Public Transport

Ah, the Australia solution to rail transport. Don’t build up a station precinct with medium and high density living and working to guarantee regular passenger usage travelling to and from the precinct, instead build a large carpark that will help usage only at peak times for city workers and have the station dead for most of the day.

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So what are you suggesting?

That we all live in highrises?

Or that we be more like Los Angeles and still rely mostly on cars?

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Parking is a poor land use especially in locations where it could be used to encourage development / growth

We should be trying to eliminate as many of the private vehicle movements as possible from the commute - that can be done in a number of ways:

  • Stop building massive park and ride centres - put that investment into better public transport routes that service multimodal hubs (Bus & Train, Bus & Metro etc)
  • Improve walking and cycling options
  • Increase the density around public transport hubs (especially train/metro stations), putting places to live and work in walking distance from these hubs will encourage greater commuting by PT and less reliance on vehicle movements

There will always be some need for private commuting, even to public transport hubs but it should be the exception, not the norm

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That (I think) would be a little difficult with a lot of older stations around.

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Yeah, I don’t understand car parks at stations during peaks - do people just drive and hope? What if there’s no spot, do you drive into work? Drive to the next station until one has a spot? Park somewhere else and get fined?

Especially weird when it’s free parking - at the very least you should have to tap in/out with a transport ticket to ensure you’ve paid a fare, but even then most daily caps are far cheaper than parking anywhere else.

Charge for parking at stations and put the cash into better feeder buses.

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In NSW, at least at Ashfield’s new-ish parking station, you get free parking only if you’re using the train or bus and tapped on using the Opal Card. Don’t know any other parking stations built near train stations are like that.

Pffft. NSW would probably charge for parking and keep the revenue for pork barrelling.

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it doesnt have to be complex - things like making sure major walking routes have lit paths, somewhere for people to safely leave their bike (if they wish), having shared zones, prioritising pedestrian/bicycle movements over vehicles

the age of the station shouldnt be a limiting factor, in fact its probably good to bring them up to modern standards.

NSW started publishing occupancy rates on their park and ride stations which is kind of finding a solution to a problem that shouldnt exist

NSW does require this on their new stations

The revenue wont cover the cost of operating the parking - all the Government will do is offset some of the operating cost. Thats not to say that they shouldnt charge

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They’ll find a way.

One of the issues is NIMBYs will have no qualms with a car park but if you dare try and build high density they’ll have a fit and do all they can to oppose it.

Seeing it in action right now amongst a number of proposed developments adjacent to new metronet precincts in Perth.

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Herald Sun revealed this morning that the proposed locations of the six stations in the first stage of Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop and reported that around 300 homes and businesses might be acquired for the construction. The most interesting is the location of Monash University station. It will be located at Howleys Road, north of the university’s rear entrance. It is in a light industrial area, and close to Monash University student flats and CSIRO, but it is a long walk to both Ferntree Gully Road and Monash University campus, let alone the bus interchange which is on the south side of the campus off Wellington Road.

The approximate locations of the six stations are:
Cheltenham: Bay Road at Sir William Fry Reserve
Clayton: intersection of Clayton and Carinish Roads, north of existing Pakenham / Cranbourne lines
Monash University: Howleys Road, just north of its intersection with Normanby Road
Glen Waverley: Glendale Street West car park, south of existing railway station and west of Waverley RSL
Burwood: intersection of Burwood Highway and McComas Grove, adjacent to Gardiners Creek Reserve
Box Hill: in the shopping precinct, just west of intersection of Whitehorse Road and Station Street

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/revealed-the-homes-and-businesses-to-be-demolished-for-suburban-rail-loop/news-story/6672dcb1c104299a6763cb1118bf544f

It’s not that far from Ferntree Gully Road, probably only 8-10 minutes walk. I used to work near there. Could they not have built this rail loop about 20 years ago it would have saved me an awful lot of driving commuting by car from one side of Melbourne to the other

There is a report on Seven News Melbourne tonight on the trial of new bus-on-demand service in Rowville and Ferntree Gully. You order a bus via the FlexiRide app and the bus arrives on your doorstep, and you pay by Myki. This is similar to Telebus service which currently serves the area.

https://www.venturabus.com.au/demand-responsive-services

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Transport for NSW has done a backflip and made a tentative alternative arrangement with the Sutherland City Council, which hoped to work with the state government to immediately start to rezone the Jannali shopping centre for an integrated development. The development could include 200 commuter car park spaces.

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It wasn’t a backflip. Council finally came to the party after years of dragging the tin can along. The acquisitions were the Plan B because the council couldn’t sort themselves out.

@Sifon will be excited, the new Transperth C series railcars will have a mix of seating configurations, meaning no face-to-face seating.

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Really disappointed in Transport NSW and the lax enforcement of the facemask rule…I saw plenty of people not wearing facemasks on Saturday on the 6 trains it took me to go to and from Kogarah and they were more worried about people tapping on and off and feet on seats. I did the right thing and had my Jets facemask on, as did the few Jets fans on board. Everyone else and $ydney FC fans should’ve been fined.

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Yes, if Police saw anyone without masks (Without suitable exemption), then they should have fined them.

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for my new job i need to go to Geneva and Lausanne when corona calms down.

it’s interesting that Geneva offers free public transport for visitors via a pass distributed by hotels and also a machine after baggage claim at the airport

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An excellent idea considering the sticker shock of the cost of everything else in Switzerland.

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The original research paper can be found at Nature Communications website.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21483-y