Public Transport

I need to bump this thread.

So Brisbane has some interesting projects at the moment. Cross River Rail is potentially happening, and some stuff has already begun. Hopefully the ALP Government gets back in. Whatever the result we’re getting the Metro.

What do our Sydney members think of their new Metro? Isn’t it close to completion?

Nowhere near complete. 2024ish… but should be great!

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Stage 1 will be open in 2019 but the full line through the city is still a while away (they are just starting to prepare for construction ie clearing buildings etc).

It will be fantastic when it’s all done.

The Victorian public has been invited to name the five train stations along the Melbourne Metro tunnel. The working names for the stations are (from north to south): Arden, Parkville, CBD North, CBD South and Domain. You can submit names at the Metro Tunnel website, or at the Melbourne Writers Festival’s Mapping Our Future City exhibition at Federation Square (now until September 3). Online entries close October 22.

Murrumbeena station in Melbourne’s south east will now close until October 2. According to Level Crossing Removal Authority website, the delay is due to the complexity of the straddle carrier associated with “Skyrail” works on the Cranbourne/Pakenham line, and wet and windy weather conditions. It was due to reopen in early September.

Courier Mail reporting this morning that work for the Cross River Rail project has basically begun.

The newspaper yesterday had a four page special on Future Brisbane. A particular article of note was about the LNP’s Very Fast Train, which promised to begin studying how it would work should the LNP prevail at the upcoming state election. There was also a commentary piece by our Lord and Saviour Campbell Newman.

Personally I really want Cross River Rail to be fucking built already. This should’ve already been half done, but thanks to Campbell Newman’s BaT Tunnel idea it was restarted once Labor was re-elected in 2014. For the LNP to threaten again to cancel Cross River Rail is so frustrating. We’re approaching the situation whereby this will never ever get built because the incumbent’s plan will just be cancelled by the incoming Government every four years. If the LNP wins later this year, they should just build the damn CRR and take the credit in 3 years’ time when they are up for re-election.

The only good news is that it looks like Brisbane’s Metro using bi-articulated buses will be built. It’s being spruiked by both the Labor State Government and the LNP Brisbane City Council.

I’m not too familiar with the project other than the idea that it’s a tunnel under the Brisbane River and the fact that first it was Cross River Rail, then it was the BaT tunnel which included a busway as well as rail, and then Cross River Rail again.

Why did Labor cancel the BaT tunnel if the tunnel was to include rail anyway? Were there massively significant differences between the two concepts?

BaT couldn’t take freight, which harmed the business case. Also the busway on either end didn’t connect to the existing busways which are already going through the city.

The busway was tacked on for federal funding essentially.

:heart_eyes:

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The current operators of Melbourne’s tram and train systems (Yarra Trams and Metro Trains) have been granted new 7 year contracts but with higher performance targets and harsher penalties included.

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it was also a common point of failure. that was a major issue as well

Transport for London has not renewed Uber’s private hire car operaters licence, after determining that the Uber is not operating a “fit and proper” service. The licence expires on 30 September, but Uber will be allowed to continue operations while they appeal.

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Good luck with that, London. Uber will continue using their massive cash reserves to continue operating illegally.

From the looks of what’s been reported, perhaps other governments should also suspend Uber’s licences to operate:

Sydney’s extensive tram network began to be shutdown 60 years ago on 28 September 1957 when trams were removed from the city. The network was fully shutdown in early 1961.

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If only there were a viable competitor to Uber.

The company itself is an absolute disgrace. The technology is good, though.

Maybe state governments should think about setting up their own ridesharing services to prevent this kind of disgracefully unethical corporate treatment by massive companies like Uber, who will use their massive war chest of funds to blast through any legal challenges to their business.

In the USA, they sabotaged Lyft (their main rival) by paying gangs of people to use the Lyft app and call for a fare. They then cancelled the rides just as the drivers reached the location (depriving the driver of a fare), and sometimes they got in the cab and went into a full-on sales pitch for Uber. This kind of thing will obviously turn drivers off that platform and it’s a disgusting abuse of power by Uber.

Either governments need to subsidise competitors, or set their own ridesharing platform up. And yes, ban Uber. They have firmly moved into the ‘evil corporation’ category now. The problem is, how are you going to convince the public that it’s a good idea? People will think that if you ban Uber from operating, they’re going to have to go back to being at the mercy of taxis.

The thing is that Uber was seen as the peoples’ saviour from the nasty taxi operators, so Uber is still seen as a great thing by people who aren’t aware of their shady as fuck corporate tactics. That’s why so many people in London have signed the Uber petition to reinstate their licence.

We have Shofer here in Perth which is a hybrid in the sense that it’s a ridesharing service that employs drivers to uses a fleet of cars owned by the business itself. Overall pricing is a little higher than Uber but cheaper than Taxis, with no surge pricing.

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Over in London, we used Gett, it’s a app like Uber but orders normal black cabs.

It was good, prepaid the fare which makes it cheaper, a 2.5km taxi ride costed around 4 Pounds which is around $7 with a coupon code.

Governments should revoke Uber’s licences to operate, making it absolutely clear why (especially that it’s unsafe), then Lyft should expand into those markets.

The government running their own service isn’t an option, and not just politically, but imagine the extreme backlash from taxis; it’s bad enough a competitor appearing but governments actively, themselves, going against the people who they sold taxi licences to…

Simpsons-inspired suggestions for Melbourne’s five new stations

ARDEN
Brockway
Springfield
Matlock

Vote for Matlock you fucks.

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