Why a Z-class tram was used for the Queen’s visit
A lot of people have asked why a Z-class tram was chosen for the Queen’s tram ride (rather than Melbourne’s traditional and iconic W-class, for instance).
Here’s the answer:
W and A-class trams don’t have handrails in the middle of the doorways, which can be a big help for older people. B-class trams do, but they may not have wanted to take a high-capacity tram (or two; they had a spare) out of service for this event.
C and D class trams are low-floor, and have few handles — this would have been easier at the Federation Square platform stop, but perhaps not where the Queen alighted near Government House, where there is no platform.
Over time the tram fleet needs to switch to low-floor vehicles, and more tram stops need to be accessible. It does matter for the mobility of those in wheelchairs. As these roll out, they using the tram system more.
After all, some parts of Melbourne are most easily reached by tram (including the hospital precinct, which unfortunately and ironically, has no accessible trams serving it at all).
No-step boarding is also faster for able-bodied people, and those using shopping jeeps and prams.
Update Monday morning: There also seems to be some talk that a high-floor tram was requested to ensure more of the crowd could see the Queen at the window as it travelled along.
Australia’s airport trains and buses compared
I’ve done a quick comparison of the main airport to CBD public transport in Australia’s biggest cities.
Brisbane and Sydney have trains at premium fares. Perth and Adelaide have normal route buses. Melbourne has a premium bus.
| City | MEL | SYD | BNE | ADL | PER |
| Mode | Bus | Train | Train | Bus | Bus |
| Distance (km) | 23 | 8 | 13 | 6 | 13 |
| Travel time | 20 | 10 | 23 | 23 | 38 |
| Peak freq | 10 | 7 | 15 | 15 | 15 |
| Off-peak freq | 10 | 10 | 30 | 15 | 30 |
| Weekend freq | 10 | 15 | 30 | 15 | 30 |
| Last | 24-hour | Midnight | 8pm | 11pm | 11pm |
| Adult one way (peak) | $16.00 | $15.80 | $15.00 | $4.70 | $3.80 |
| Child one way (peak) | $6.00 | $10.40 | $0.00 | $2.30 | $1.50 |
| Speed | 69.0 | 48.0 | 33.9 | 15.7 | 20.5 |
| Adult $/km | $0.70 | $1.98 | $1.15 | $0.78 | $0.29 |
I’ve used all but Perth’s — which is worth noting serves the domestic airport, but not the international one.
Melbourne’s Skybus is the most expensive, but is also by far the longest distance, and is also the trip that runs at the highest speed, with the second-shortest travel time. It’s also the most frequent, apart from during peak hours when Sydney beats it. Skybus does get overcrowded at peak times, too.
Sydney’s works well, being frequent and quick, but the price makes it an extremely expensive 10ish minute journey, and the highest per kilometre cost.
Adelaide’s per kilometre price is higher than Melbourne’s because Adelaide has flat fares. People who want Melbourne to have a single zone might do well to note that upwards pressure has put the single trip $4.70 ticket is above the $3.80 cost of Melbourne’s zone 1, 2-hour ticket (though Adelaide also has an off-peak ticket at $2.90 which would also be valid for this trip between 9am and 3pm).
One thing Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide’s airport services have that the others don’t is good frequencies. We timed our trip on Brisbane’s train well going from the airport to the City, but that was luck more than anything else, and it’s difficult to control. We could just as easily have had to wait half-an-hour. Landing back in Melbourne, we just missed a Skybus, but it didn’t matter because of the ten minute service.
So which is best?
That’s a hard question to answer.
I wonder if for occasional travellers (including visitors to our cities) the distance and the speed isn’t really something they think about too much; it’s more about the frequency, cost and travel time… though leisure travellers sometimes don’t even worry about those — I remember the slow infrequent expensive Rome airport train (circa 1999) was packed full of us tourists.
Of course, trains have qualities that make people prefer them to buses. Something about prominence, (perceived) permanence, space, freedom to move, and ride quality.
For frequency, Melbourne and Sydney clearly win out, with Adelaide not far behind. But I’m amused that (despite the high price) Melbourne is per kilometre cheaper than any of them except Perth.
They’ve all got good points really. Ideally, like any other public transport, you’d want high frequency and speed, good comfort levels, and low cost. And ideally to make it usable you want it serving tourists, business travellers and airport workers (of which there are thousands every day).
