more public transport stuff

[hnpcc]

I may finally have found a route to work that doesn't bug the crap out of me. I finally worked out that what was really irritating me was having to get out of the station to catch the tram/bus. Yes, I could catch the train from Flinders St to Prahran, but given that I've missed that train at least twice due to being pushed against the opposite wall by the crowd of evacuating inbound commuters (the Sandringham line is massively overcrowded) I don't actually like that option very much either. The advantage it does have though is that I don't have to find my purse to get my metcard out unless there are inspectors on the train (it's near a Swinburne campus, *sigh*)

So what I've been doing is getting off at West Richmond and catching the bus down Punt Rd. This should probably not work as well as it has been (and I'm quite possibly about to jinx it). But so far I'm finding it takes about the same amount of time as going in to the city and then back out again on the tram/bus. Punt Rd is congested, true, but it's past the main congestion points and the bus never really gets over 40kph anyway, so it moves along nicely with the traffic. Generally speaking it's not too crowded, although I have ended up standing a couple of times.

Homeward bound I'm still going in to Flinders St though - apart from anything else that guarantees me a seat.

Connex is currently claiming that 328 new weekly services are going to magically appear in two weeks. None of them are on my line, or the Sandringham, Williamstown or Alamein lines. Naturally.

Comments

[essjayeff.livejournal.com]

What about getting off the train at Clifton Hill and linking there with the Punt Road Bus? It's actualy a modal hub at Cliftton Hill and the bus starts from there (so should be plenty of seats).

Williamstown line is definitely getting more services 1st November so maybe check that.

Sandy and Alamein I'm afraid not this time.

[hnpcc]

Roadworks on Punt Rd/Hoddle St between Clifton Hill and North Richmond stations (or between the Eastern and Victoria Pde, whichever.) Hence West Richmond, which is a lot quicker than inching along even with the bus lane! Generally I aim for going as far as possible by rail which is quicker than Punt Rd in peak hour.

Williamstown isn't according to the metlink site, which is where I was getting my info from! They're doubling the length of an existing train, but that's not a new service per se.

[essjayeff.livejournal.com]

Ahh yes- I forgot about the silly roads people. I'll sort that out next week when I go back to work there.

And my bad - it's Werribee that are getting more services not Willy. But Hurstbridge and Epping are getting a whole new secion of rail track!

I've been answering too many General Public calls today.

[hnpcc]

Hurstbridge is definitely getting new line (track duplication between Clifton Hill and Westgarth) - where's Epping getting it?

[undergroundsea.livejournal.com]

I was so hopeful those perpetual motion machines at the start of the century were going to take off and we could all just lean ourselves to work.

[hnpcc]

I'm totally after Star Trek style transporters.

[vestalvagrant.livejournal.com]

The northern end of the 246 bus line used to ruin many an evening for me by not running a particular scheduled service AT ALL and causing me to miss my connection at Richmond station. After this happened several times in a row all the timetables along the route mysteriously disappeared and were never replaced. Can't complain about the bus not running to schedule when there is no schedule!

[hnpcc]

There's timetables up again now (at least where I catch it.) My gripe is that the 4.50pm 246 service invariably reaches Latrobe just in time for me to see the 566 service leaving. *sigh* It would be so nice if those two could just manage to connect.