Categories
transport

New Footscray station bridge now being partially demolished

This is Footscray railway station’s William Cooper bridge, pictured just after it opened in 2010. It’s almost brand new. Preparatory work on replacing the old bridge had began in April 2009, with the first bridge spans put into place in around August 2009. It was opened in April 2010, at a cost of $15 million.  ... [More]

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Photos

Don’t cross Rusty

You might recall last month I posted a picture of Jack the dog: This is his comrade, Rusty: Jack is a friendly dog. Rusty… not so much.

Categories
Memes rule, pass it on

Too much. Overused. Over it.

Made with KeepCalm-O-Matic (Disappointed to discover I’m not the first to think of this.)

Categories
Geek transport

Google celebrates 150 years of London Underground – and could we have bought Oyster?

As seen at google.co.uk on Wednesday. Very cool. (Large version found via the Going Underground blog) Note the subtle shading of fare zones, which reflects how they look on the official maps. It’s been claimed in the past that in Melbourne we couldn’t adopt an existing smartcard ticket system like Oyster because Melbourne had specific  ... [More]

Categories
Culture

A little experiment in visual art

When I visit the data centre for work, I get my photo taken for a visitor pass. It’s often on a Friday — casual clothes day. The camera (and/or the printer) is black & white, low-resolution, and slightly awkwardly placed. For some reason, the visitor passes have been accumulating in my desk drawer. Here are  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Sydney’s monorail is (most probably) going nowhere

The Sydney Monorail will finish operation at the end of June. It’s been interesting to see speculation on whether it would be purchased and moved to another site, such as elsewhere in Sydney or interstate. What this speculation appears to have missed is the important fact that the hardware is not in good shape. Last  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Joining the dots: Which leads to less crime – zero tolerance, or removing lead pollution?

Our state government in the past has cited New York City zero-tolerance policies introduced by Rudolph Giuliani as inspiration for measures like Protective Service Officers, which will eventually see two armed guards on every metropolitan railway station after 6pm: Mr Ryan said he was intent on establishing a Giuliani-style zero tolerance approach in Victoria, and  ... [More]

Categories
driving

The Rooster Tree

Those who regularly head up the Hume Freeway from Melbourne would know about this, but others may not: it’s the Rooster Tree. You’ll find it somewhere past Wandong and the exit for Clonbinane (which is one of those places I’ve never heard of apart from on the freeway exit signs), and it’s really only properly  ... [More]

Categories
Ranting transport

Today’s factually incorrect Myki rant article in The Age didn’t help

I didn’t think I’d write two Myki blog posts in one day, but… Let me briefly go through the mistakes in this opinion article from The Age today then I’ll get to the real point of this post. ”If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, goes the old adage. The claim in government circles is  ... [More]

Categories
transport

What if to get a Slurpie at 7-11, you first had to buy a voucher from a tram conductor?

What if to get a Slurpie at 7-11, you first had to buy a voucher from a tram conductor? Some would argue the situation now, where no tickets can be bought on trams, and Myki cards have to be bought and pre-loaded (at 7-11 or elsewhere) is equally silly. In fact, if you look at  ... [More]

Categories
Photos

The hay shed at sunset, Christmas night