The important thing for Melbourne, if airport rail ever gets the go-ahead, is to ensure the service quality (particularly frequency) remains high — otherwise you won’t get locals and regular/business travellers to use it.
Thoughts? What do you use? Did I mess up anything in the table?
A few pics for Thursday
Pac-Man on Lonsdale Street
(though if the ghost is blue, Pac-Man must have had a power pill, and should be chasing, not chased)
I don’t want to seem paranoid, but I don’t think this is a real ATM:
Behold! The temple of Gorm!
Tags: ATMs, Ikea, Pacman
5 comments
Yarra Trams – by appointment
Maybe after tomorrow, this could be the new Yarra Trams logo?
Update Wednesday 6:30pm: There you go, here’s my best pic of the Queen in the tram. Not great I know; she was on the opposite side and facing the other way.
Lots of pics at The Age and Herald Sun.
Most amusing: Channel 9 had footage that showed during the Queen’s ride, the royal tram got a Fleet Operations PA message about diverted services.
Update Thursday morning: A better view of the Royal Tram…
…and its backup.
(There was a second backup in the Royal colours prepared, but I didn’t see that.)
See also: Why a Z-class tram was used for the Queen’s visit
Flagstaff Stn and William St pedestrian/passenger congestion needs fixing
This is Flagstaff station yesterday at 8:50am.
It’s not a once-off occurence, but happens regularly. As patronage has grown at Parliament and Melbourne Central, more gates have gradually gone in… fitting more in at Flagstaff is probably a challenge, but one that will have to be looked at, perhaps in conjunction with the conversion from Metcard to Myki gates in the next year or so.
But the problems aren’t confined to the station.
The footpaths on William Street and also Little Lonsdale Street no longer cope with the pedestrian traffic coming out of the station in the morning, and going back into the station in the evening.
(This doesn’t quite capture how crowded the footpaths get, but there is a reason multiple people are walking on the road.)
Some people resort to walking on the road to try and speed up their journeys.
I haven’t got out there with a measuring tape, but my perception is that the footpaths around Flagstaff are narrower than comparable spots around the other CBD railway stations. It’s probably in part due to the fact that Latrobe and William Streets are some of the few CBD streets that allow two lanes of car traffic (in each direction) during peak hours.
Street furniture such as news stands and cafe tables are important for the street scape, but don’t really help pedestrian flows.
Given a clear preference for sustainable transport access into the CBD, I think it’s time that was reviewed. Something more along the lines of Collins Street might be appropriate — one lane for trams, one lane of traffic, a bike lane, and one lane either for parking or for tram superstops.
Of course it wouldn’t help traffic congestion. But parts of that area get clogged in peak hour anyway (especially on Friday night), even with two lanes of traffic.
If there are multiple demands on that space, the priority should be for the most space-efficient use of it — which is clearly pedestrians and public transport.
What will I look like with a moustache? (8 days to Movember)
Eight days until Movember.
So, what will I look like with a moustache next month?
Well, thanks to this handy dandy kit that Marita provided, perhaps we have an indication.
I tried each of them out… here are the results…
Tags: charities, Movember
10 comments
This year, I’m doing Movember
I’ve not been organised early enough previously to do Movember, but this year, I’ve signed-up.
For those unaware, Movember is an annual event when blokes grow moustaches to raise money for charities, chiefly associated with men’s health and mental health. One starts off cleanshaven on November the 1st, then starts growing the moustache, for sponsorship.
I was inspired somewhat by some of the old photos of my dad, who during the 70s and 80s, often sported a mo’.
This is not the first time I’ve dabbled in the area of facial hair. Many moons ago I tried growing a beard. I didn’t like it; never got used to the itching. That may be a problem again.
Of course in my typical net.obsessed way, you can expect daily updates as the mo’ develops.
Donate here: My Movember page
Tags: charities, Movember
2 comments
Brisbane day 6 – heading home
Thursday 6th October
Alas, the day came to depart Brisbane and head back home.
Perhaps it’s inevitable these days that travelling interstate pretty much requires setting aside most or all of the day just for the journey. I suppose it’s a consequence of modern air travel, which requires getting to and from airports, and lengthy check-in times. (Plus my preference for flights at civilised times such as 11am!)
After checking-out (and verifying that a hole in the wall in one of the bedrooms wouldn’t be a problem — it was caused by a bed on rollers in a tiled room, with nothing to stop it moving around) we headed down to Central station to catch the airport train.
