Years ago there were “Stand on left / Walk on right” signs on the escalators at Melbourne’s underground stations. They disappeared about ten years ago. While regulars know the etiquette, newbies and occasional users don’t, which causes frustration for those in a rush, particularly outside peak hours when the escalators (for some reason) run at ... [More]
Last week I started using my shiny new Commuter Club Myki. It’s worked well, and as I would expect it… with some exceptions, documented in this short video: 1. It beeps twice at the readers. This is the case at the standalone readers, on trams and buses and at Myki gates (currently seen at Parliament ... [More]
Yearly: Beat the price rise Just bought my new Yearly ticket via PTUA Commuter Club. It’ll take a couple of weeks to arrive, but it means I’ll beat the March 12th price rise. PTUA Commuter Club Yearly plus membership: Z1 = $1090 (order by end of Feb; payment must clear by March 3rd). Will go ... [More]
Remember this post a while back where I tried to figure out how many days in a month you need to travel to make Monthly tickets a worthwhile purchase? Turns out in many other cities around the world, a Monthly ticket is a no-brainer purchase, even if you work 4 days a week, even if ... [More]
I ran this poll on an internal PTUA members’ email list. Let’s try it here. Here’s the context: Trains, particularly in peak hour, are packed. More trains are being purchased, but the decision has to be made about how to deploy them. (Even if it’s decided to upgrade infrastructure such as with the proposed new ... [More]
The Port Melbourne railway line closed in 1987, but this train wanted to go there. (Thanks to Terry who spotted it in time for me to snap a pic. It’s possible the sign is stuck, since it looks like the same carriage was snapped recently elsewhere.) In today’s Herald Sun: New Metro timetable as trains ... [More]
Trip home last night in the pouring rain was interesting. Train was very slow going between Hawksburn and Malvern, as much of the rail line in the cutting was underwater. As the train departed Ormond, we saw the subway was flooded. On arriving at Bentleigh we waited about 20 minutes for the rain to subside. ... [More]
In central Melbourne, if you want to travel a reasonable distance east-west, it’s easy to do so on most of the streets by hopping on a tram. Flinders Street, Collins Street, Bourke Street and Latrobe Street all have multiple routes serving them, making for reasonably frequent services most of the day. Not so Lonsdale Street. ... [More]
VICTORIA’S beleaguered myki ticketing system has hit another snag, with 20,000 seniors posted a new smartcard that does not give them the travel benefits they are entitled to, including free weekend travel and discounted weekday fares. — Age: New bungle hits myki Peter of Murrumbeena, a regular commenter on this blog, is one of those ... [More]
I was an early adopter of Myki, if only to see the problems it’s had first hand. But since I started using it, I’ve still carried a Metcard in my wallet. The last Metcard. A 10×2 hour zone 2, for my occasional forays into zone 2 — used on days I was only going into ... [More]
It appears I was the first person to successfully use the Myki vending machine at Bentleigh station, back on the first of last year. Hardly surprising as few people in Melbourne had a card at that point. And this afternoon I got Sales Transaction ID number 3370, when I dumped a bunch of change onto ... [More]
Two weeks ago I noted that Myki mostly works. In most cases the charging is fine. The readers seem more reliable and mostly fairly responsive (and faster than inserting a Metcard into a slot and waiting for it to come out again). What doesn’t work? Well buses in particular have issues, it seems. As this ... [More]