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Category: Melbourne and suburbs

  • Better signalling = more trains. How moving block signalling could boost capacity across Melbourne’s rail network

    New thinking is signalled for Melbourne’s transport woes Melbourne faces big decisions about what kind of city it wants to be in the 21st century. Our State Government is now driven by a vision drawn from Los Angeles. The East West Link promises not merely to increase levels of car and truck traffic and pollution.…

  • Community Forum: The 2013 Federal Election and Public Transport in Melbourne’s West

    The PTUA is hosting a community forum looking at public transport issues in Melbourne’s Western Suburbs. With a federal election imminent, residents are concerned about how transport policy will impact on access to jobs, education and services, as well as local neighbourhood amenity. This community forum is an opportunity to hear from transport planning experts,…

  • Signalling could boost rail capacity by 50%

    Installation of high capacity signalling across Melbourne’s rail network would improve the capacity of the network by 50%, the Public Transport Users Association says. Speaking at the 5th Annual Victorian Transport Infrastructure Conference, PTUA President Dr Tony Morton outlined how an upgrade to Melbourne’s network would increase the capacity of lines into the city, accommodating…

  • Trains not toll roads – public meeting this Thursday 13th June

    YOU’RE INVITED TO THE PUBLIC LAUNCH OF THE TRAINS NOT TOLL ROADS CAMPAIGN Thursday 13 June, 6.30pm–8.30pm Fitzroy Town Hall – Main Hall (201 Napier Street, Fitzroy) Special Guest Speaker: Alannah MacTiernan, Former Minister for Planning and Infrastructure in Western Australia Success in the West: How they got the 70-kilometre Mandurah Rail Line from the…

  • Three cheers for $3 billion on Melbourne rail – but be flexible and take advice

    Uncertainty still shrouds Melbourne’s transport future, says user group The Public Transport User Association has backed a $3 billion commitment in the Federal budget to the Melbourne Metro rail project. But with another $6 billion needed from the State Government and the private sector, concerns abound still about the likelihood of the project proceeding, including…

  • Motorways: Salami tactics

    It almost defies reason that, with our train system virtually falling apart and car use per capita in decline, this government is hell-bent on committing public money to a road project with 50¢ of benefit for every $1 of costs (The Age: “Western end of project could win priority“, 3/5) When the Bolte Bridge was…

  • Funding Rail is Vital but Avoid Hasty Promises, urges PTUA

    The Public Transport Users Association today released a list of urgently needed Victorian rail projects they say should take priority over the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel and East West tollroad for Federal funding. “We are encouraged by the Gillard Government’s strong stand in favour of Federal funding for urban rail in Australia,” said PTUA President…

    Funding Rail is Vital but Avoid Hasty Promises, urges PTUA

  • Axe Myki and use e-Tag instead, says PTUA

    Following the Napthine government’s announcement that single-use public transport tickets will no longer be available from this month[1], the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) has urged the government to abandon the trouble-plagued Myki card and instead rollout e-Tag on the public transport network. Most regular users of CityLink and EastLink have an e-Tag, while many…

  • Plan will sit on shelf unless priorities change, says PTUA

    Welcome news on high capacity signalling, but must be fast-tracked Public Transport Victoria’s new Rail Network Development Plan risks joining previous attempts and gathering dust on a shelf, due to its reliance on expensive, unfunded and premature tunnels, the Public Transport Users Association said today. “This plan has all the right individual elements in it,”…

  • Doncaster Rail Report is “Topsy-Turvy Planning”, says PTUA

    Making the Doncaster rail extension conditional on undergrounding the South Morang line is unnecessary and an excuse to kill the project, the Public Transport Users Association said today. “The government all but promised to build the Doncaster extension in 2010, but they failed to confront a bureaucracy that’s too fond of making excuses to do…

  • Rowville Rail possible with Dandenong upgrade, no Metro tunnel

    Get cracking on Dandenong line upgrade, but Metro tunnel a distraction: PTUA Signalling upgrades and grade separations on the Dandenong line should proceed immediately to boost service to growth suburbs and enable the Rowville rail extension. But claims that the Melbourne Metro tunnel from Footscray to South Yarra is a prerequisite to Rowville rail are…

  • 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…