Here’s something I didn’t know: Perth’s Transperth transport system has some paid parking, and you can pay for it with a Smartrider card. Pay ‘n’ Display car parks are also fenced, but are patrolled by car park attendants between 7.00am and 9.00pm Monday to Friday excluding public holidays. A flat fee of $2.00 per day, ... [More]
Tag: public transport
The new Pope Francis is known for using public transport. Perhaps out of courtesy to the pontiff it’s time to update the signs? (Sources: pic, font)
One of the reactions to the news of top-ups on buses was that it would slow down buses because top-ups take too long. Some people claimed it can take well over a minute to do a top-up. I was doubtful about this, so I tried it. I used a note and a couple of coins ... [More]
Leader Newspapers is reporting that Myki topups will be allowed on buses from next month. A maximum of $20 will apply. Well, that’s about time. This is good news for passengers. Firstly, it means the Myki consoles will be activated, with Metcard equipment removed. The coexistence of the two systems has caused a lot of ... [More]
There’s a legendary excuse for late-running trains in Britain called the wrong type of snow (fallen on railway lines). Apparently the wrong leaves are also blamed sometimes. I recall a Yarra Trams person telling me that while they love Melbourne’s leafy streets, some of our local trees drop the wrong leaves (I’m paraphrasing mind you, ... [More]
Overheard near Nagambie, about travelling to Melbourne: “A lot of people go to Seymour to catch the train. There’s one once an hour from there.” Yep. At stations beyond Seymour, where the Shepparton and the Albury line branch off, there’s usually only about 3 trains each way per day. But at Seymour, there are 20 ... [More]
A while back I was talking about train load standards, which as you’ll recall is 798 per train (or 133 per carriage). Similar desired load standards exist for trams, but they vary much more widely because the tram fleet is much more diverse in size. These are found in volume 2 of the tram contract, ... [More]
Lily Dale Dan Denong Flin der Street Lyn Brook Ben T’Leigh Pat Terson Mal Vern Frank Ston Cam Berwell William Stown Glen Ferrie Victoria Park and Clifton Hill (of course!) Thomas Town Wes Tall Syd Enham Mel Bournecentral Al Tona and his brother Wes Tona Glen Roy Craig Ieburn Edith Vale Ken Sington Merlyn Ston ... [More]
I finally got around to playing a bit of Cities In Motion. The game is fun, but in some ways is really not much better than the older Traffic Giant… though it looks nicer, seems to have more underlying complexity, and has more scenarios. From what I’ve seen, my main beefs would be: Trams and ... [More]
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Pictures from Violet Town
It was 44 years last week since the 1969 crash of the Southern Aurora into a goods train at Violet Town in northeast Victoria. (Upgrades to safety systems should ensure such a crash doesn’t happen again.) The CFA has published a set of photos and a fascinating article about the disaster — well worth a ... [More]
If you improve a product, and want it to sell well, you need to make people aware of it. When they launched trains every 10 minutes between the City and Ringwood, Dandenong and Frankston last year on weekends, there was an initial bit of publicity via the media, but very little else. Metro did some ... [More]
Another Myki stuff-up has been found. Myki cards have a four year lifespan. With many cards bought in Geelong in late-2008 and early-2009 now expiring, a number of users are getting replacement cards. Some are going back to the original retail outlets, post offices in Geelong and Corio, and buying new cards (the cost of ... [More]