public transport stuff
Sep. 19th, 2008 04:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hnpccIt's been a bit of a strange week for public transport.
Tuesday it seemed like the entire system went down for no good reason.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tra4ce got stuck on a train for close to an hour, as the tracks broke. I came out of Melbourne Central, hopped on a tram and settled down to read. Only to be jolted to one side as the tram turned off St Kilda Rd and down past the National Gallery.
This was not supposed to happen. My initial thought - and that of the 5 people who jumped off at the next stop with me - was that we'd somehow managed to get on a #1 tram, which does turn at that corner. But no, our tram was quite clearly marked #64. Then we noticed that all the trams were turning.
"That must have been what that announcement I couldn't hear at Fed Sq was about then" said one woman.
There was certainly no announcement on the tram itself, and at least one other person had gotten on at the same time I had and equally as little an idea of what was going on.
I decided to catch the bus from the stop across the street, not least because I knew it was going past my work. A couple of people came with me, the rest hopped on trams and hoped they'd get to work at some stage. Given that none of us knew where the trams were going exactly, I figured the bus was a better bet.
Just before Commercial Rd the bus passed a broken down tram, which was presumably the cause of all this. Not that Yarra trams let any of us know.
Monday the government announced that as part of their ongoing "transport strategy" they were going to buy new trains/trams (yay!) and not build the Caulfield to Footscray rail tunnel (dammit!!!) or any new rail lines (*sigh*). They are, of course, still planning to build the other road tunnel linking the Eastern Freeway and the Citylink/Westgate freeway. (*sigh* When the Mitcham-Frankston Eastlink freeway was completed we had a bet on how long it would be before some politican came out with "we should link up the Western Ring Rd with Eastlink and have a complete ring road!" Answer: two days. Roads, they know all about. Trains/trams/buses - never used, never likely to.) No idea if they're planning on, you know, actually improving the infrastructure of the existing rail/tram/bus network while they're at it though.
Meh.
In the interim of course I've come back with two ideas for improving public transport.
1. Stick dedicated bus lanes down Springvale Rd. "Dedicated" as in 24/7. C'mon, we don't need Springvale Rd the way we used to now we've got the brand new, you-beaut freeway, and obviously the government's never going with my preferred choice of a rail line over their cheaper solution of an "orbital bus system"[1] so in the interests of that system actually being a viable option I think you have to put in the dedicated lanes. And it'd have the added benefit of forcing more people onto Eastlink, thereby making the private half of the private/public partnership happier. The public half is stuck building the pedestrian footbridges they forgot to include in the design stage. *eye roll*
2. Start all metropolitan secondary schools at 8am or earlier. This would noticeably relieve the pressure on the morning rush hour trains, and has the additional benefit of not then intruding on the evening rush hour (which would happen if you made them start at 10am for example). And seriously, other than parents, students and teachers, who could possibly object? Think of the benefits to health, education and the rest of us. ;-)
Thursday the trams were thrown into disarray again when there was a very unfortunate fatal accident in the middle of the CBD. I missed this one entirely thank God. As a kneejerk reaction they've taken the buses out of Swanston St - this might help a bit, but there's still the problem of trams and people getting off them with people coming through. *sigh* Dedicated stops/bike lanes would help a shitload here. My plan (with unlimited money, naturally) would be to move the tram lines over and build better stops, and make the middle a combined bike/delivery road. I know, it'll never happen. I would do the same thing on Royal Pde, which is the most stupidly dangerous place to get on/off trams in the entire city. No safety stops, just step out into the oncoming traffic and hope no one's from out of town and doesn't realise they're supposed to stop. Or from in town, and just trying to speed past. Or on drugs. Or drunk. Or just stupid.
My award for the absolutely most dangerous place to get off a tram in Melbourne though is stop #9 on the #59/19 routes as you go into the city. Basically the tram comes through one of the largest roundabouts in Melbourne and then screeches to a halt literally just off the roundabout. I had a delivery van, which was seriously not expecting the tram to suddenly stop, let alone anyone to get off just off a roundabout, skid around me and miss by centimetres (to the driver's credit he acknowledged that he was in the wrong and was equally as white and shaky as I was.) Last time I've ever gotten off at that stop - I've no idea whether it's still a stop, but I certainly hope not.
[1] which manages to sound simultaneously wanky, kind of 50s space age and stupid. It's not "orbital", it's barely moving down one over-congested road.
Tuesday it seemed like the entire system went down for no good reason.
tra4ce got stuck on a train for close to an hour, as the tracks broke. I came out of Melbourne Central, hopped on a tram and settled down to read. Only to be jolted to one side as the tram turned off St Kilda Rd and down past the National Gallery.This was not supposed to happen. My initial thought - and that of the 5 people who jumped off at the next stop with me - was that we'd somehow managed to get on a #1 tram, which does turn at that corner. But no, our tram was quite clearly marked #64. Then we noticed that all the trams were turning.
"That must have been what that announcement I couldn't hear at Fed Sq was about then" said one woman.
There was certainly no announcement on the tram itself, and at least one other person had gotten on at the same time I had and equally as little an idea of what was going on.
I decided to catch the bus from the stop across the street, not least because I knew it was going past my work. A couple of people came with me, the rest hopped on trams and hoped they'd get to work at some stage. Given that none of us knew where the trams were going exactly, I figured the bus was a better bet.
