Moving Site

Moving to TransportTextbook.

Closing blog down.

Goodbye

Calembeena

Train Info

I've been out of the house too much this weekend to give you a real post, but here's some slightly interesting information.

• Connex support the train sections of EWLNA, albeit with quad from Caulfield to Dandenong.
• It is only slightly quicker to go in and out by train than around by bus from Oakleigh to Heidelberg (slight success for SmartBus)
• In my plans, the bus that I catch to get home because I'm lazy should be deleted.
• I lament the fact that there are no expresses on the Dandenong line after I get to SY station.

Hopefully there will be a good post soon

Calembeena

Building a bridge - Oakleigh to Caulfield

Grade separation from Oakleigh to Caulfield is probably a good idea for the future as already there are major traffic jams in the vicinity of the Hughesdale, Murrumbeena and Carnegie level crossings. This is a fairly major project to undertake but will benefit most people in the long run.

This project is probably best achieved in the style of the Middleborough Road grade sep, but with staggering - possibly the whole project could take up to a month or so to finish.

Hughesdale station is fairly easy to undertake - in this case I probably would undertake Boronia style grade-sep and hopefully this would not turn it into a Box Hill - Hughesdale is almost ready to be staffed at least Host hours and I would suggest keeping the staff down on the platforms.

Murrumbeena and Carnegie I would suggest something slightly different - a below bridge level grade sep, but then cover the stations up with shops that can be rented out by the DoT - providing some cost benefit for the project.

Another option to look at is re-aligning Neerim Road at Murrumbeena to get rid of the dog leg used so that the railway only had one crossing in the vicinity.

Grange Road could possibly have a bridge, leading up to the Dandenong lines flying over the Frankstons at Caulfield or vice versa.

You would probably start at Hughesdale, then work your way up the line, diverting traffic to the next grade-sepped road to the east.

I would view this operation at high-priority, if you want to run any more trains down these lines.

Rail Rage

The real post is coming soon...
Yesterday I was at a friend's house in South Melbourne and to get home, I decided to take the 112 tram. There was no problem with this and I got off at the Spencer and Collins St Stop. I rushed over to Southern Cross Station and checked the boards for Cranbourne/Pakenham trains. The next train was due to arrive in 13 minutes. I walk over to platform 12 and sit down there, wondering about the absence of people. About 8 minutes out of 13, an announcement is made about a "delayed" Frankston train on platform 13. I go up the escalators, and sure enough, I find a unnoticeable noticeboard telling the passengers for P/C/F to go to platform 13. I waited at platform 13 for a while and eventually the PIDs show the next train to be a Bairnsdale, then a Traralgon in 2 hours. I had no clue what is going on. The Bairnsdale approaches in the distance, but stops far too short of the platform. I then decided that Southern Cross is a hellhole and go to 11 to catch the next Flinders Street train so that I could tell what is going on. Once I got onto the platform, my Pakenham train arrived on platform 13. I rushed up the escalators, across the mezzanine and get stopped by maintenance staff who take 15 seconds to start the previously non moving escalator down to 13/14, After he was done, I rushed down the escalator and just catch the train. As the doors close, I heard one extremely elderly V/Line staff remark, "This has got Connex written all over this".

I wasn't the only one who had no idea.
Calembeena

Trainlink

Ok, probably have been neglecting this blog too much recently but... oh well.
Going to start with Trainlink style services in Melbourne.

Areas we already have Trainlink style services:
South Morang - Epping Stn
Cranbourne East - Cranbourne Stn
Blackburn Stn - Knoxfield area - Upper Ferntree Gully Stn (connects at Upper Ferntree Gully)

As you can see, a woeful three bus services actually make their way out to suburbs that the DoI (I refuse to call them the DoT as instead of using the namechange money to fund public transport, they spent it to better focus on transport or something like that) have neglected in supplying heavy rail services.

The reason why Trainlink style services can be more useful than just building heavy rail include:
less cost
easier to reach more suburbs
doesn't need a r-o-w
doesn't impact on capacity if only single track non-shuttle rail is built (I hope the DoI have learnt this from predecessors)

Some new areas where Trainlink services could work:
Oakleigh - Chadstone
Huntingdale - Monash Uni
Macleod - Latrobe Uni
Cheltenham - Southland

These are just some areas I can think of off the top of my head. The reason why 3/4 are south-eastern suburbs is because I happen to live there and so am more familiar with that area.

Doncaster is an interesting exception, being that it has about 15 buses all expressing down the freeway to the inner city, providing a decent service from the city to Shoppingtown so long as all the Freeway Exp go to one bay at Shoppingtown.

My opinion is that Trainlink style services ( either estate-catchers or shuttles) should be shown on maps provided that they:
have easy transfer between train and bus
bus drivers are instructed to wait for trains
the bus service can easily be condensed down to a small number of "stops"

Calembeena

Subject Ideas

These are the ideas for topics on my blog so far:
My Plan : My ideas for rail development
Etiquette 101: Etiquette for beginners
Interviews : (Hopefully) I will be interviewing members of the rail community
Problem Spots : Infrastructure problems
In the news : Issues in the media about public transport
Upgrades : Proposed (not by me) developments to the rail network

As these are early days, don't expect to see some of these for a while,
Yours truly,
Calembeena

First past the post

This is my new blog about (mainly) trains in Melbourne. Soonish I will hope to start up a couple of ideas about public transport, in the next week or so covering what I'd like to see happen with the rail network and also transport etiquette.
If you are there you are valued,
Calembeena