Anti-Baillieu flyers spotted this morning around Bentleigh
These anonymous flyers appear to have popped up overnight (at least I didn’t spot them yesterday) around Bentleigh station.
(Note another similar pink one in the background on the small pole opposite.)
I might note that since the 2010 timetable was introduced (and the tweaks in 2011), the morning commute is slower, but I for one can almost always get a seat on the train in the mornings, apart from when there are cancellations and other disruptions. However, I consistently travel after 8am on weekdays — it may be a different story before 8.
I wonder if it was the same person who posted this sign in 2010:
Whoever posted these new ones, it seems public transport is still a hot button issue — something both major parties would do well to note.
I didn’t spot any signs relating to the sub-par Bentleigh “Smartbus”.
How many times does the mayor’s photo appear in the council newsletter?
A few years ago I noted that the Glen Eira News local council newsletter featured six photos of the mayor in twelve pages.
The current mayor is Jamie Hyams, who I’ve met a couple of times, and I’m happy to say has an interest in improving public transport — I believe he was behind Glen Eira joining the Metropolitan Transport Forum to help lobby the state government for better services.
The latest edition of the Glen Eira News just arrived, and Cr Hyams photo features seven times in sixteen pages — a slight reduction in photos per page, from 0.5 to 0.44.
How do other council newsletters rate?
Fewer seats for Comeng trains?
The debate about train seats has come up again, thanks to The Greens uncovering minutes of a meeting between Metro and the Department of Transport discussing the removal of train seats from Comeng trains. (MX story / Channel 7 story)
DOT was generally comfortable with the proposals as presented by MTM. Options to be assessed were only to include low cost options necessary to achieve a 900 load standard with no reduction in dwell time performance.
The proposal is to remove the third seat in groups of three, widening the centre aisle.
I make it 12 seats in a “T” carriage (trailer, with no driving cab) if they don’t widen the aisle at the far ends of the carriage, or 16 if they do, making it roughly a 13-16% reduction — though it would vary according to the type of carriage (Motor or Trailer, and EDI/M>Train refurbishment or Alstom/Connex refurbishment).
This would differ from the Connex trial layout, which took out more seats near the doors, but left more in the centres of the carriages, including a narrow aisle. Overall that layout removed more seats than seems to be proposed now.
As ever, it’s aimed at fitting more people on board (the minutes talked about an increase in the “load standard” from 798 per 6-carriage train to 900) and improving flow within the carriages, which would help station dwell times (the time taken to load and unload a carriage) — in this case, they’re specifically looking to be able to carry more people without increasing dwell times.
This latter point is important: if you want the train system to run more efficiently, with the maximum number of trains on the most congested parts of the network, eg the City Loop, at peak times, you need to improve dwell times. (Connex claimed in 2009 that the trial layout did help this.)
What kind of train system do we want?
I’ve just finished reading Jarrett Walker’s excellent book “Human Transit“, which ponders a lot of these kinds of issues. He calls them “plumber questions” — the kinds of questions a plumber asks a client. There’s not necessarily a right or wrong answer, but you do need to give some guidance as to the outcome you want.
In the case of train seats, it’s one of the questions related to what kind of train network we want. (Another was posed a year ago: Should every train run around the Loop?)
Broadly speaking…
Do we want a (small m) metro? Frequent services, aimed at more than just 9-5 CBD workers (eg including short suburban trips, counter-peak trips); fast dwell times for efficiency; less seats to maximise speed and capacity.
Or do we want a commuter rail service? Less frequency, particularly outside peaks; more seats because it’s primarily about long trips; primarily concerned with CBD trips, meaning just five stations have to handle huge passenger loads; but can lead to longer dwell times and lower peak frequencies because you don’t take advantage of metro efficiencies like more doors/less seats.
It’s not actually black and white. Melbourne is probably destined to remain somewhere in the middle.
The CBD outstrips public transport demand for all other destinations, and will continue to do so until traffic and parking demand is such that paid parking and gridlock becomes prevalent in the suburbs. (It’s getting there, but slowly.)
But there’s no reason we can’t have frequent (10 minute or better) trains all day everyday, just like real metros, supporting suburban non-work trips, and ensuring patronage is not just about peak hour, therefore providing a better return on the investment that’s been made in rail infrastructure, fleets and staff.