I’d had a message from the Queensland PTUA-equivalent Rail Back On Track’s Robert Dow early in the morning to say there was going to be a ministerial announcement at Central, at 10am, about the time we’d be heading out. When we got there, we quickly spotted the media pack, and Queensland’s Transport Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk, who was announcing that the airport train is to have its hours extended, from the current time of 8pm (which is hardly satisfactory given flights continue for some time after that), to 10pm — starting in December.
After the Minister did her grabs, Robert fronted the cameras to make some approving remarks. He then grabbed me and introduced me to the Minister as his Melbourne equivalent, and we had a quick chat… I told her Melbourne could learn a lot from Brisbane’s public transport network, and the only major problems we’d had during our visit was the low frequencies of trains at off-peak times, which she seemed to agree with.
Robert also introduced me to some Translink people, and I asked them about the bus/train coordination we’d seen the day before. I asked if it was the Translink governance structure that makes this possible, eg how the Translink organisation works with the individual operator companies such as, in this case, Queensland Rail and Surfside Buslines. They said yes — the operators write timetables within Translink’s guidelines.
Rail is done first, then bus timetables are written to match. They see it as really important given 30 minute train frequencies outside peak. This is something Melbourne definitely needs to learn from, and the hope is that the Coalition Government’s planned Public Transport Development Authority will do here what Translink is doing in Brisbane.
After a bit of a chat, we headed down to the platforms for our train to the airport, and made our way to the Domestic terminal to check-in.
Not so fast, said the check-in kiosk machine thingy — we’d need to go and see a human. Uh oh, this couldn’t be good.
It wasn’t. The human told us that a late-arriving international flight had caused the middayish Brisbane to Melbourne flight we’d booked to overflow, and we’d either have to fly via Canberra (arriving in Melbourne around 6pm) or get onto the next direct flight with seats, which wasn’t leaving until about 8pm — which allowing for two hours flight time, and an hour to adjust for daylight saving, would have meant getting back to Melbourne at about 11pm.
Blargh. Canberra it was then. Didn’t Jerry Seinfeld do a standup bit on this topic on his TV show? It might have been about hire cars not being available despite having a reservation. I seem to recall that he doubted that the company understood the concept of a reservation. Apparently this escapes Qantas as well.
So we went and waited for the Canberra flight, which turned out to be delayed. I was cursing myself for throwing away the (disposable) water bottles just before we were told of the delay. Damn. Could have refilled them at a water fountain.
While we waited, we heard final boarding calls for a missing group of four passengers for what should have been our flight home. Blargh, we thought — kicked off our plane, and four people who took our seats didn’t even bother to turn up at the gate.
The flight to Canberra was delayed by about an hour, and we went and got some lunch from the food court, at exhorbitant 50% higher airport rates, of course. Then eventually we boarded, with a walk along the tarmac, to our waiting Dash 8 aircraft. I suspect the prospect of a propeller plane made Jeremy a little nervous (or maybe he was bummed about there being no inflight entertainment), but the flight was without incident, and we actually got a decent feed on-board.
I had hoped that it would have been clear enough to see some of our nation’s capital as we flew in, but there was a lot of low-level cloud, and nothing to see except fields close to the runway. We had about an hour to wait before our connecting flight, and thankfully could just mooch about in the terminal without having to worry about the luggage, which had been checked straight through. I found and purchased a Mad magazine compilation of sci-fi spoofs for the boys to read on the next plane.
Boarding again at about 4:30, we found this time the plane was full of suited businessmen and public servants (I assume) heading out of Canberra. Almost all of them appeared to have those cases which are effectively luggage, but which are allowed as carry-on, resulting in the overhead lockers being absolutely packed to the gills. No doubt they all do it to avoid having to avoid the hassle and delays of checked luggage, but I wonder if it adds to the boarding times.
Some in-flight delays resulted in us arriving a bit after 6pm, and we found the luggage (only after Jeremy found the right conveyor, which was behind some hoarding) and boarded the Skybus.
After one false turn at Southern Cross (seriously, they could make the route from Skybus to/from the suburban trains MUCH easier) we found the platform for our train home. I was just checking the departure board when I heard a shout of “Hey Daniel!” It turned out to be former Public Transport Minister Martin Pakula, on his way home. We chatted on the train for a little while, as far as Flinders Street where he changed. I assume in opposition he doesn’t get the use of a driver and car, so he might actually be on the train >more often than when he was the minister.
It was smooth sailing from there; we finally arrived home around 8pm after a long day of travelling.
Tags: Brisbane, Qantas
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