I was in Perth last week and was lucky enough to travel on the PT system (I even travelled by bus to and from Qantas terminal at Perth Airport). The bus and train are good and the Smartrider is easy to use. However I feel trains can run more frequently during peak times (especially on Joondalup and Mandurah lines).
Peak time frequencies are pretty good on those lines, something like every 4-5 mins (at least on the stations with higher patronage). There was talk a little while ago though about reducing frequencies with the latest budget cuts?
This is creating a bit of buzz this morning
Commuter Aladdin Moukhallalati creates Train Social app to meet others on his daily train journey
The Daily Telegraph
Herald Sun reported on Monday that the Victorian Government was considering building elevated railway as part of its plan to remove 50 of Melbourne’s level crossings, and that includes part of the Frankston line. As the article correctly points out, it is not feasible to put the railway line below ground between Mordialloc and Seaford due to the high water table and the tracks’ close proximity to Port Phillip Bay. While the State Opposition and some residents won’t like it because of aesthetics and additional noise from trains, elevated railway (similar to that in many Asian countries) is the way to go. I also think that, to remove the level crossings on the Altona Loop on the Werribee line in Melbourne’s west, another elevated railway will have to be built.
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It’s probably the only way to go unless they make a number of suburban stations underground as well.
Suppose I’ve got to be careful shortly, I’ll be owning a Go Card, a Myki and an Opal card without living in any of those places once the Opal arrives.
Looks like they’ve commenced tunnelling for the CBD North station in Melbourne for the Metro Rail Tunnel. There’s works currently in Franklin Street (north of RMIT’s City Campus, which is also going through a lot of construction work at the moment), as well as at the LaTrobe Street entrance to Melbourne Central Station.
Travel on V/Line trains across Victoria will be free for a week, starting this Saturday, as compensation for cancellation of services due to a problem with the wheels on some VLocity train carriages and an unrelated boom gate fault at Dandenong last week.
No, they are just drilling boreholes to find out geological conditions at the site. Tunneling is a long way away.
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The Victorian Government officially announced this morning that it proposed elevated railway to be built on three sections of Pakenham/Cranbourne lines: Link
I first found out about the project late last night when the Herald Sun posted an article on its website. It is cleary a sneaky move by the government given until now, announcements about the removal of other level crossings were announced during the day via press releases or press calls.
I share the concerns of people who live on both sides of the railway line, but I also feel elevated railway is not the right way to remove the nine level crossings between Caulfield and Dandenong after seeing the proposed designs. Two key points:
- the viaducts have to be high enough to allow tall trucks to pass underneath safety. There have been numerous incidents around inner Melbourne in which trucks flipped on their sides after hitting railway bridges with low clearances (usually 3.7m-4.0m).
- the proposed designs only allow for two elevated tracks. As V/Line trains and freight trains share the tracks with suburban trains between Caulfield and Pakenham, it means delays on Pakenham/Cranbourne lines will be permanent. The only way to eliminate the delays is to build the railway below ground and build one or two more tracks to separate country and freight trains from Metro trains.
If being designed for two tracks is the brief, then underground wouldn’t be any different. Indeed just more expensive to add in the others later compared to above ground.
Looks like SkyBus is picking the “ideal” time to jack up their fares…
Yes I saw the report last night and was not happy about it. Why do the price rise now instead of February or early March when less people were travelling?
Also, the Victorian Government has forked out $10 million to keep The Overland train service running until the end of 2018, but the Federal Government will stop its subsidy for concession card holders on June 30.
We really need an airport rail link in Melbourne.
It’s getting beyond a joke now, relying on a bus service which now has to drive through heavy roadworks along the Tullamarine Freeway / Western Link, scheduled for more than a year long. If only there was a line they could use.
Good news: Victorian public transport information is finally available on Google Maps. Better late than never.
Skybus announced yesterday it would start a new service between Melbourne Airport and St Kilda from this winter, with buses running every 30 minutes from 6.30am to 7.30pm every day. A one-way ticket will cost $19. It will be interesting to find out how Skybus will operate in St Kilda, given the route’s former operator Frankston and Peninsula Airport Shuttle has 12 pick up/drop off points in the area.
The controversial $1.6 billion “sky rail” project to remove nine level crossings on the Pakenham/Cranbourne lines in Melbourne’s south-east will start in a few weeks, after the Victorian Government signed the construction contract with a consortium led by Lend Lease and Metro Trains.
Thought I’d leave this here. Its a map of the ‘fantasy’ Metro network that I found a while ago.
What do you all think?
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It looks pretty good. The most obvious error is in the west, where Tarneit and Wyndham Vale are now served by V/Line trains on the Geelong line, branching from Deer Park.
The Victorian Government handed down its 2016/2017 budget today and had decided to build the Melbourne Metro rail project without federal funding. It has also committed $1.3 billion for public transport projects in Melbourne’s north east and west, including the Mernda Rail Project (extending the South Morang line northward to Mernda), duplication of the notorious single track bottle neck on the Hurstbridge line between Heidelberg and Rosanna, duplication of the Ballarat line between Deer Park and Melton, and procuring 28 extra High Capacity Metro Trains.
UPDATE 19/5: the Government announced the Mernda line extension will be a combination of below ground and elevated tracks. Five new bridges will be built between Plenty Road and Mernda town centre. I think it is the right design, the railway being so close to Plenty River ruling a below ground construction.
The Victorian Government will set up a new central transport agency called Transport for Victoria (TFV), following the models of Transport for London (TfL) and Transport for NSW. TFV will bring together the planning, coordination and operation of
Victoria’s transport system and its agencies, including VicRoads and Public Transport Victoria (PTV). The government plans to have the new agency running by the end of this year.
It seems every decade or so since the 1980s there is a change of public transport management in the state, from The Met in 1980s, to Public Transport Corporation in 1990s, Metlink in 2000s and PTV in 2010s.
I’m confused - is this a merger or just a restructure of both VicRoads and PTV’s current responsibilities?
(Edit: found my answer
https://twitter.com/danielbowen/status/747253279680143360
My initial confusion is from the term “merger” being thrown around in the early wire reports)