Categories
Geek General

The Last Post (of the year)

One last post of miscellaneous stuff to mark the end of 2017. Grandad My Grandad was born on this day in 1924. He passed away on Boxing Day, just shy of his 93rd birthday. Being one of our UK relatives, we didn’t visit him much, but we did manage to see him during our UK  ... [More]

Categories
transport

No Night Buses running for NYE

Night Buses are not running on New Year’s Eve tonight. Most trams and trains are running all night — and it’s more trains than last year; half-hourly after about 2am, rather than hourly as last year. There are also some regional trains and coaches after midnight. Night Bus routes are designed to fill the gaps  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Chadstone’s Boxing Day bus debacle

Chadstone’s new bus interchange opened in late-2015. Today I got to sample how well Chadstone’s buses run on what is perhaps the busiest shopping day of the year: Boxing Day. (I wasn’t there to shop. I was there to watch Doctor Who — Hoyts at Chadstone had $12 tickets, and more of them available, than  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Some thoughts on CBD street design and safety

Thursday’s awful incident brings back memories of January’s attack, and authorities are rightly saying that it will be investigated from all angles. One issue is road infrastructure that allows a vehicle to reach high speed in a constrained, pedestrian-dense area like Flinders Street. The speed limit is 40. But apart from the placement of tram  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Melbourne’s fares rise above CPI again

As expected, fare rises have been announced to take place on January 1st. It’s a rise of 4.7% — which is CPI+2.5%. (At least, 4.7% is the claim. Some fares, such as a Zone 1 two-hour fare, are rising by more: $4.10 to $4.30 is almost 4.9%, thanks to the price being rounded to the  ... [More]

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Photos from ten years ago Toxic Custard newsletter transport

Old photos from December 2007

Here’s another in my series of ten year old photos, this time from December 2007. Rain at Flinders Street Station. This shot captured a particular problem with the drainage which saw water gushing down past the door of this Hitachi train. Hopefully that issue is long since fixed, or at least being resolved in the  ... [More]

Categories
Home life Toxic Custard newsletter

I finally got air-con

(To just see transport-related blog posts, you can use this link — which is also on the top navigation menu) For years I’ve resisted air-conditioning at home. Partly it was the cost, partly it was that I really wanted to pursue passive cooling as much as I could — measures that used little or no  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Why shut down trains in December? Because there’s something even bigger coming in January

For the past five days — from 8:30pm last Thursday, to last night (Tuesday) — the Belgrave, Lilydale, Alamein and Glen Waverley lines were replaced by buses between the city and Camberwell/Darling. The new signalling for Richmond to Burnley is all commissioned and ready for service. pic.twitter.com/pvRKouOkak — Vicsig (@vicsig) December 5, 2017 Thankfully it’s  ... [More]

Categories
driving transport

Dash it all! Why intersection markings are changing

You may have noticed that some intersection markings, including pedestrian crossings, are changing. Solid white lines are becoming dashed white lines. Ditto turning lines at intersections. This change brings Victorian practice into line with the Australian standard. NSW (and probably other states) used to have solid lines too, but sometime in the last few decades  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Bentleigh station isn’t finished

Now that we’ve finished talking about names of yet-to-be-built stations, let’s talk about some recently built ones. Last Saturday a steam train ran to celebrate a year (and a bit) since the new Bentleigh/McKinnon/Ormond stations re-opened, following level crossing removals. K153 leads a Steamrail special into McKinnon pic.twitter.com/6XISB3b2t1 — Metro Man (@The_Rail_Life) November 25, 2017  ... [More]

Categories
transport

The metro tunnel stations will be called…

So the Metro tunnel station names will be, from south to north… Anzac (working name Domain) — located more-or-less underneath the Shrine of Remembrance, of course. (The Shrine Trustees didn’t want the word Shrine used, by the way. I wonder how they feel about Anzac. Given the usual tight control over the name, I assume  ... [More]

Categories
transport

8 minutes to Southland

After many years of waiting, Southland station finally opened this morning, with an official ribbon cutting, attended by Minister for Public Transport Jacinta Allan, MP for Bentleigh Nick Staikos, MP for Mordialloc Tim Richardson, and PTV head Jeroen Weimar. Southland station is now officially opened, with trains stopping there from early this morning. pic.twitter.com/f6gUU0Oz4I —  ... [More]