And remember, handling the booming 9-5 CBD commuter load better means optimising operations, including internal designs of carriages. The current designs from the early 2000s (before the boom) try to maximise seats, and in the face of surging demand, this has left passengers left behind on platforms, sometimes when there is space in the middle of carriages, because those aboard have not moved down. This is a direct result of narrow aisles and virtually nothing to hold onto except around the doorways.
How many seats?
Taken to extremes, seat removal might result in something like this:
Where’s this? It’s Brisbane. I suspect few want to see that kind of outcome here.
Note that only some of the carriages are set out like this, with maximum standing space, whereas others have more seats:
But it got me thinking… how do other cities design their carriages? What ratio of seats to carriage space do they have? I did a quick comparison, and came up with the following.
| City | Train type | Carriages | Seats | Seats/square metre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | Underground 1995 | 6 | 248 | 0.88 |
| Hong Kong | East Rail Line Metro Cammell | 12 | 625 | 0.71 |
| Brisbane | SMU 260 | 6 | 472 | 1.19 |
| Perth | B series | 6 | 384 | 0.90 |
| Melbourne | Comeng Alstom (current) | 6 | 536 | 1.24 |
| Melbourne | Comeng Alstom (proposed) | 6 | 464 | 1.07 |
(Some of these are estimates, as I couldn’t find very reliable figures. A authoritative figure for seats in Perth’s trains was elusive, and the length of carriages sometimes included couplings, which aren’t part of the useable area inside. But you get the general idea, hopefully.)
The current changes to Melbourne carriage designs (first seen in the second series X’trapolis trains) are leading to wider aisles and more handholds to encourage people to move down, and help stop as many congegating in the doorways. But from what I can see, they still provide more seats than in many other big cities.
The Comeng proposal is similar (the seats per square metre figure will come down to about 1.07 by my calculations), though we’re not yet sure if it includes more handholds.
I think it’s probably a reasonable proposal, provided it includes more handholds along the carriage, and provided it’s accompanied by a service frequency boost (particularly outside peak hours, when there’s no problem with track or fleet capacity) so the total number of seats offered on each line doesn’t drop (or possibly even increases).
And even if there’s no frequency boost in peak, if you’re outraged by the idea of removal of any seats, consider this: In the face of continually rising patronage, would you rather be able to squeeze onto a train with 15% less seats, or be left behind on the platform?
What do you think?
Anti-pigeon defences
And now for something completely different: anti-pigeon defences.
Pigeons can get everywhere, making nests, leaving droppings. These ones seem very interested in the next trains from Caulfield.
It’s probably gone mostly unnoticed, but over the past few years, various methods to prevent them roosting have become commonplace.
In the case of Caulfield station, they’ve put in a lot of netting that cordons off parts of the platform roof areas, including the tops of the signs. (I haven’t checked if they’ve fitted the sign above, which is in the subway.)
Solar-powered road signs now often have spiky bits on them, as do increasing numbers of shop signs, including big ones like this. (I think it looks a little odd up close.)
On this building in Centre Road, Bentleigh, there are fake owls around the top. I’m not sure how effective they are.
But despite these methods, sometimes the pigeons still win.
Australia Day thoughts
Happy Australia Day.
Some thoughts:
1. Spotted this morning, some glorious Australia Day supermarket multiculturalism:
2. I was a Flag Monitor in grade 6. Along with my mate Mark, we put the flag up on the school flag pole. Apart from a minor hitch on the first day when it went up upside down for a short time, there were no issues, though I’d imagine doing the same job for the Elizabeth Street roundabout would be somewhat more time consuming:
(I’m probably safe in assuming they go up and stay up.)
3. I was pondering, as debate about immigration and asylum seekers rages, if our Federal politicians are familiar with the second verse of our national anthem. (It was originally the third verse. There were originally more in the song, but the national anthem only incorporates the original first and third. We used to sing both in high school, at assemblies and so on.)
Obviously one should be wary about determining policy from lyrics written circa 1901 (much of the song was written before 1878, but this verse was added for Federation), but still, I’d love to hear Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott’s interpretation of them.
Beneath our radiant Southern Cross
We’ll toil with hearts and hands;
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands;
For those who’ve come across the seas
We’ve boundless plains to share;
With courage let us all combine
To Advance Australia Fair.In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.
