In Victoria, public transport performance data (in particular reliability aka cancellations, and punctuality aka delays) is "usually published on the 10th of every month." - or so they claim, anyway. This typically gives eligible passengers just under 3 weeks to claim compensation. Applications normally close at the end of the month. But the publication of this data has been getting later a
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, but is still the same order of magnitude. My conc
It's time for my annual blog post about the mess that is Boxing Day public transport at Chadstone. 2017: Chadstoneโs Boxing Day bus debacle2018: 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 spills onto the access roads, delaying buses. https://twitter
This plan got splashed onto the Age front page on Friday: Tunnel link mulled for Geelong fast trains https://twitter.com/TimnaJacks/status/1207753795540639744 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, and has been float
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. https://www.flickr.com/photos/danielbowen/49205389061/in/dateposted/ It includes up to mid-February 2020. The January closures were announced on 21st November,
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, and the Cranbourne/Pakenham, Gippsland and Frankston lines to be replaced by buse
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 is Abbott believes this should be accommodated and encouraged, by building new roads (no matter h
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 electrification of the 1910s and 1920s, to the standards of the
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) - which says you can't cross a road less than 20 metres fro
Last week the government announced timetable changes, including adjustments to the Cranbourne/Pakenham line. (I'll just call it the Dandenong line for short. Almost everybody else does.) Of the roughly 265 services per weekday, 93 will be adjusted. A few will be quicker by a minute or two, but most of the 93 will be slower - most of them by 1-2 minutes, but a few by up to 5 minutes. During
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