Kinetic officially took over Transdev’s network this morning. On my way to work I noticed the buses had the new Kinetic stickers covering Transdev logos. The Transdev logos at the bus stop signs however wil take longer to replace.
With the transfer of bus network, Transdev has closed its Melbourne transport website and social media accounts.
Travelled on a couple of Kinetic buses over the past two days and noticed that the changeover has been very smooth and the drivers seem a bit more pleasant. The buses seem cleaner too.
I don’t think Transdev will be missed, the issues of a few years ago with buses being found unserviceable, and having to tap into other operator’s fleets to run thier services might of been the last straw.
NSW Transport Minister David Elliott told The Sunday Telegraph that modifications had been made to the platforms, tracks and signals, in order to allow for trams from eastern suburbs (Citadis 305) to run on the Inner West line, while the Urbos 3 trams are undergoing repairs.
3 day full line shutdown on the Midland Line between this Friday and Sunday. As the shutdown also happens on a weekday, buses will use the existing bus stops at Wellington Street east of Barrack Street to pickup or drop-off passengers on Friday until 7:00PM, the rest of the duration will use Perth Busport.
The ‘bus stopping’ bells on Perth CAT buses will be reinstated as part the upcoming service changes inline with the launch of the Purple CAT service.
Geez it’s been a whole, more than 20 years since we’ve had those, a step backwards imo - unsure if they were ever used on the Midcity’s or before when they were clippers.
Is there sufficient need for another bus to UWA? From esplanade we have 950 and 999, both high frequency routes.
Aligned on Thomas St are 24, 96 and 97.
Then there’s 998 and 999 around the corner, again high frequency routes.
Five buses cover the route already pretty decently (the 24 and 96/97 are basically what the route is going to be).
I think you’ll find those Thomas St routes will have cuts in frequency as the Purple CAT becomes more established.
UWA is nonetheless part of the City of Perth, therefore some degree of obligation exists for a CAT service to be available. They’ve been working on this for quite a while, not to mention providing a free public transport route to the QEII complex. As for scrapping the all stops nature of the service, I’m honestly surprised it wasn’t done sooner - although you’d think some timed stops will still be present to ensure the services don’t get too out of sync.
Major works at Cranbourne Line upgrade in Melbourne’s outer south-east have been completed, with the new duplicated track and the reconstructed Merinda Park station (last stop before Cranbourne), with the additional southbound platform, opening early this morning. The upgrade allows trains to run every 10 minutes on average in the morning peak between Cranbourne and Dandenong, and also sees peak services which previously terminate at Westall and Dandenong to be extended to Cranbourne. The upgrade also includes the replacement of level crossing with a rail overpass at Greens Road in Dandenong South industrial area.
Speaking of rail, from yesterday’s Adertiser (paywall so posted article): https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/messenger/adelaide-hills/transport-heavyweights-rod-hook-luigi-rossi-john-hill-back-calls-for-passenger-rail-in-the-adelaide-hills/news-story/31c6507d74d1845ff5bb70cc541d4273
Rather than using the existing ARTC line (which The Overland travels on between Adelaide and Melbourne), a new underground line should be built between Adelaide’s south and the hills region.
Agreed, but that’s also easier said than done.
Best way is to make it work with what we have to prove it’s viable, then look at rerouting and improving.
I once made a mock-up of possible routes that rail to Mount Barker and the ARTC main line could take. All would be vast improvements over what’s there, but it would be insanely difficult to pull off.
I think the 5th platform at Sunshine station will be reserved for V/Line trains bound for Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong, with existing platform 3 for trains to Melbourne Airport. Platform 4 will be for V/Line trains to Southern Cross so that travellers from Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong can simply disembark, and walk across the platform to catch a train to the airport.
EDIT: according to Victoria’s Big Build website, V/Line trains will have three platforms (including the new Platform 5) at Sunshine.
Another milestone reached between Transperth/PTA WA and Volvo Buses with its 200,000th bus chassis produced and its bodywork done by Volgren Malaga.
