The Loop
I ran this poll on an internal PTUA members’ email list. Let’s try it here.
Here’s the context:
Trains, particularly in peak hour, are packed. More trains are being purchased, but the decision has to be made about how to deploy them. (Even if it’s decided to upgrade infrastructure such as with the proposed new tunnel, that may take a decade to happen.)
All trains serve Flinders Street, which has a large capacity (14 platforms), and provides good access to the southern half of the Central Business District. For passenger numbers it’s also the busiest single station.
Suburban trains can run via the City Loop, or they can run direct between Flinders Street and Richmond, Jolimont, North Melbourne, bypassing the Loop.
The City Loop (that is, Parliament, Melbourne Central and Flagstaff) skirts the eastern and northern sides of the CBD, but it’s only four tracks, so while a train running via the Loop provides easier access to more parts of the CBD, this section is something of a bottleneck, unlike the direct tracks into Flinders Street.
Approximate current weekday CBD station loads: Flinders Street 37%, Melbourne Central 22%, Parliament 17%, Southern Cross 16%, Flagstaff 8%.
So, to the question:
As a generalisation, how would you prefer to have train timetables organised? The options are:
Run some lines via the Loop, some direct to Flinders St.
(Pros: A consistent pattern. Allows more trains, without them interfering with each other. Some passengers who use Flinders St will get a quicker ride.
Cons: Some passengers will need to either walk further from Flinders St, catch a tram, or change trains along the way, and interchange facilities at North Melbourne and Richmond aren’t perfect)
Run each line half via the Loop, half direct to Flinders St
(Pros: Nobody has to change trains if they don’t want to.
Cons: Each pattern gets lower frequencies, so if you do want to avoid a change, you may have to wait longer to avoid it. Converging lines entering the Loop tunnels may cause some delays, and/or reduce the total number of trains that can run)
Squeeze most trains from most lines into the Loop
(Pros: More or less as it’s done now; many are used to it.
Cons: Severely limits services to around about the level we have now, and not solving the overcrowding issues).
Which would you choose?
Have I missed any Pros and Cons? Got some other revolutionary idea? Leave a comment.
Seems this Google form doesn’t prevent you voting twice. Please don’t. I’ll post the results in a couple of days.
Update 25/2/2011: The poll results are here.
Tags: City Loop, Metro, public transport, trains
29 comments
No more tie
This week I stopped wearing a tie to work.
I’ve moved to a new office, where the norm is no ties. I could wear one, but would stick out. So effectively it’s the new uniform.
As I noted last year, when I started working in 1993, pretty much every male white-collar worker wore a tie. Not any more — particularly not in IT.
In some ways I’ll miss them. And it might be time to buy some more coloured shirts… I think white shirts (worn without a jacket during the summer) look odd without a tie.
And I’ll probably miss it when doing TV media. Would it be cheating to keep one in the drawer at work for that?
Tags: Clothes, ties
10 comments
Bentleigh crossing
Last week a lady was tragically killed on the level crossing at Bentleigh station, when she walked in front of an express train.
I’d never do it, but unfortunately far too often people do take the risk. It’s not difficult — despite the upgrade, if you approach the crossing from the right hand footpath, you can dodge the locked gate by simply walking around the fencing along the road.
Four people have been killed there in recent years: in 1998, 2000, 2004 and last week. All four have walked into the paths of express trains during morning peak, though until the most recent one, I believe it has involved pushing through the pedestrian gates. These gates were upgraded, and now lock.
Since the upgrade, the warning signals at the crossing are plentiful: apart from the usual boom gates, pedestrian gates, bells, and flashing lights, the crossing also has a red man indicator, and “Another train coming” sign that lights up when appropriate.
One can blame the people involved for ignoring all this, but no matter who’s to blame, one has to look at what else can be done to prevent it happening again.
A boom gate on the right hand side of the road? Not normally done in Victoria — my understanding is they want an escape route for any cars that might (incorrectly, and illegally) find themselves stopped on the crossing when the booms go down.
It’s notable that all those deaths have been since the pedestrian underpass was filled-in in 1996. Following the 2004 death, reinstating this was looked at. From the Herald Sun 8/9/2005 Tunnel a no-go zone:
BENTLEIGH railway station’s pedestrian underpass will not reopen despite a
report that found it was technically possible.
…Transport Minister Peter Batchelor said reopening the old underpass was not feasible. “It was closed because of some deficiencies in its design, because it had problems with flooding when it rained and it had other operational issues,” he said.
But a consultant’s report prepared for the State Government found those problems could be fixed.
The estimated cost of reopening the subway was up to $2 million.
But Mr Batchelor said the underpass could not meet requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act.
Instead, an enhanced ground-level crossing would be installed.
Those enhancements ended up costing $1.2 million. And it appears they still haven’t solved the problem, since people still walk across the tracks when they shouldn’t.
I love the DDA point from Batchelor. Does the underpass which is okay for (perhaps) 90% of people need to be DDA-compliant if those who can’t cope with stairs can still cross at most times at street level?
Many crossings have both over/underpasses and street-level crossing, for instance at Mckinnon (pictured above), Ormond, Brighton Beach, Ripponlea, and others. Some have ramps as well as steps (though the ramps aren’t necessarily DDA-complaint).
It would be interesting to know how often these kinds of accidents occur at locations with conveniently-placed crossing facilities.
