Stickers everywhere
Someone’s been busy with stickers.
In their contract, Metro had until Monday to rid the train system of any mention of Connex.
The Franchisee will apply stickers to cover all references to Connex, both internally and externally, on all Rolling Stock. These works will be undertaken at the various depots and sidings where the Trains are stabled at night, while the Trains would not otherwise be in use.
In conjunction with the Rolling Stock Debranding, the Franchisee will apply stickers over all references to Connex at all Stations, depots, yards and offices of the Franchisee. The Franchisee will also remove the Connex brand from all light-boxes and existing signage.
Target project completion date: 14 December 2009
– MR3 Train Franchise Agreement, volume 2, pages 294-295
The contract notes it includes 993 train carriages, 10,000 signs at 211 stations, 675 signs at 45 depots and yards, and 60 signs at 6 offices. Pretty big job.
They seem to have come pretty close — the only ones I saw around the place yesterday were some of those big station signs (some of them are probably quite awkward to cover up, particularly when they’d require road closures to get a scissor lift up there to do it), and posters such as timetables (which is odd, because they should be dead easy to do).
Of course, in some spots it looks a little tacky. Particularly amusing was the censoring of posters for Connex for Cancer Day, which raises money for Peter Mac.
![[Censored] For Cancer](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2577/4186781451_d846c676c6.jpg)
The stickers on the outside of the trains don’t look too bad for a rush job. Metro logos on the front, and tag cloud-like train line names above the doors.
Over the coming months they’ll properly replace/modify the signs, and put the trains in their new colour scheme. There’s a handful already in the new colours. They’ve got until November 2010 for that, and the whole lot will cost about $25 million — I’m personally not convinced it looks brilliant.
And what about the Metro name and logo itself?
I like it. It’s a good, strong brand, much moreso than the Connex logo was.
Actually I think it’s better than the Metlink logo, with its round globby @-like thing.
The surveys I did here on my blog in the last couple of days (perhaps skewed by the readership here) showed that about 60% of people correctly identified the Metlink logo, which has been around since 2003. The Metro trains logo got a slightly higher level of recognition at 68%, despite having been around only since September. (Mind you, maybe the rate should have been higher, given the game was given away by the post just below the survey form.)
Metro is a name that is common worldwide and recognisable worldwide, though what we have doesn’t quite live up to the name — we need more frequent train services 7-days-a-week for that… something notable in its absence from the government’s “Creating a metro system” web page.
I’ll be interested to see if they start using the M on its own on signs, as you see with the London Underground roundel, and the new T logo used in Vancouver (potentially confusing I suspect).
And I wonder if businesses that are near stations will start advertising their addresses with a little M logo and the name of the station, as happens in some cities.
Of course, new logos and colour scheme are only superficial. It’s extra service, line extensions, and upgrades to make infrastructure and fleets reliable that will make the real difference.
PS. With a forecast top temperature of 39 degrees today, we may see the first real test of how Metro performs in extreme heat, and perhaps proof that things don’t magically change when you put new logos on everything.
Quiz part two
Second part of the quiz, aimed at Melburnians:
Do you recognise this logo?
Update 10pm. Thanks for your responses. Watch for a post on this soon.
(Maybe it would have been better if the blog post earlier the same day hadn’t given away the answer…)
One step closer to escalator victory
Seen at Flagstaff station:
“Stand to the left of the escalator”…
Now to get signs saying that on the escalators themselves.
Quiz time
A quiz for Melburnians and visitors…
Do you recognise this logo?
Update Tuesday: This quiz is finished. Watch for a post in the next couple of days about this.
Best Garage Sale sign ever
Spotted on Hotham Street on Saturday, made of plastic cups stuck into a wire fence…
Very clever, I thought.
Hope the garage sale itself was half as good.
The Age is moving
It’s just not a pretty building, 250 Spencer Street. It’s hard to believe it was ever considered to be so.
The Age is moving this weekend, out of this brown monstrosity and into the new building on the other side of Southern Cross Station.
Hopefully the move goes smoothly for them, and the new place ages more gracefully than the old.
I wonder how long it’ll take before it’s bought and demolished?
Media Centre PC vs PVR
My main requirements for my next move into digital TV, and doing away with the VCR:
- Watch and record digital TV, record two channels at once
- HD not essential (apart from ABC1 HD offering Sydney news, there’s no unique programming on HD at this stage)
- Transfer recordings off to the PC for keeping
- Quiet and compact and low power consumption while on standby
I had thought I might go buy a Topfield PVR. The 7100 model looks quite good, and meets all the other requirements above, including dual HD tuners. Best price I can see is $599. A Topfield 5000 is similar but in SD, for about $250 less, though a little harder to find these days. Other brands out there include the TviX, Beyonwiz and Panasonic (pricey but probably very reliable).
Some people I know swear by Windows Media Centre on a PC.
One forum discussion I read estimated the price for building a decent Media Centre PC is about $750. Buying one would be more expensive, possibly double that or more. One alternative might be a Mac Mini running EyeTV, which I assume would be a little more expensive (looks like about $780 for the Mac, $200 for the EyeTV).
My thinking at the moment is that although the PC option is more configurable and will do more things, it’s also going to be more expensive, space may be an issue, it’s going to take some work setting it up, and I’ve been bitten a few too many times by the perils of TV tuner cards, to the point where I’m sick of dealing with them.
But I’m willing to be convinced. (Cue Tony and Nathan and others…)
The benefits of WestLink
Letter in The Age today from Tim Pallas, Roads and Ports Minister:
I AM happy to assure people (Letters, 5/12) that 1000 homes will certainly not be acquired for the WestLink project.
The Government recently announced a $10 million study to work with the community to develop the best location for the tunnel and road. We’ll be doing a lot of work to ensure we minimise the impact on residential properties – even at this early stage we know the figure will be significantly less than 1000, and less than even half that number.
So it rather sounds like around 400-500 homes will be sacrificed to the road-building gods, should the government push ahead with WestLink.
Taking traffic off local roads and on to freeways will help ensure that areas such as Footscray and Seddon are safer, cleaner and more attractive places to live.
This was the experience with the CityLink and EastLink tunnels and we see no reason why the west should not be entitled to the same benefit from such valuable projects.
Ah yes. Thank goodness the construction of Citylink in the 90s means King Street never gets congested anymore. And as you can see, having rid itself of all that traffic, that area of the city is so attractive.
- See also: If it’s meant to be for trucks to get to the port, why does the literature show cars going to the City?
