When I heard traffic reports on 3AW and 774 ABC on Thursday morning, the announcers introduced themselves as from Transport Victoria rather than Department of Transport and Planning. I guess the full department name is mouthful.
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Have they actually renamed the department or shifted to a branded agency/authority (like NSW did with TfNSW)
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I think so yes, probably to differentiate the government/legislative corporate arm from the more business and day-to-day side (like VicRoads was until 2019). According to the ABC it’s like an 8th name change in 16 years or something.
I notice the old VicRoads website has now gone (it appears all pages are largely the same but transferred to the new Transport Victoria design and logo), as well as their social media reporting team (since 2008) VicTraffic which did keep the VicRoads logo and kept referring to its Incident Response as VicRoads, have also now gone, but VicTraffic now has its own special logo.
It looks like they really don’t want the VicRoads name to exist or be referred to anymore, outside of legislation and licencing and strictly that. The state’s road corporation name dating back to the 80s and now very common language amongst most people, except boomers which might still refer to it as the “RTA” (a la NSW but has also since ended).
It’s still going to be confusing for most, as VicRoads continues (even if defunct and dated) on their Incident Response vehicles until they get updated, of course on everyone’s licence and digital rego or old stickers if they’ve kept them (was still mandatory in Vic until several years ago), local offices/centres for renewals/tests and more so all the tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of static road signs across the state. Which until about 7 years ago had their logo printed in the bottom right corners, going back 25 years to the 90s when the alphanumeric system began, many signs are originals and severely damaged, illegible and in dire need of replacing, usually rural areas and arterials not as heavily trafficked.
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Another rail bridge strike.
A truck has become stuck after ploughing into a rail bridge and narrowly missing a passing car in Brisbane.
Seemed to be not even close to fitting under the bridge. Good vision for news bulletins.
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There were two major incidents causing a disaster in Sydney today, with arguably the two most important thoroughfares in the Sydney Harbour Tunnel and world famous Sydney Harbour Bridge shutting-down respectively, the latter a double-fatal collision, with Transport NSW saying how “rare” such an event was.
How awful for those victims and their families and friends, probably just passing through or heading to/from work.
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Transurban is under the spotlight in Four Corners on ABC TV next Monday night.
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That would have affected trains on the Ipswich line
The Kia Sportage wagon I recently hired had the same electronic dashboard layout as the Hyundai Staria van I drive for the RSPCA,I guess because Kia and Hyundai vehicles are built at the same factory and both brands are owned by the same company
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What did you think of the Sportage?
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I liked it but too big for just myself,it’s classed as a medium SUV,my Mazda CX-3 is a small SUV
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Westconnex tunnel a 200 km/h racetrack for hoons
Hoon drivers are using the multibillion-dollar WestConnex tunnel as their personal racetrack, posting shocking videos online of their idiotic escapades, as new statistics reveal nearly a fifth of NSW’s extreme speed camera fines come from the same stretch of road.
Last financial year, the fines from cameras detecting speeding more than 45km/h over the limit totalled $6.9m statewide, but more than $1.3m of that came from within the 33km-long WestConnex tunnel system, which has no traffic lights.
Urban tunnels like WestConnex have become illegal race tracks, with hoons using social media and online forums to boast about their dangerous driving.
In one video, a YouTuber uploaded a 42-minute clip dedicated to Sydney street racers who push their cars to the limit in Sydney tunnels, hitting speeds nearing 200 km/h.
The drivers use their local knowledge to avoid speed camera detection.
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It’s a great piece of road. Despite the press releases claiming only a 10 minute saving, it’s more like double that. And more in holiday periods. I am a bit concerned about the transition back to 2 lanes at Curra. The quality of that stretch is quite poor and is going to come as a hell of a shock to motorists travelling north after being on high quality/high speed motorways for hundreds of km. They need to immediately look at duplication of the Curra to Gunalda section and then onto the Tiaro bypass.
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15 years of construction?
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There were 4 separate stages of the 62km highway upgrade that took 15 years. There were breaks between a couple of the stages though. The Gympie bypass was just the final 27km stage of the four sections The bypass section only took about 2 years or so.
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Ahh - some of the press I’ve seen gives the idea that it was 15 years of constant construction, which for 62km is not great going
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Well, the way the West Gate Tunnel is going in Melbourne… It’ll gave that covered 
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The press just like to stretch the truth to make it sound more interesting reading…
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Yes the biggest gap was between Section C and Section D (Gympie bypass) with over 2.5 years between the completion of Section C and the start of major construction for Section D. The gaps between the other sections were smaller but there was little if any overlap between construction of A, B and C. And they actually did Section B first as it had the highest accident rate along that section of the old highway. Let’s just say though it was a fairly leisurely pace, albeit there was some pretty tricky terrain in the earlier sections with a lot of major earthworks required. There was also some funding wrangling between the State and Feds with not all sections completed under the 80:20 split, at least one was 50:50.
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Another example of rorting with surcharges and transaction fees.
The company behind North Sydney Council’s new $2 million parking meter system has defended itself against accusations of breaching consumer law by charging drivers an 8.25 per cent transaction fee on every payment.