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Toxic Custard newsletter transport

Metro Bingo :-(

Given the Flemington/Showgrounds line isn’t running this morning, and the Stony Point line has planned bustitution, I’m going to go ahead and declare that we have Metro Bingo this morning due to the storms. And no, it’s not much better on many of the roads. Good luck to everybody (myself included, shortly) trying to get  ... [More]

Categories
Toxic Custard newsletter transport

10 minute trains – there is a rollout plan – but when will it get funded?

High-frequency trains (all day, every day) are critical for any big city, to ensure large numbers of people can get around quickly and easily. As a PTUA study found some years ago, Melbourne is one of the few big world cities that doesn’t have them. To draw an analogy, it’s as if outside peak hour,  ... [More]

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transport

The Frankston line X’trapolis – are you impressed?

You’d think from the tweets from Coalition MPs this morning that the arrival of the first X’trapolis train in service on the Frankston line was a miraculous huge leap forward for train travellers — a rocket-powered, laser-guided teleportation device that can get you to your destination in seconds. Great to travel in the new X'Trapolis  ... [More]

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Retrospectives Toxic Custard newsletter transport

Five years ago today: A day on the trains

Five years ago today I posted this video: A Day on the Trains. The footage for it was gathered over the space of a month or two in the dying days of the Connex Melbourne Empire in late 2009, and it was designed to capture a few scenes I thought might be changing in the  ... [More]

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transport

#Trainageddon: What can be done to reduce and better deal with disruptions?

First I knew of last night’s Trainageddon was when my son Isaac rang at 7pm. He and his friends were at South Yarra — stuck. I said No problem! Catch a Sandringham line train, I’ll meet you at Brighton… oh, that line’s out too. Yes, a trackside fire at Richmond affected signalling, knocking out the  ... [More]

Categories
transport

A new train map is coming (and: network status boards)

Update October 2014: There’s a later draft PTV are trialling a new train network map. They’re seeking feedback on it, and you’ll see it at some stations now (Bentleigh, Malvern and Moorabbin, I think). Note, just to remove all doubt: unlike the PTV network plan, it’s not a concept for new rail lines; it’s a  ... [More]

Categories
transport

The government loves talking about train punctuality. Cancellations? Not so much.

For some reason, while the government have been crowing about train punctuality this week… Our record investment in PT = 23 months of punctuality above 90%. Congrats to staff at @metrotrains #springst – Tez pic.twitter.com/8bclsZOyXh — Terry Mulder (@TerryMulderMP) April 9, 2014 …they haven’t been talking much about Service Delivery, aka Cancellations. I wonder why  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Working? Christmas shopping? Fewer trains running today.

Just a reminder that as noted last week, there are reduced train (and tram) timetables running from this week until Australia Day. For my fellow Bentleigh people, I’ve marked the weekday cancelled trains for you: Basically for us on the Frankston line, train frequencies are halved at most times of day on weekdays for the  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Holiday timetables – “Turn up and go” becomes “Turn up and wait”

Much has been made of Metro’s scheduled cancellations over the next two days to try and deal with extreme heat — in particular they’re citing speed restrictions on the faster part of the network, which will have speed restrictions. It’ll be interesting to see if they can stick to this plan, or if the whole  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Train window ads – what about visibility?

I’m not against advertising on public transport. It brings in much-needed revenue and helps subsidise services. But it shouldn’t be intrusive. Bus and tram passengers have had to get used to ads on windows of vehicles over many years, but it’s only in the last couple of years that it’s become prominent on trains. It  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Flinders St platform 11 would provide much-needed capacity – alas, they’re building a cafe instead

Regular passengers using Flinders Street Station will have noticed that while the platforms are numbered from 1 to 14, there’s no platform 11. It’s not a Harry Potter scenario with a hidden platform. There used to be a platform 11, the twin of 10, facing the river, and commonly used by St Kilda and Port  ... [More]

Categories
Geek transport

How to turn off @MetroTrains Android app alerts/notifications

The Metro app is quite handy for finding out what’s happening on the train network, and can send notifications/alerts to tell you when something’s affecting the line(s) you use regularly. As previously noted, it’s not perfect — the SMS alerts that it replaced were customised to your specific station, so you didn’t have to try  ... [More]