Just before Commercial Rd the bus passed a broken down tram, which was presumably the cause of all this. Not that Yarra trams let any of us know.
Monday the government announced that as part of their ongoing "transport strategy" they were going to buy new trains/trams (yay!) and not build the Caulfield to Footscray rail tunnel (dammit!!!) or any new rail lines (*sigh*). They are, of course, still planning to build the other road tunnel linking the Eastern Freeway and the Citylink/Westgate freeway. (*sigh* When the Mitcham-Frankston Eastlink freeway was completed we had a bet on how long it would be before some politican came out with "we should link up the Western Ring Rd with Eastlink and have a complete ring road!" Answer: two days. Roads, they know all about. Trains/trams/buses - never used, never likely to.) No idea if they're planning on, you know, actually improving the infrastructure of the existing rail/tram/bus network while they're at it though.
Meh.
In the interim of course I've come back with two ideas for improving public transport.
1. Stick dedicated bus lanes down Springvale Rd. "Dedicated" as in 24/7. C'mon, we don't need Springvale Rd the way we used to now we've got the brand new, you-beaut freeway, and obviously the government's never going with my preferred choice of a rail line over their cheaper solution of an "orbital bus system"[1] so in the interests of that system actually being a viable option I think you have to put in the dedicated lanes. And it'd have the added benefit of forcing more people onto Eastlink, thereby making the private half of the private/public partnership happier. The public half is stuck building the pedestrian footbridges they forgot to include in the design stage. *eye roll*
2. Start all metropolitan secondary schools at 8am or earlier. This would noticeably relieve the pressure on the morning rush hour trains, and has the additional benefit of not then intruding on the evening rush hour (which would happen if you made them start at 10am for example). And seriously, other than parents, students and teachers, who could possibly object? Think of the benefits to health, education and the rest of us. ;-)
Thursday the trams were thrown into disarray again when there was a very unfortunate fatal accident in the middle of the CBD. I missed this one entirely thank God. As a kneejerk reaction they've taken the buses out of Swanston St - this might help a bit, but there's still the problem of trams and people getting off them with people coming through. *sigh* Dedicated stops/bike lanes would help a shitload here. My plan (with unlimited money, naturally) would be to move the tram lines over and build better stops, and make the middle a combined bike/delivery road. I know, it'll never happen. I would do the same thing on Royal Pde, which is the most stupidly dangerous place to get on/off trams in the entire city. No safety stops, just step out into the oncoming traffic and hope no one's from out of town and doesn't realise they're supposed to stop. Or from in town, and just trying to speed past. Or on drugs. Or drunk. Or just stupid.
My award for the absolutely most dangerous place to get off a tram in Melbourne though is stop #9 on the #59/19 routes as you go into the city. Basically the tram comes through one of the largest roundabouts in Melbourne and then screeches to a halt literally just off the roundabout. I had a delivery van, which was seriously not expecting the tram to suddenly stop, let alone anyone to get off just off a roundabout, skid around me and miss by centimetres (to the driver's credit he acknowledged that he was in the wrong and was equally as white and shaky as I was.) Last time I've ever gotten off at that stop - I've no idea whether it's still a stop, but I certainly hope not.
[1] which manages to sound simultaneously wanky, kind of 50s space age and stupid. It's not "orbital", it's barely moving down one over-congested road.
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-19 09:02 am (UTC)I just have to say that that isn't our Transport Strategy - it wasn't even a leaked Transport Strategy. It was a guess at best.
My favourite "snurgle" is that the Orbital Bus system is call "SmartBus" in here which always cracks me up.
Unfortunately, Swanston Street is a Council road and they won't play ball. The Police did book cyclists for a week once last year when I was catching the St Kilda Road tram everyday. They need to do that again, every week, 52 weeks of the year.
Yes - the roundabout of death is stupid tram stop position.
(I just have to get one little stat in here - over 80% of public transport trips in Melbourne take place on roads... sorry, but you've gotta have uncongested roads for buses and trams to work! - yes I'd like more trains too.)
no subject
Date: 2008-09-22 02:08 am (UTC)But they have a brand new freeway to use. So they can bloody well deal with it.
I just have to get one little stat in here - over 80% of public transport trips in Melbourne take place on roads... sorry, but you've gotta have uncongested roads for buses and trams to work! - yes I'd like more trains too.
Yes, I know. Which is why the government's going on about how it's too expensive/difficult/time consuming to build rail lines but buses will really work pisses me off. Buses are great - if they're not stuck in traffic. Ditto trams. Actually if they want to improve tram times along some routes they should put the clearways back in that they took off to force motorists onto CityLink - that would do more to improve the (for example) #8 Toorak tram line than just about anything else.
The Swanston St tram/bike thing is difficult, with or without MCC's involvement (and can I just add WTF is it with putting Copenhagen lanes on Albert St when they could put them down the middle strip of Victoria Pde? Fucking bizarre). I still think the best solution would be to move the tram lines to the outside and make the inside lanes bike/taxi/police etc, but you'd still have people crossing without looking and bikes would still have to cross tram lines. It'd make the super stop building a lot better though. Either way I think taking the buses out isn't a bad idea - depending on where they put them.
SmartBus - *sigh*, it's just like the Myki, only stupider.