Public Transport

AFAIK each week they go to Melbourne for rotating and a service.

They are.

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Running them to and from Melbourne every day would be terribly inefficient.

But then railways aren’t often known for efficiency!

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Francy a tram in your backyard?

The public is to be offered the chance of own one of Melbourne’s historic W-Class fleet.

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Would this be the only electric train in Australia to have:

USB Charging Ports

These are found on Transperth’s Walkers A-Series unit 43 and 44.

And the B8RLE’s on Perth CAT (Central Area Transit) services have them too.

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Some of the buses on the 60 and 61 bus routes in Brisbane have USB charging ports. And I think the light rail on the Gold Coast does too.So Adelaide might have the only train, but they aren’t the only public transport to have it.

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We have charging ports on the BLine buses here in Sydney.

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Pretty sure I read somewhere that Sydney’s new trains (entering service later this year) will have charging ports.

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USB charging ports are a terrible feature on trains and buses because not only are they extremely susceptible to damage due to the very low level of robustness inherent in the female USB design (in particular the plastic tongue that the fragile metal pins rest on), but they are also likely to be superceded by newer technologies in the not too distant future.

Tech like QuickCharge is built into newer phones, and newer phones charge extremely slowly if you don’t use a QuickCharge charger. I also believe iPads charge using a much higher amperage than standard or 2.1A USB sockets can provide. There’s also the approach of USB-C which may render the existing USB port obsolete.

I think adopting 240V power points would have been a much better idea. They are far more robust and allow charging of laptops in addition to phones and tablets. These plugs are almost certainly going to be with us for centuries to come, and I don’t think it’s particularly onerous to ask people to bring their wall charger along with them. Better that than some USB sockets that are either broken or can’t supply sufficient power.

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Is 240 volts safe in a public environment though?

Eg. Someone doesn’t try and hurt themselves, or plug in something dangerous?

USB is safer in that regard.

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I didn’t know that there is such feature on trams, since they only run on shorter routes with their vehicles aren’t as wide as trains.

Well Indonesia seems to have it on most of their intercity train carriages since 2012 especially on its locally-built New Image 2016.

And the Nederlands does it not only for the passengers but also for the driver on ICMm trains for the phones used in their work.

I don’t know if you’re supposed to use them, but Vlocity trains have power points in the bike storage spot. They also have shaver outlets in the toilets - for the 0 people who aren’t organised enough to shave at home, but organised enough to take a plug in electric razor on the train with them.

I’d rather they just hurry up on cellular repeaters on trains.

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I haven’t had occasion to use the buses in Hobart as I have my own vehicle. The network seems quite extensive with services all the way to Opossum Bay (the hooked peninsula to the SE of the city). I could simply hop on a bus right outside my door at Tranmere if I wanted to, and the service seems quite frequent as well.

I ‘braved’ Hobart’s peak hour at 0830 this morning as I tried- in vain- to go up to Mount Wellington. Pretty cruisy over the Tasman Bridge and through the CBD; there was a fair bit of congestion heading into town from the Southern Outlet, though.

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I wonder what will happen now to the Yellow CAT bus service that runs between Claisebrook and PMH in Perth as the hospital closes soon because of the new one which is further down the road from there, so a rerouting to it and/or other changes perhaps?

I think those power points in the bike storage area are for when the trains get cleaned overnight, a mate of mine cleans (or at least used to clean) the trains that stay in Maryborough overnight. Ive used one before with no problem.

Ive had one of the trains with the cellular repeaters on the Geelong Line recently, had service with Optus all the way to Southern Cross, when it used to be very patchy from Lara to Deer Park

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I think I read when the V/locities wet new that they were designed to have a catering cart wheeled on and off. For a while the Sprinters ran to Albert and a cart was brought on at I think Seymour.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/northern-district-times/highspeed-rail-at-heart-of-sydney-megacity-proposal/news-story/bd4a33feb7abc1c3f9a15ef86d60bd53

Bennelong Liberal MP John Alexander proposes high-speed rail linking Nowra to Newcastle reducing travel to less than half an hour for inter-city services.

Homebush would act as the main hub with stops in Newcastle, Gosford, Hornsby, Homebush, Wollongong, Nowra, Southern Highlands and Goulburn.

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May I redirect all your attention to the very sad thing that is the Auckland Rail Network which also randomly has a bus line on it.

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Glad it’s colour coded, so I don’t get lost.

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The new bus timetable has been in operation in Newcastle for a few months now…

And it is a total shocker.

I went to the football today and it is a 45 min trip for a distance of less than 7 km. AND the return trip is the same time AND I had to change buses halfway!!

Designs for the Melbourne Metro Tunnel stations were revealed today.

The City Loop could do with an upgrade while they’re at it too.

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