Discuss everything related to public transport (issues, problems, planning etc.) here.
Archived topic
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It will be a chaotic January 2016 across Melbourne as level crossing removals in the city’s west and south east are underway, plus works at Southbank and Moonee Ponds to construct new tram interchanges. Not to mention the introduction of the one-year trial of all night public transport on weekends (The Night Network).
I live in Glen Waverley so I will be very much affected. There will be no trains running to and from the city from January 2 to 17! As I will be flying to Perth next Monday I will have to go to Nunawading to catch a train to the city and vice versa when I come back four days later.
All in the spirit of progress!
They’ve done their best to choose the ‘quiet’ time of the year to do many of the works. Yes, there will be inconvenience in the short term, but it will all be worthwhile.
Here’s hoping the all night public transport trial is successful.
I’m a bus driver, anyone else here work in transport??
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Ooh a new XDi. They ride really nicely and plenty of get up and go with a Cummins in the back.
I really wonder about Government’s commitment to public transport.
WA is again cutting the overall transport budget in response to a parlous overall fiscal outlook.
On one hand, they rave on about the plusses for society of a well utilised public transport system, and then act in reverse to make the system more unattractive. This is like a dog chasing its tail.
If they can’t attract people to crowded, inappropriately placed public transport now, how do they expect to do it with a reduced budget? (yes, there are non-front-line efficiencies to be found, but I’ve heard that one before).
Public Transport needs to be in front of the curve, attracting new customers with its great service - this may necessitate incurring greater losses while it builds a loyal customer base. It will never attract new users if it lags way behind demand, only belatedly responding to extreme demand push pressures.
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I envy your PT over in the West. Your Smartrider card works well and is much cheaper then QLD’s gocard. The LNP over here a few years ago stripped away a lot of PT in outer lying areas keaving many areas without a bus after 7pm M-F and sometimes no weekend services. Absolute rubbish
Or every few weeks in the case of the 950, 98/99 (998/999) etc.
Also lol at the people hating how the Esplanade Busport & Esplanade Station will be renamed when Elizabeth Quay opens this month.
Over here in regional Qld we get a card that is smart but you have to tell the driver where you are going then they press it into their computer thing and then they tell you to swipe . It is a smartcard.
You get 25 percent off
Can travel between 2 towns (50km ) for $5 .
Government in Qld must be heavily subsidising public transport in regional Qld as you sometimes see empty buses on weekends.
All public transport is subsidised. Even Greyhound, Coach QLD and Rex.
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.