Happy Australia Day (and make sure you have a ticket)
The words on the left are from I Am Australian, by Bruce Woodley:
We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream, and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian
Wikipedia says the song was written in 1987. I’m pretty sure either that year or the year after, we sung it at Speech Night at Melbourne High School. (Woodley, like his fellow seekers Athol Guy and Keith Potger, went to Melbourne High.)
Lego Myki and Metcard readers, from Brickvention
I didn’t make it to Brickvention this year, but Adrian O’Hagan did, and sent me this photo. It’s a Lego Myki reader… and on the back of it is a Metcard reader.
Adrian says when a Myki card was presented it beeped and displayed a balance (which may or may not have been the real balance; I’m assuming all the information on the card is encrypted). The Metcard version would take a presented Metcard, pretend to read it and then spit it back out again, just like in real life.
Adrian notes: “ironically the metcard worked without a hitch, but the myki was a bit buggy. Not sure if that was by design or not ;-)”
The Myki rollout continues – some details that probably aren’t in the papers
I remind any journalists reading that as ever, my personal blog may not represent the PTUA’s views.
In the papers today, news of the continuing rollout of Myki, and moves to get more people switching off Metcard:
Herald Sun: When it comes to myki, like it or lump it
The Age: The end is nigh for Metcard
More detail of what’s happening
Here’s some more detail from the information I’ve seen…
Vending machines will be activated for card sales (sounds like it’ll be full fare Mykis only, which may cause some issues for new concession users, including children. Probably a fraud prevention measure. Concessions will have to be bought from a human, probably requiring presentation of entitlement.)
Starting in February, retail outlets (primarily 7/11s) will start to sell Myki and do topups. They’re switching from Metcard, eg no more Metcard sales from those outlets.
130ish part-time staff to be recruited (eg Myki Mates) to help passengers during the transition. (It appears all of the previous mob, who gained some significant knowledge and experience, were not kept on. Hopefully they can get some of the same people back.)
Weeklies/Monthlies will no longer be sold at station Metcard machines or booking offices from March 26th or thereabouts, and given retail outlets will be switching over, that’ll mean they effectively disappear from sale.
Metcard vending machines to start being withdrawn, starting with “some CBD stations and Williamstown line”. (It’s unclear to me whether this means every machine will disappear from those stations, or if some machines will still be there for 2-hour and daily Metcard purchases — remembering that ultimately this won’t be an option.)
Metcard validators will stay around for some time to come, allowing Metcards to be used up, though the balance may start to change as users switch over.
Will it work?
They can’t run the two ticketing systems forever side by side, and given the premise that Myki is not being scrapped, and yes, Metcard needs to be removed at some point, this is probably reasonable to push the rollout along, but the concern will be if staff are available where needed.
There seems to be a hint of a “big bang” approach to stopping sales of weekly and monthly Metcards, and they’ll only have enough staff to do about 50-70 locations at a time, so some stations may not have any staff to help when the switch is on in earnest. A better approach would to do line-by-line with staff on hand.
They also need to make sure people realise Myki has an (almost) identically priced unlimited-travel alternative fare to the Metcard Weekly and Monthly tickets, because it appears not everyone is aware.
Still no word of any single use ticket option. No word on fixing things like the identical touch-on/touch-off beeps, which slows people down.
It has emerged that topups will be available on Melbourne buses. This is good, given users in suburbs with no easily-accessible retail outlet, but it’s unclear however if they will restrict the amounts (eg $5 increments as in Brisbane) to reduce instances of people topping up one fare at a time, which would defeat much of the purpose of having a Smartcard system.
But it’s unclear how the transition will be handled for buses and trams. It could get ugly if one day passengers go to board their service without having yet got a Myki and find there is no Metcard option anymore.
Oh, and it’s been mentioned that currently Myki accounts for about 30% of ticket validations in Melbourne, with the system taking about 1.8 million passenger trips per day.
So of course they have to make sure all the equipment is reliable and consistently fast as that load moves from 30% up towards 100%.
- A about a year ago: Herald Sun opinion piece: Keep myki and fix the problems
- …and the counterpoint: Why myki should be scrapped
Hey, maybe if Myki do TV adverts, they should use that Roger Voudouris song… “Get used to it, ‘cos I’ll be around…“
