Month: June 2011

Overcrowding on St Kilda Road trams has long been a problem, and doesn’t seem to be improving. Crowds like this now often spill out of the southbound superstop during the morning peak. More and longer trams would help, but so would better tram priority along the route, to speed up trams and cut delays, and…

Fences like these are probably done in the name of safety — protecting tram passengers from car drivers who should know to stop for trams, but sometimes don’t. The effect however can be delays to trams, as at busy stops the boarding and alighting passengers get funneled through the gaps in the fences. Surely there…

One of the features of Smartbus routes is the connections to other trams, buses and trains — which are essential to provide a public transport network capable of anywhere-to-anywhere travel. At some stops, the automated signs are meant to show the times of those connecting services… but don’t. These two are at Bentleigh and Bundoora…

The Elizabeth Street and Southbank entrances to Flinders Street Station close at 10pm, even on busy Friday and Saturday nights. Some passengers are unaware until they find the closed gate — and some decide rather than walk around, to climb over it. Passengers attempting to enter from Southbank and Elizabeth Street have to walk up…

Before May, Altona to Parliament off-peak on weekdays was a 30 minute trip with no changes. Now it’s two changes (Newport, 7 minutes, and North Melbourne, as much as 9 minutes if following the Metlink Journey Planner), for a total trip time of some 46 minutes. Connection times at Newport are worse than those formerly…

Is it unreasonable to expect that that train network maps at Melbourne’s major CBD stations should be kept up to date? This one, snapped last week, isn’t. Missing is Coolaroo station, on the Craigieburn line between Broadmeadows and Roxburgh Park. It opened just over a year ago, on 6th June 2010. Other stations have up-to-date…

It’s not just traffic that gets delayed by level crossings. Pedestrians, including train passengers, sometimes have to wait long periods for trains to pass. Often for those trying to enter stations, it can mean the difference between making the train and missing it… never a problem at stations where the level crossing has been grade-separated.…

If you’re catching Metro Trains or Yarra Trams today, Saturday timetables (without late-night services) apply. But what about other services, including buses? Metlink says that in Melbourne, 199 bus routes will run to Saturday times, but 21 will run to Sunday times. And one will run to a special timetable. V/Line will run most services…

Big events — with large numbers of people leaving in a short space of time — should be what public transport do best. When crowds are expected to be leaving an MCG footy game en masse, it shouldn’t be too hard to plan to have frequent services to get them home. But as this picture…

Better to have a dirty vehicle than a cancelled service of course, but perhaps they can do better at ensuring graffiti is more efficiently cleaned-off. 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 do you really rub public transport users’ noses in it? Allow parking in the bus stops. This is the outbound stop on Lonsdale Street, near Swanston Street. Outside peak times, not only does the bus lane not operate, but they actually allow cars to park right in front of the bus shelters, discouraging passengers…