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Much has been spent on providing many tram platform stops around Docklands, with shelters, realtime displays, and level access — nothing less than tram users deserve.

But the 220 bus, which provides a frequent seven-day-a-week link from Docklands to Footscray, has been neglected. All bus users get is a bus stop sign. No shelter, no seat, not even a footpath to the stop. (And the eastbound stop is so hard to find we ended up having to hunt down a the picture of it from Google Streetview.)

So while some may argue that a tram route should run between Docklands and Footscray, a quicker and cost-effective first step might be to make sure the bus stops are useable.

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(Tip-off: Melanie. Eastbound pic source: Google Streetview)

One of the basic requirements for a shelter is that it should provide shelter. This clearly isn’t the case at North Melbourne following the $35 million upgrade completed in 2010.

Many have noted the escalators are somewhat open to the weather, but this picture shows that even the platform shelters are inadequate; for some reason they finish well short of the edge of the platform, ensuring that passengers getting on and off trains are exposed to the rain.

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The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) has warned that a modified bus interchange will not be enough to cater for expansion of the Chadstone shopping centre, as it would be only a partial solution. It says bus services themselves need significant upgrades, along with the extension of train and tram services into the centre.

“It’s going to take a lot more than a change to the bus interchange to attract people out of their cars and onto public transport. If that is
the only improvement to public transport, permanent traffic jams can be expected around Chadstone,” PTUA outer east convenor Jeremy Lunn said.

“To really make a difference, bus services need a major upgrade. In fact, these upgrades are needed now to cope with current traffic volumes around Chadstone.”
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Visitors to the Portsea polo event at Point Nepean National Park last Saturday were cheated by the poor quality and over-priced public transport service offered, according to the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA).

PTUA spokesman Jeremy Lunn said people wanting to travel by bus to the polo event from Sorrento to Point Nepean National Park were not allowed to use the regular public transport service.

The PTUA received reports of passengers being denied access to the regular 788 bus by drivers and instead being forced to board “special” buses organised for the day which cost them $10. If they had been allowed to use the regular bus service, it would have cost them only $2.20 (or $1.10 concession).
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As noted in The Age recently, Metro has changed its Twitter feed, with minor (less than fifteen minutes) disruptions no longer posted, and instead more interaction with other Twitter users.

But it appears this has also led to problems with major disruption information.

Yesterday was a prime example: there was a suspension of services on the Sydenham line, and this information was posted on Metro’s web site, which led to it being relayed onto Twitter by unofficial feeds at around 5:20pm.

But for followers of the official Metro Twitter feed, this news didn’t come through until 5:50pm, at least half-an-hour later.

Worse, this was followed by an offical but incorrect post that replacement buses were arriving at Flinders Street — despite train services only being affected between Footscray and Sydenham. This was eventually corrected some fifteen minutes later.

This is not good enough, and shows the clear downgrade in Metro’s Twitter service in the last few weeks. Until recently it was both timely and accurate. Yesterday it was neither.

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“Bringing Stations to Life will turn train stations into hubs of community activity.” — Metro

The theory of Metro’s “Bringing Stations To Life” programme makes sense: encourage development around stations, to help provide passengers with services nearby, boost safety through “passive surveillance” (a place busy with people is safer than one that’s empty) and grow public transport usage (particularly outside peak times) by providing destinations close to stations. It could also raise money that could (hopefully) be invested into better rail services.

But Caulfield so far is a bit of a flop. The “Metro Cafe” adjacent to platform 4 faces away from the railway station. There’s no visibility from the platform into the cafe, and it’s thoroughly uninviting for passengers. And a year after opening, reviews indicate even the cafe itself isn’t anything to write home about. (Not that Metro can be blamed for that.)

Metro also claimed the programme would better integrate Caulfield’s train, tram and bus services, but as far as we can see, little has changed.

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The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) has slammed the State Government for failing to provide sufficient bus services over the summer holiday period on route 788 between Frankston and Portsea. It has further accused the government of poorly advertising service amendments, nor promoting the service as an alternative to driving, leading to increased road congestion on the Peninsula.

“With a 45 minute service frequency each day until 29 January, the 788 ranks amongst the very worst of all the 337 bus services in Melbourne over the holiday period,” said PTUA spokesman Jeremy Lunn.

Even with revised weekend and public holiday service frequencies between 26 December and 29 January running every 45 minutes from the usual 75 minutes, many travellers have been left confused because the timetable changes were announced very late and still remain virtually unadvertised.
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We’ve highlighted before the lack of planning coordination in public transport — the myriad of organisations involved, and the problems that ensue when they don’t talk to each other. So what’s the problem this time?

The problem is that the bus zone for this bus stop matches the hours the bus used to run. This route was extended to run later, and seven days a week, over five years ago.

But nobody has updated the bus zones to reflect the longer hours, so cars can legally park at times when buses need to use the stop. And there are other cases like this elsewhere around Melbourne.

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