It’s not about history, trams are just as much as part of the Melbourne fabric as AFL football and laneways. It’s what helps to give Melbourne its own identity.
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A lot of the inefficiency we see with tram/light rail networks is because they share the road - lower the car usage and the tram efficiency improves. Removing high volume public transport in favour of cars is just crazy
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yep. all it does is push people to private transport.
let me give you an example:
I finish as late as 7pm. At that time the buses are hourly, leaving at 10 past. that gives you 10 mins to pack up and get to the bus terminus in Queen st (Brisbane). By the time I sign out of the work apps, shut down, pack up and get going it’s normally at least 5 past. Missing the bus means your sitting at the queen st bus depot for 50 mins with god knows who.
Ive been burnt enough times by shitty public transport that it has pushed me back to private transport. I can get home in 20 mins on a motorbike vs almost 2 hours off peak (including wait time)
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Public Transport has to be convenient to get people away from their cars
Had to use public transport to get to work and back today as I had my car in for a service.It’s been years since I’ve had to use P/T to get to work ,I know why I would rather drive .can get there and back so much quicker.2 buses (change buses at the ‘Gabba) then 2 home 
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The Victorian Government will curtail the duplication of a section of Hurstbridge rail line in Melbourne’s north-east, to protect the endangered Eltham copper butterfly.
The project page on Level Crossing Removal Authority website stated in May that the butterfly habitat area at Montmorency had been fenced off and no works would be undertaken in this area.
The Victorian Government would have to weigh up what’s more important - protect the endangered butterfly species or duplicate all tracks previously promised to be duplicated to ease congestion on the Hurstbridge line.
I guess with patronage low as people are afraid to catch public transport with coronavirus popping up every now and again in the community, congestion hasn’t been a problem lately on the Hurstbridge line. But the congestion problem will definitely need to be fixed sometime in the next 3-5 years at the very most.
Not breaching the EES and dealing with the penalties that come with it far outweigh any benefit to commuters past Greensborough.
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[WA]
The refurbishment program for the older Volvo buses in the Transperth fleet has started, starting with the first batches delivered a decade ago.
Melbourne’s high capacity trains roll out is back on track and some archive footage was shown of the ill fated 4D double decker train 30 years on.
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I would not be suprised to see the new Wollongabba Cross river rail station, being built to serve the Gabba and its surrounds renamed to something Wollongabba Olympic Stadium or some such
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But given the Gabba is such an iconic name in Brizzy, it would hard to see it being called anything else?
Gabba Olympic Station maybe?
thats why i sugested Wooloongabba olympic stadium - still keeps the gabba connection
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Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews today announced that 10 more level crossings across Melbourne would be removed by 2025 while another four level crossings would be closed. It means the Lilydale line will be level crossing-free, joining the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines in the south east.
Pakenham Line will be level crossing free after those 10 crossings are gone, only the Cranbourne line was earmarked to be level crossing free before today’s announcement.
cries in Adelaidean
This year the government identified 31 of the city’s 127 tram and train level crossings as “high risk”, currently only one level crossing removal is under construction (Ovingham). The only other active proposal at Hove was cancelled due to local opposition to a Melbourne-style skyrail, and Emerson will probably get rebuilt as part of the Torrens to Darlington motorway project.
In the last 20 years there have been only two level crossing removals at Goodwood (Seaford Line only, Belair Line and freight line remain) and Oaklands.
I’m still baffled why the Madden Grove level crossing on the Glen Waverley line still isn’t on the agenda, would have to be one of the closest level crossings to the city.
It’s tricky, would need to rebuild the burnley flyover and probably the swan st overpass as well. So you’re talking about taking out the whole burnley group and the route 70 tram in one swoop.
You might be able to get away with building off the flyover once it’s cleared the lines to Camberwell, but then you run into the issues of how you get access to the Burnley sidings (probably having to be accessed from the Freeway side now, with a shunting track built across the freeway to allow access from the city)
Without the Burnley flyover getting in the way, it will have been easy to divert Madden Grove before the sidings to provide a more direct access to Swan Street overpass.