Author: PTUA
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A legacy of poor decisions
A legacy of poor decisions November 22, 2012 JOHN Legge (“Transport planning off rails”, Comment, 21/11) hits the nail on the head when it comes to Melbourne’s transport planning failures. Our creaking train system and barely usable bus services are the legacy of decades of secretive pseudo-planning at all levels of government and in the…
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PT Problem of the Day: Who’s promoting parking, to get commuters to drive to the CBD? Southern Cross Station.
This must be one of the more perverse outcomes of the privatisation of Southern Cross Station: they are advertising early-bird parking (eg aimed at CBD workers). This ad appeared in MX (yes, the newspaper targetted at public transport users) several times last week. Should their campaign be successful (and we have our doubts, given the…
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PT Problem of the Day: Your next train is from platform 8, 9, 10 or 12
Quite apart from their abysmal and impossible to remember timetable with trains every 22 minutes, Williamstown and Altona Loop/Laverton passengers aren’t too happy about evening peak confusion at Flinders Street. It’s not hard to see why — departures are from four different platforms, and passengers say these are often changed at the last minute. This…
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Kennett-era project sets bar for affordable level crossing removal
Melbourne crossings could be wiped out for cost of East West road link, says PTUA Eliminating most level crossings in Melbourne to catch up with Sydney could create economic benefits exceeding those from the East West road link, the Public Transport Users Association said today. “This idea spread by the government that grade separations have…
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PT Problem of the Day: @VLine using Southern Cross platforms for stabling means a long walk to your train
Your train to Geelong and Wendouree is about to depart — can you make it to platform 8B in time? Thanks to V/Line’s lack of stabling, they are now routinely leaving trains in the platform at Southern Cross during the day, between the peaks. This means passengers often have to walk a full city block…
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PT Problem of the Day: Metcards not available anymore – so why list them on this huge poster at Flinders St?
Luckily there are staff nearby, but why do they still list Metcard fares on the board at Flinders Street Station when they are no longer available for sale at any railway station? In fact some of those listed (all of the Value Metcards, including 10x, weekly and monthly tickets) haven’t been available since June. There’s…
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Broken promises
THE disappointing result for the Baillieu government in the latest Newspoll survey comes as little surprise if we recall the reason it was elected. Its promises included a clear commitment to fix public transport. The Coalition picked up a swag of seats along train lines that had hitherto been treated with indifference. There were promises…
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PT Problem of the Day: Cryptic #Myki messages
PTUA member Kevin spotted this: if you travel on an already-active Myki Pass (such as a Yearly), but forget to touch-on (being an active Pass, you are not fare evading), when you get to a Myki gate at the end of your journey, you get this cryptic error message telling you to contact the Myki…
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PT Problem of the Day: All-over train advertising severely limits visiblity
Advertising brings in valuable revenue to help support public transport. But this new advertising on trains makes it impossible to see inside carriages — meaning it’s difficult to see which door/carriage is least crowded, and difficult for staff including police and PSOs to see what’s happening inside. And of course windows covered like this also…
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Going Loopy: maps to help fight City Loop confusion – simplified operation needed
To combat continuing confusion over operation of the City Loop, the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) has released a series of maps explaining how it works.[1] Outgoing PTUA President Daniel Bowen said that both occasional and regular passengers had been baffled by the Loop for more than 30 years since its original opening in 1981.…
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PT Problem of the Day: Lack of frequent services across most of Melbourne
As highlighted in a study released last week, most of Melbourne lacks frequent public transport services. Frequency is often overlooked, but is probably the number one factor in convincing people to get out of their cars and onto public transport. If you have a choice of driving or a public transport service every 30, 40…
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Frequent services: Trams lead, trains improving, buses still lag
A study of Melbourne public transport timetables shows much of the city is still lagging on providing frequent, easy-to-use services that will encourage people out of cars. PTUA outgoing president Daniel Bowen said that the study confirmed what most Melburnians think – that trams run frequently, trains are a mixed bag, and that most buses…