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It’s been just over a year since we first presented this flowchart of all the organisations involved in public transport in Victoria.

Shortly afterwards Coalition announced an election policy to streamline this maze of different bodies with the Public Transport Development Authority.

This Friday it’ll be a year since the Coalition government was sworn in. The PTDA hasn’t quite materialised yet, although the relevant legislation has passed through Parliament.

We’re hopeful that apart from cutting the number of bodies involved, the new PTDA also brings with it genuine openness and independence from government, as well as the best planners available to ensure an improvement to public transport management, planning, and coordination.

So hopefully before too long, provided the government lives up to its promise, this mess will be cleaned-up.

Are you unhappy with public transport? Use our online tool to write to your local MP and demand action.

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This is an all-too familiar sight across Melbourne: trams wasting up to a third of their time waiting at red lights. This has resulted in Melbourne having one of the slowest tram systems in the world.

Trams (and buses) that may be carrying 20, 50, or even 200 people should have priority over other vehicles, such as cars carrying an average 1.2 people each.

Fortunately there may be progress on the horizon. Last week and this week, Yarra Trams and VicRoads are trialling tram intersection priority along parts of route 96.

We expect it will show that with the right priority measures, tram travel can be significantly sped up, resulting in faster journeys and better fleet utilisation — meaning it’s possible to run more services, and relieve crowding. We encourage tram passengers to speak up in support.

Show your support for effective tram priority. Write to your local or daily newspaper, and contact your MP to support priority for trams.

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These tram-only lights are meant to light up to indicate when the tram can depart to get a green at the next intersection.

It’s not as good as proper tram traffic light priority of course, but could help tram drivers wait at stops (where passengers can board) rather than at red lights (which is just wasted time for everybody).

The problem is few (or perhaps even none) of them work, despite many having been installed around the CBD.

We’d rather see priority at intersections for trams, but getting these lights working would be better than nothing.

Help our campaign for better public transport. Join the PTUA now. We rely entirely on member funding and enthusiastic volunteers to operate.

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Some things never change.

Rod Eddington is still spruiking the east-west road tunnel, even though his own report in 2008 said it would return just 45c in benefits for every dollar spent on it.

We can now see that the assumptions underlying the East West report were flawed.

Metlink reports that public transport use grew to 1.4 million trips a day in 2010, a level Eddington said would not be reached until 2031.

Meanwhile, federal government figures show that overall car travel in Melbourne has not increased since 2004.
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Down these stairs is the quickest way into Flinders Street Station from the popular Centre Place/Degraves Street/Flinders Lane area. The underground Campbell Arcade goes under the road and direct into the station, so (at least when it’s open — which it’s unfortunately not on Sundays) people headed for the station can avoid waiting for traffic lights.

Melbourne City Council has installed a sign listing all the shops in the arcade, but it fails to mention it leads to Melbourne’s busiest railway station. Would it really be that hard to include at least some signage indicating it’s the way to the trains?

Help our campaign for better public transport. Join the PTUA now. We rely entirely on member funding and enthusiastic volunteers to operate.

More about PT Problem Of The Day, including how you can contribute your photos.

The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) has found in a comparison study that — measured by first train time — Melbourne has some of the worst Sunday morning train services in Australia.

“Our trains start too late, and are too infrequent on Sundays”, said PTUA President Daniel Bowen.

The PTUA compared train timetables from across the country and found that Melbourne’s earliest trains into the CBD arrive later than anywhere else in Australia except Adelaide.

Median first arrival times are Sydney 5:11am, Brisbane 6:48am, Perth 7:39am, Adelaide 8:38am and Melbourne 7:56am.[1]

“First trains arriving around 8am into Melbourne’s CBD causes a lot of problems for those working on Sunday, particularly shift workers and those in the hospitality industry, many of whom need to start work earlier.

“The train system waking up at 8am might have made sense in the 1950s, but it doesn’t in 2011.”
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