Found this on a train this afternoon: I’m guessing a bookmark that’s been sitting inside someone’s book for fifteen years and they decided to re-read the book, and subsequently left it behind on a seat. These scratch tickets were used before Metcard was introduced in the late-90s, and were notorious for fare evasion. They didn’t ... [More]
A Melbourne “miracle baby” who escaped death when his pram rolled into the path of an oncoming train has celebrated his first birthday. No doubt, the baby was incredibly lucky not to be killed. If you haven’t seen it, check out the video — it’s just amazing. I hope the train driver, who I would ... [More]
I don’t think it’s any great secret that Melbourne’s buses aren’t very well co-ordinated to the trains — with two exceptions that is, the Trainlink buses at Epping and Cranbourne, which are timed to meet every train. This is a major problem because so many trips simply can’t be made on PT without using a ... [More]
Stakeholder and interest group commentary on the State Budget usually happens out the back of Parliament. And when it starts raining, everybody huddles under the shelter near the back door. Here’s my State Budget summary — well, the PT bits: Four new stations on existing lines to be built — Caroline Springs (V/Line), Williams Landing, ... [More]
So, a new train timetable starts in June, shaking up the Frankston line in particular, but also the Dandenong line and minor tweaks on some of the other lines. Updated 10pm with a pic of a Comeng train in the new Metro colours About a year ago I remarked that the Frankston line was using ... [More]
From Canada’s National Post (they have a few others too, but I liked this one the best). Related: 19/1/2004: MX’s guide to PT etiquette
Monash students going back decades will tell you of the poor connection from Huntingdale Station (the closest for people coming from the city direction) to the Clayton campus. Even after they added an extra bus route in 2006, most connections aren’t timed well outside peak hours, and during peak hours you get delays from long ... [More]
If you buy daily tickets (currently available as Metcard only), the per weekday cost is Zone 1 $6.80, Zone 2 $4.80, Zone 1+2 $10.60. Obviously there’s no reason to do this on a regular basis, since you can save a substantial amount of money by using the bulk fare options. But which one? That is, if you usually travel by ... [More]
Yesterday was the 5th of April. It was Easter Monday, a public holiday in Victoria. Most businesses were closed. When it comes to the shops, it looked like a Sunday: most smaller ones closed, most bigger ones open. (Not like Good Friday and Easter Sunday when everything’s closed.) Schools were all closed, but they’re in ... [More]
The Age: Melbourne trains fail world ‘metro’ test Based on this study: PTUA: Melbourne Metro by name, but not by nature, which looks at the biggest thirty cities in the developed world by population, and which of them have a metro — that is, a high capacity, high frequency (every 10 minutes all day, every ... [More]
Why aren’t there more Smartbuses? Smartbuses work. Smartbus is a fancy marketing name for buses that run more frequently than most other routes, have some bus priority and realtime electronic signs at major stops. The figures in this government press release show the upgrades of routes to Smartbus result in strong patronage growth. I’ve excluded ... [More]
You want to know why Melbourne’s trains are so crowded? Well, that might be because in the last decade, patronage has gone up 77%, but services have only increased by 17%. And the trams too? Patronage up 36%, services increased 5%. Just for completeness, here’s a graph of all the patronage figures from 1999-2009. Source: ... [More]