Categories
transport Video games

Retro trains

Melbourne’s Comeng trains date back to the early 1980s, about the same time us Gen-Xers were cutting our video game teeth with Donkey Kong and Space Invaders. (Original unmodified pic) There’s certainly other things of the 80s around the place on the train network, for instance this sign on a now unused gate at Caulfield  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Trains along freeways aren’t necessarily a good idea

From time to time people suggest that train lines should be built in the middle of all new freeways. The problem with building train lines along freeways is you’d be in danger of them all ending up like Jacana or Kannanook. Because freeways take up so much space, make so much noise, and generate so  ... [More]

Categories
driving transport

SmartRoads

For a while now, VicRoads has been working on a plan to allocate different priorities to different roads around Melbourne. Rather than the free-for-all we sometimes see now, some roads would be setup to emphasise pedestrian priority, some bus, some tram, and some would be “preferred traffic routes” and lesser “other traffic routes”. I suspect  ... [More]

Categories
Politics and activism transport

The quest for policies

Some of the letters in the papers (particularly the local paper) are obviously from cranks, but many are worthwhile, and this one in this week’s Moorabbin Glen Eira Leader just perfectly enunciates what I suspect a lot of people are thinking: Libs need to state policies IN RESPONSE to the letter by the Liberal candidate  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Making tracks

UPDATE: See info at bottom of post Why does Australia have problems with multiple rail gauges? In summary, it seems to have gone like this: 1848: Everyone agreed to use standard gauge (4 ft 8.5 in). 1851: The Sydney Railway Company had a chief engineer who preferred broad gauge (5 ft 3 in), and convinced  ... [More]