The last state election swung on public transport — both sides said so — specifically on the perceived lack of action from Labor on fixing the trains, resulting in delays, cancellations and sometimes horrendous overcrowding. The Liberals, especially in the seat of Prahran, should be aware that this is still happening on a regular basis ... [More]
The Siemens train seats are notorious for showing the dirt. At one stage a multi-coloured design similar to the Comeng fleet seats was tried, but now Metro have introduced a new design which is supposedly more vandalproof (and uses their corporate design, not Connex’s). It’s on one 3-car Siemens set so far (for the gunzels, ... [More]
The Committee for Ballarat has an excellent campaign going to improve rail services. Unfortunately as sometimes happens, some myths crept into the rhetoric around the launch of the campaign. “In the early 1900s you could do the Ballarat to Melbourne trip by steam rail in an hour â these days it takes an hour and ... [More]
On Sunday Channel 7 showed this CCTV footage shot at Southern Cross station. A toddler slipped between the train and the platform. I found it quite difficult to watch, but there’s an obvious safety message here which was emphasised in Monday’s followup story: you do need to take the utmost care when boarding and alighting ... [More]
I quite like these adverts. But… The phone screen grabs below are from 8:15am yesterday. My usual 8:29 train had been cancelled, but while this was listed on the Metlink Android app (not yet rebranded to PTV), it was not listed on the Metro web site. By my count, the Metlink app lists nine cancellations, ... [More]
There used to be realtime train information displayed on the Smartbus sign outside Bentleigh station (as there is at many other Smartbus stops near railway stations around Melbourne). The information was provided partly for the benefit of bus drivers, so they could see if a train was imminent, and if so wait for passengers (though ... [More]
A couple of months ago PTV released a set of three technical documents related to the Metro rail tunnel. I’ve done some skimming through two of them so far (I hope to read the third soon), and am posting some notes from the first one here that I hope might be of interest to people: ... [More]
Some people will tell you that rail lines down freeways are a great idea, because “the train overtaking cars is a great advertisement for public transport.” Perth has done this, primarily because it’s been the easiest way of extending the train network. So the Clarkson/Joondalup and Mandurah lines both run down the middle of freeways. ... [More]
A few pics from recent days. It’s kind of nice that the Tourist “Shuttle” bus gives tourists the thrill of a hook turn Fog at Bentleigh station on Wednesday morning Gleaming rails near Southern Cross Station — on the left you can see the Regional Rail Link under construction Plaques in Melbourne Central (formerly Museum) ... [More]
That’s definitely a train icon on that sign, right? (Southern Cross station, Bourke Street bridge) PS. Reminds me a bit of Metro’s “emergency” gate.
As if disrupted trains weren’t enough, now we have Metro apostrophe crimes. (from Channel 10 news 25/6/2012: Commute derailed) Metro was already having a bad Monday morning peak with the inner part of the Sandringham line suspended due to a maintenance train derailing overnight. Things didn’t improve when at about 7:15 the outer section of ... [More]
There was speculation from some quarters that introducing 10 minute train frequencies would result in long traffic queues at level crossings, similar to those seen in many suburbs during peak commuting hours. I think this was unfounded. Looking around Bentleigh on a recent weekend, it seems no worse than when trains ran half as frequently. ... [More]