From MX, Melbourne’s free afternoon commuter newspaper, 19/10/2005 page 1:

Trains in an instant

Inga Gilchrist

Trains would run every 10 minutes during peak hour on all lines under a radical plan to boost Melbourne’s public transport.

The Public Transport Users Association today called for a massive lift in train frequency to ease overcrowding in carriages and on the city’s roads.

As part of the group’s five-year plan for public transport, trains would also run every 15 minutes after peak hour until 9pm, including weekends. Services would then run every 20 minutes until midnight.

Some lines, including Upfield, Williamstown, Werribee and Cranbourne, only have trains every 20 minutes in peak hour.

PTUA president Daniel Bowen said most extra non-peak services could be run now.

But he said lines with single-track sections, such as Werribee, Epping and Hurstbridge, would need upgrades.

Bowen said the timetable changes would cost about $25 million a year, offset by extra fare revenue.

But Transport Minister Peter Batchelor rejected the plan, branding it a well-meaning budget buster.

He said the scheme would affect express services from the outer suburbs, with little benefit to passengers during non-peak times.

“Their costing assumptions are unrealistic,” Batchelor said today.

“And outside of peak hours there is already spare capacity to carry many more people on the rail network.”

Opposition Transport spokesman Terry Mulder said the scheme could see Melbourne echo the success of Perth’s 15-minute service on all lines.

“We think it’s an excellent idea. The only down side is some extra drivers would be needed and there will be some increased maintenance costs,” he said.

“The experience in Perth shows that if you have good connections between services people love to use them, because a pet hate is waiting around for connections.”

The full plan will be unveiled next week.

Naturally, lines already having peak services more frequent than 10 minutes would retain them. Good to see Terry Mulder come out in support of the idea, noting Perth’s success in improving its rail service.

Unfortunately Peter Batchelor misses the point. Lines that have expresses wouldn’t be affected, because they mostly already have peak services every 10 minutes or better. And to claim it wouldn’t help outside peak hours is to ignore the current overcrowded services (due in part to use of short trains on many lines). But in any case the purpose of more frequent off-peak/evening/weekend services would be to attract more users, not alleviate overcrowding.

The idea is to move the rail system towards the “just turn up, there’s a train within a few minutes” model seen in so many cities across the world, to make trains a “mode-of-choice” for more trips and encourage people out of their cars.

Not exactly rocket-science, I’d have thought. Nor that radical either.

Our mission yesterday: to take the bicycles to the new house.

Why? Because it’s a tradition (well, we’ve done it once before, in 2003). Because it was good exercise. To avoid the hassle of moving them in the truck on moving day. And because it was a nice day… so why not?

I’d taken yesterday off to pack boxes and clear stuff out. I packed 4 boxes, and threw probably 3 boxes worth of things out. Probably should have got more done, but at least it’s progress.

After school the kids and I got on the bikes and headed off. According to WhereIs’s directions, it’s about 4.5km. Not a hugely long ride, but not a trivial one either, especially as Jeremy’s still on training wheels. I’ve been trying to talk him into ditching them, but he hasn’t been convinced yet.

We set out along the footpath, Jeremy in front with orders to watch for cars in driveways, followed by me, and Isaac at the rear. I was pondering if I’d have to explain to any cranky old ladies along the way that it’s legal for kids under 12 to ride on the footpath; and also adults like me if they are accompanying said children.

We reached the halfway point without too much trouble. A bit further down the road we got to a milkbar about two-thirds of the way, and decided to stop for an icecream.

Refreshed, we were just setting off for the rest of the trip when one of Jeremy’s training wheels broke. It was like a supermarket trolley wheel — loose, obstructive, and unable to be fixed on the spot without tools. Jeremy soldiered-on regardless for a bit, leaning the bike onto the other training wheel, but eventually it proved too much and we ended up walking the last kilometre or so.

We got to the house about an hour after we’d set out, so overall we did it at about walking pace.

Mission accomplished. Three less things to move.

Updated 6pm: Then we caught the train home.