Another in my series of old photos from ten years ago… In 2004 the situation with crowded trains hadn’t really hit as a big political problem, which is why it took until 2006 for the government to decide not to scrap all the Hitachi trains after all, but expand the fleet. It was certainly occurring ... [More]
Tag: trains
As I’ve written already, both the Metro Rail Tunnel and the Melbourne Rail Link provide similar benefits in terms of rail capacity in the central part of Melbourne’s rail network. In those terms, they are roughly equivalent. But MRL does have problems. For example, I think it connects the wrong lines. Connecting lines Both MRL ... [More]
This was posted on Facebook by a Melbourne train driver last week. It’s well worth a read. Given he says “please share this” (and other copies doing the rounds are screen dumps, making it difficult to read, especially for those with vision issues), I’m posting the text in full here: I try to keep my ... [More]
In this blog post I hope to address a few myths around Melbourne’s rail system that I’m seeing floating around. The Loop tunnels have hardly any trains! I’ve heard from a couple of sources in the past week (one on mainstream radio) the claim that nothing needs to be done about rail capacity in the ... [More]
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When the trip home goes wrong
Obviously I wouldn’t normally do this, but let me tell you about my trip home last night. And then I’ll look beyond it to the big picture. I wouldn’t normally do it, because despite problems, it’s usually pretty smooth. Last night… not so much. 5:20. Check Metro web site to see how the trains are ... [More]
The metro rail tunnel has been renamed again. What has been at various times “Metro 1+Metro 2”, “the Metro Tunnel”, and the “Metro Rail Capacity Project” is now “Melbourne Rail Link”. The plans for the revised version are not as bad as first thought. The Frankston line will run from South Yarra to Domain and ... [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]
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]
Last Wednesday in State Parliament: The SPEAKER — Order! I have accepted a statement from Minister for Public Transport proposing the following matter of public importance for discussion: That this house congratulates the coalition government for improving affordability, safety, reliability and punctuality on public transport, and its investment in rail and road infrastructure, and notes ... [More]
The Steamrail Open Day a couple of weeks ago was good fun, though in some ways very similar to the previous one in 2012… But I’ll post some pics anyway. This is a Tait train (“Red rattler”) — dating back to the 1910s, and very common when I was growing up, but phased-out in the ... [More]
To the surprise of many, the state government yesterday announced a major $2 billion upgrade of the Dandenong/Pakenham/Cranbourne lines — they’re saying it’ll be enough to boost capacity by about 30%. The government’s press release is here, or you can watch a video: What’s included? 25 new high-capacity “next-generation” trains. They’ve been talking about this ... [More]
There seems to be a little confusion over the various names of the Metro rail tunnel — for instance the name Metro One pops up regularly, especially out of the City Of Melbourne. The confusion is not surprising, as the name and design of the tunnel has changed a bit over the years. Origins The ... [More]