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Photos from ten years ago

Old photos from July 2006

It’s the last day of July, so here’s my monthly post of pictures from ten years ago, from July 2006. Cooking a stew on my ancient stove, with my cast iron pot. Delicious, as I recall. I really should do this more often. All the other photos below were snapped with my then brand new  ... [More]

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Bentleigh Melbourne

Bentleigh getting denser – and that’s fine by me

With Ormond likely to get its tower (whatever the height might be), what of other nearby suburbs? The transition is already underway in Bentleigh and many other areas. Around the station, numerous developments are going up. And in principle, I have no problem with this. Melbourne’s population continues to grow. People have to live somewhere,  ... [More]

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transport

“Value capture” development above Ormond station? Good idea… in theory

Although it won’t reopen until the end of August, Ormond station has been coming along… Here’s how it looked on Saturday: Under the station building facing North Road is the deck for the concourse, as can be seen in the plans: But further north from that, a second deck is taking shape. It’s actually easiest  ... [More]

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Culture News and events Toxic Custard newsletter

A bit of pedantry

I can be a bit of a pedant, so this photo caption in Saturday’s Age caught my eye: “Former NGV director Patrick McCaughey” pictured in 1986 — so was he the former NGV director back then? No — the article text makes it clear he was the director in 1986. There’s a simple way of  ... [More]

Categories
driving walking

Pedestrians in the car park – often there’s no choice

I sometimes wonder if motorists driving in and out of car parks get irritated by pedestrians walking through. Often the pedestrians have no choice. These pictures are from Caulfield Plaza – with the major drawcard inside being the Coles supermarket. There is obvious pedestrian traffic from the railway station and the university campus to the  ... [More]

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Toxic Custard newsletter walking

Real estate agent signs – improving but some need more work

I’ve written before about blockages on footpaths: overhanging trees, motorcycles, cars and real estate agent advertising. There’s at least been some pogress with real estate. It seems some agents, perhaps realising that blocking the footpath is illegal, have got newer, smaller flags. During my walk on Saturday morning, I spotted these: Buxton seem to have  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Extra track and fleet capacity is great! But what about extra services?

If you missed the front page story in today’s Age: Melbourne to go more than two years without a peak-hour train timetable boost See also: PTUA: Services packed while seven trains sit idle – where is the new timetable? To recap: Regional Rail Link separated out most V/Line services from Metro services, giving V/Line trains  ... [More]

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Home life music Toxic Custard newsletter

TreatYoSelf: Sonosed

Brace yourself… a non-transport-related blog post. A couple of years ago I bought a Yamaha surround sound setup, which has been fabulous. I’d single out the sound track on Mad Max Fury Road in particular; very immersive. Heck, even later seasons of the West Wing had some subtle surround going on, adding to the viewing  ... [More]

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Toxic Custard newsletter transport

Down in the trench station at midnight

(With apologies to The Jam) While we endure the train replacement buses, work is moving along on the Bentleigh-Mckinnon-Ormond trench. It’s really impressive to see – I worked out you can see all three bridges from the Brewer overpass; with a zoom lens, that is. (This won’t be the case once the station buildings are  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Park and ride is not as significant as you might assume

It’s unsurprising that the closure of station car parks along the Dandenong line for the “skyrail” level crossing removals was highlighted by the media on Wednesday; at this stage it’s the major disruption impact that’s expected. But – perhaps because of the amount of space it takes up – it’s often incorrectly assumed that Park  ... [More]

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Singapore 2016 ?? Toxic Custard newsletter transport

What can Melbourne learn from Singapore’s skyrails?

While I was in Singapore for my holiday, I had a good look at the MRT, and I wanted to specifically post about the MRT’s elevated sections. I’m not the only one to ponder a comparison to the proposed Dandenong line skyrail… Channel 9 recently featured this story, which is worth a look: .@andrew_lund speaks  ... [More]

Categories
Bentleigh transport

Frankston line: the big dig

So this is what it looks like when hundreds of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure gets built rapidly in your neighbourhood. Here are some photos and video of the first week of major works on the Bentleigh/Mckinnon/Ormond level crossings. (Click any photo to view it larger at Flickr — or click here to view  ... [More]