And so we say farewell to 2019. I think I’d rather say Good Riddance. We lost my uncle in June. But he wasn’t the only one. Too many leaves have fallen from the tree this year. As the Queen remarked of 1992, this is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted ... [More]
Year: 2019
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Ten years of Myki in Melbourne
Happy birthday Myki! Yesterday marked ten years since the Myki system’s implementation in Melbourne. It was switched on for Melbourne trains on 29th December 2009. The roll-out and first ten years of operation ended up costing a whopping $1.5 billion. The only Australian system of comparable size, NSW’s Opal system, was a little bit cheaper, ... [More]
It’s time for my annual blog post about the mess that is Boxing Day public transport at Chadstone. 2017: Chadstone’s Boxing Day bus debacle 2018: Boxing Day buses at Chadstone: still big problems It happens every year at Chadstone and the other big shopping centres: hordes of shoppers descend. Demand fills the car parks, which ... [More]
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Geelong via Fishermans Bend?
This plan got splashed onto the Age front page on Friday: Tunnel link mulled for Geelong fast trains Of course if you were paying very, very careful attention, this wasn’t a complete surprise. The eventual shift of Geelong trains back to Newport and the Metro 2 tunnel was included in a document leaked in 2018, ... [More]
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Making gravy
What a concert. It kicked off at 5pm. You know how at some concerts the support acts are a bit half-rate, fledgling bands still finding their feet? Not a bit of it here. All superb. Marlon Williams. Kate Miller-Heidke. Courtney Barnett. And then headliner, Paul Kelly. The Sidney Myer Music Bowl was packed, and no ... [More]
For the big summer works blitz, the Department of Transport has an online calendar showing which lines are affected on which days. This is good, because it’s much more legible than their usual confusing lists of lines and days. It includes up to mid-February 2020. The January closures were announced on 21st November, so the ... [More]
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More bustitution thoughts
In the mainstream media, they have word limits. Even online, they have to keep it succinct. Blogs have no such limits, so I apologise not only for revisiting this topic again, but also for rambling on so long. Bustitution looms again over the summer, with large scale rail closures on the Mernda line underway now, ... [More]
Tony Abbott, in a way, was right: “The humblest person is king in his own car.” Tony Abbott, Battlelines I can see his point here. I don’t know about them being humble, but (especially as a pedestrian or a cyclist) you see plenty of people in their cars who think they are royalty. The problem ... [More]
Here’s another of my posts of old photos from ten years ago – this time from November 2009. Let’s start with some art. …and now some art on the train. (I think a few of us with an interest in railways know the Bromage family.) Flinders Street Station’s Elizabeth Street entrance used to close at ... [More]
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SRL will be an independent line
One of the things people have been wondering is whether the Suburban Rail Loop will be an integral part of the existing suburban Metro network, or a standalone line. Melbourne’s existing rail network has its origins in the 1854 line from Port Melbourne to Flinders Street (since converted to trams), but also particularly in the ... [More]
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An early morning flight
3:30am alarm. 3:40am shower. 4:00am Left the house for a 4:30am rendezvous. By 4:45 we were in a minibus headed for our embarkation point. Time for a Sunday morning balloon flight – a Christmas present from last year from M. Hot air balloons are very much at the mercy of the weather. Our flight had ... [More]
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Why are pedestrian crossings so narrow?
Why is it that at most traffic lights, the crossings for pedestrians are so narrow? Even in Melbourne’s CBD, where heavy pedestrian numbers are expected, most crossings are far too narrow for the number of people. It appears that technically, anybody crossing outside the lines is in breach of Road Safety Rule regulation 234 (a) ... [More]