On our trip to Canberra, I got to spend a few hours exploring a little bit of the public transport system. It’s mostly buses, but one light rail (tram) line opened in 2019, and I was keen to see it. There’s also a railway station in Kingston in Canberra’s south, with regional trains to Sydney ... [More]
Iâm not sure why itâs taken so long to get back to this, but here’s the third post comparing old (1924 and 1974) vs current train timetables. Parts one and two covered the western and northwestern lines. Going clockwise the next lines are the red ones on the rail map: the Mernda and Hurstbridge lines. ... [More]
Here’s a quick comparison of adult PT fares and discounts in Australian capital cities. Peak fare range(on card) Off-peak fare Fare cap weekdays Fare cap weekends Bulk discount Adelaide $3.95 $2.20 $11.00 daily fare (not an automatic cap) $11.00 14 days $63.2028 days $105.00 Brisbane $3.37 – $10.17 20% discount No cap No cap 8 ... [More]
The State Budget was last week, and included some good investments in public transport. I haven’t had time to write up everything (so busy!), but I thought I’d quickly show a couple of key indicators. Total public transport service kilometres (in blue; left axis) Public transport service kilometres per person (in red; right axis) Service ... [More]
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]
There’s a good map doing the rounds showing the sections of the Sydney Trains network that run every 10 minutes on weekdays off-peak. Bambul has expanded this into a blog post, which also includes another map of 15 minute frequencies. A couple of people asked if there was a Melbourne version of the 10 minute ... [More]
Obviously, travel demand in cities is in turmoil just at the moment, but leaving the 2020-2022 blip aside for a minute, and looking again at pre-COVID travel in cities… As a follow-up to comparing Melbourne’s public transport patronage to Sydney’s, I thought I’d look at all the big capital cities. The five biggest are also ... [More]
Just a quick post today. The State Budget Papers obviously give an overview of the state’s finances, and new funding initiatives. In Victoria, they also provide the only regular, consistent view of metrics for a range of government services, including public transport patronage. (In contrast, other states put this data out far more regularly.) Anyway, ... [More]
My friend Andrew put me onto the game Mini Metro – it’s a rather addictive (at least to me) game where you design and run a metro (or tram) system. The game provides station locations, and travel demand patterns, and you have to work out how the lines should connect them. Gradually more and more ... [More]
This caught my eye: a commuter at Aircraft station: …uses the station five days a week and said she had given up trying to get a park at the station. âBecause of the traffic congestion on Point Cook Road and because of the lack of car parking facilities at the station, I choose to walk ... [More]
Last year the government announced that Myki would be coming to mobile phones. Early testing happened late last year, and last week PTV opened up the trial to up to 4000 participants. The technology allows you to load a “virtual” Myki card onto your Android phone within Google Pay, and use it for travelling on ... [More]
I am discovering that there’s some powerful psychology going on when you get a new car. Playing into this for me is that my old car was wearing out, and was getting difficult to drive, plus the change from manual to automatic. This means the new car seems like a breeze to drive. The “new ... [More]