure large numbers of people can get around quickly and easily. As a PTUA study found some years ago, Melbourne is one of the few big world cities that doesn’t have them. To draw an analogy, it’s as if outside peak hour, ... [More]
You’d think from the tweets from Coalition MPs this morning that the arrival of the first X’trapolis train in service on the Frankston line was a miraculous huge leap forward for train travellers — a rocket-powered, laser-guided teleportation device that can get you to your destination in seconds. Great to travel in the new X'Trapolis ... [More]
Five years ago today I posted this video: A Day on the Trains. The footage for it was gathered over the space of a month or two in the dying days of the Connex Melbourne Empire in late 2009, and it was designed to capture a few scenes I thought might be changing in the ... [More]
First I knew of last night’s Trainageddon was when my son Isaac rang at 7pm. He and his friends were at South Yarra — stuck. I said No problem! Catch a Sandringham line train, I’ll meet you at Brighton… oh, that line’s out too. Yes, a trackside fire at Richmond affected signalling, knocking out the ... [More]
Update October 2014: There’s a later draft PTV are trialling a new train network map. They’re seeking feedback on it, and you’ll see it at some stations now (Bentleigh, Malvern and Moorabbin, I think). Note, just to remove all doubt: unlike the PTV network plan, it’s not a concept for new rail lines; it’s a ... [More]
For some reason, while the government have been crowing about train punctuality this week… Our record investment in PT = 23 months of punctuality above 90%. Congrats to staff at @metrotrains #springst – Tez pic.twitter.com/8bclsZOyXh — Terry Mulder (@TerryMulderMP) April 9, 2014 …they haven’t been talking much about Service Delivery, aka Cancellations. I wonder why ... [More]
Just a reminder that as noted last week, there are reduced train (and tram) timetables running from this week until Australia Day. For my fellow Bentleigh people, I’ve marked the weekday cancelled trains for you: Basically for us on the Frankston line, train frequencies are halved at most times of day on weekdays for the ... [More]
Much has been made of Metro’s scheduled cancellations over the next two days to try and deal with extreme heat — in particular they’re citing speed restrictions on the faster part of the network, which will have speed restrictions. It’ll be interesting to see if they can stick to this plan, or if the whole ... [More]
I’m not against advertising on public transport. It brings in much-needed revenue and helps subsidise services. But it shouldn’t be intrusive. Bus and tram passengers have had to get used to ads on windows of vehicles over many years, but it’s only in the last couple of years that it’s become prominent on trains. It ... [More]
Regular passengers using Flinders Street Station will have noticed that while the platforms are numbered from 1 to 14, there’s no platform 11. It’s not a Harry Potter scenario with a hidden platform. There used to be a platform 11, the twin of 10, facing the river, and commonly used by St Kilda and Port ... [More]