Short of complete grade separation of the rail line at Bentleigh, it would seem to make sense for them to look at re-instating the underpass.
The train to Port Melbourne
The Port Melbourne railway line closed in 1987, but this train wanted to go there.
(Thanks to Terry who spotted it in time for me to snap a pic. It’s possible the sign is stuck, since it looks like the same carriage was snapped recently elsewhere.)
In today’s Herald Sun: New Metro timetable as trains struggle to cope with commuter numbers
Hopefully this means all the details will be published soon, as so far the information published (by third parties) has been pretty vague. Some detail is contained in this summary.
Oh, bravo
Oh bravo, yes. Just block the whole road.
And I might note this guy was happy to park himself there while the light he was blocking was still green.
Online vs Retail
Another online vs retail comparison. Component cables for a Nintendo Wii, so I could plug it into the new TV.
Nintendo official product: $47.99 (JB Hifi and others). Around $41.00 online, from an Australian online seller.
Futuretronics clone product: $29.94 (Dick Smith).
Dick Smith also had the cables included in a “Wii Starter Kit” with some other stuff I didn’t need, for $39.94. I’m doubly glad I didn’t buy those, as they’ve now been recalled due to the remote charger overheating.
EBay clone product: $8.00 including postage.
I went for the latter, as I was not in a huge rush to get it. This is from an Australian seller, so my assumption would be that GST is being paid on it.
Note that this is an apples and oranges comparison. The product purchased is not identical, but the eBay offering has not been a disappointment… and given the price difference, I figured it was worth the risk.
(And what a difference it made!)
Conclusion: it’s not just an offshore vs local thing, it’s also a question of retail vs etail, and of course Genuine name brand products vs no-name clone products.
Tags:
4 comments
Mr Rabbit vs Mr Riley
I don’t necessarily agree with Tony Abbott’s policies, but I don’t think what he said to the soldiers, taken in context, was unreasonable.
Colonel Creighton says of the Digger’s death: “Was it tragic? Absolutely. But we’re all in the knowledge that all the stuff (firepower support) you see here and more was available on the day.”
In response, Mr Abbott says: “It’s pretty obvious that, well, sometimes s— happens, doesn’t it.”
Immediately, Major General Cantwell replies: “It certainly does, yeah.” — AAP report
So they’d been discussing the death of Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney, and whether the troops had enough support on that operation. The conclusion seemed to be that no matter how much support, how good the equipment, how good the planning, sometimes, unfortunately, soldiers die.
It’s an inherently dangerous job, after all.
It was probably a cheap shot from Channel 7 to use the footage — but perhaps hardly surprising, given the release of the full footage under Freedom Of Information had been blocked. Mark Riley must have figured someone had something to hide.
Abbott’s response — the 25 seconds of dead silent seething anger — made the story much, much worse for him. It made it bigger. It made it a talking point around the country.
Any response would have been better. Say you won’t answer the question because it’s unreasonable. Say the original comments had to be taken in context, and explain that if necessary.
It’s like those guys who get filmed coming out of court, and decide to attack the cameras, guaranteeing them a much more prominent place on the evening news.
From the sounds of it, Abbott’s office let him down, and despite Channel 7 giving advance warning as to the nature of the interview, he simply wasn’t prepared for it.
As a commenter on the Herald Sun web site notes: I’m so pleased that Tony Abbott glared at Mark Riley, the normal human reaction would have been to grab Mark by the hair and call him a few unprintable names. Abbott showed his control, and actually had just come from a very emotional session in Parliament where they reflected on the human tragedies in the floods.
Perhaps it’s a plus that he didn’t lose his temper, but then again, shouldn’t senior politicians be prepared to face this kind of stuff?
MediaWatch returned on Monday. I’ll be very interested to see what they make of it.
- SMH: Phillip Coorey’s opinion piece
- 3AW interviews Mark Riley, who claims he told Abbott’s office in advance what the interview was about.
- Video of Riley’s competitor Laurie Oakes’ response
Tags: ABC MediaWatch, Media, Tony Abbott
8 comments
The Long And Winding Road
Call me slow, but I just figured out why I never used to be that keen on The Long And Winding Road but how recently I’ve come to like it — and even find it quite emotional.
It’s not just because I’m getting old.
It’s because for years all I had was the original version from Let It Be, and now I have the revised Let It Be — Naked version (as well as a similar version from Anthology 3).
What’s the difference? The originally released one, as much as any song on the album, has Phil Spector’s “Wall Of Sound” thing happening, with loads of noise piled on top of the band… choir, harp, brass, orchestra, the full bit.
And it ruins it. Any emotion in Paul McCartney’s vocals is completely lost. It sounds like some dull cabaret jingle or something.
In fact I see now, this text on Wikipedia:
Paul McCartney in particular was always dissatisfied with the “Wall of Sound” production style of the Phil Spector remixes, especially for his song “The Long and Winding Road”, which he believed was ruined by the process.
Yep.
Some songs need a certain rawness for the emotion to come out properly. The live version of WPA’s For A Short Time is another that springs to mind. Cover it up too much, and the performance loses its impact. (That song tugs at the heart strings for other reasons.)
If you’ve only heard the Spector version of Long And Winding Road, I highly recommend you check out the stripped-down one if you get the chance. (Unfortunately it doesn’t appear to be available on iTunes.)
Update: Ah, found it:
Someone else has uploaded the Spector version too.
Tags: music, The Beatles
1 comment
