Greeeeeeeat. Now that the free Early Bird ticket has been extended to all train lines throughout metropolitan Melbourne, why can’t they include the bus fleets in the system as well? It simply makes no sense. A normal ticket allows you to travel on all trains, buses and trams in Melbourne, but an Early Bird ticket doesn’t?

It’s shit coz right now I travel for free to Footscray station, but end up having to use a Zone one ticket to pay for my ride to Altona North. Absolutely ridiculous coz I get off at Altona North just a tad before 7AM. A call to Connex puts me on the phone with a pleasant sounding bloke who doesn’t have the slightest clue why buses aren’t included in the Early Bird rides as well.

Hear me roar.

Image from istockphoto.com

So, the petrol prices has been skyrocketing and you are finding your funds vaporising (pun-intended) from your bank account. Have a read of this e-mail that just dropped in this morning (validity up to reader’s discretion):

Early morning commuting. Peak hour traffic. The Sydenham train to the city decides to stuff up at North Melbourne. Train stalled for ten minutes. People standing the cars start getting uncomfortable. Fidgety and such. Peeked out and I saw the train driver walking into each car informing them of the bad news. I’m left stranded, along with hundreds of other commuters. I’m late for work. So are they. All in a day’s work I must say. No love lost for Connex there.

On my way to work in Doncaster yesterday morning, the bus I was in got caught in a traffic stand still. Frustrated (as I was late for work), I wondered what the commotion was. Glancing ahead, I noticed a steady stream of cars filtering into the servo along Doncaster Road. With petrol prices averaging $1.50/L lately, disgruntled drivers are always on the look out for good deals.

Turns out, the servo had an offer going on. Holy shit, but am I right to assume $1.3950/L’s cheap in this dark petrol days? That’s the offer the servo had; the price was in neon colours. Hard to miss really.

What’s the best price you’ve seen while driving lately? I don’t drive (as I don’t own a car), so I won’t be the best judge. But I reckon $1.3950’s pretty darn cheap!

PS: In case you guys haven’t been paying attention to the news lately, the 4 cents you save on petrol when you present your docket from Coles isn’t saving you any money. In fact, you’re still paying more than the industry rates. Read here for more details.

Image from news.com.au

If you thought taxi drivers blocking Flinders & Swanston street was bad, imagine 250 trams parked on all of the major city routes along with public buses and picketers blocking all tram transportation. That’s what happened on January 2, 1990 and continued on for a month.

The year was 1989, the Cain government was suffering a severe overspending problem and was desperately seeking to cut money from anywhere it could. In August of that year, they revealed plans to convert to a scratch ticketing system on buses, trains and trams which would see 500 tram conductor jobs cut. Trams would be converted into a “driver only” mode and ticketing would be done via a ticketing system and security camera. Tickets were also able to be bought at convenience stores. Basically, the system that we have now.

As you would expect, conductors were not happy and with the support of the union staged various stop workages, refusals to collect fares, running trams without government’s approval, taking over of depots and finally the the straw that broke the camel’s back, parking 250 trams throughout the city. At this point, the government decided to cut off the power to the trams. Workers staged a 24-hour a day picket, setting up makeshift kitchens in tram depots. After a month of this madness, the government conceded on February 2 and although they moved forward to implement “driver only” trams, the conductors all kept their jobs.

Conductors were in the job until around 1998, when all trams were fitted with automatic ticketing machines.

“The reduction in numbers and eventual elimination of conductors saw a rise in assaults, robberies, graffiti and vandalism on trams staffed only by drivers. One hundred roving conductors were employed on Victorian trams in 2000 in an effort to combat these problems. In 1989, the Cain government believed that replacing conductors with scratch tickets would save $24 million annually. With automated ticket machines installed on trams, operators estimate that $50 million is lost each year through fare evasion.”

And where are we now? We are one year behind schedule on the new Myki system which won’t be fully implemented until 2010 and out of pocket $500 million dollars. Those those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.

Links:

Wikipedia: Myki

History Cooperative: The end of the line: an examination of the 1990 Victorian
tram dispute

Thanks to the avid cyclist Strider

Picture by James Popple

Update: Well it looks like blocking off one of the busiest intersections paid off. Cabbies get their safety screens as well as other demands. Could it be? The government cares? Either way, it is a positive result for all. Updates at The Age.

No one gives a shit about taxi drivers, at least that’s what Melburnians think. They endure low pay, health problems, drunk customers, and increasing violence. Worst of all it seems for them, is that no one listens. So out of desperation, they have decided to protest on the intersection of Swanston and Flinders St. creating a massive gridlock in town.

But c’mon, you think blocking all tram and vehicular traffic on one of Melbourne’s busiest intersection is the way to win people over? The government and the transport minister don’t care. They don’t care about the choking train system and they don’t care about taxi drivers. They would rather spend $500 million on an unnecessary new ticketing system. It was almost 2 years ago that we reported on Rajneesh Joga, a taxi driver who was killed in similar circumstances to yesterday’s near fatal attack. Bracks didn’t meet with them and all they were asking for was a bit of safety. Two years down the road, nothing has changed and current Transport Minister Lynne Kosky refuses to go down to the protest. At the very least, install the damn safety shields.

What shocks me even more is the general disdain towards taxi drivers. MelbourneManiac, a mostly positive forum had its users posting scathing comments towards taxi drivers.

(more…)

I made this entry over fifteen months ago and my stance still remains the same: Give me a large cold glass of shit water anyday, mate.

A year has passed, and seems like the Government’s attempt to convince Melburnians to consume shit water has fallen shit short of their expectations.

Nothing seems to have changed. The Bracks Government were ridiculed back then, the Brumby Government ain’t faring any better. I think they really need to rethink their strategy if they wish to pursue this important matter. Whether it leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth (pun intended) is another thing altogether, but perhaps it’s time for Brumby and Co. to give the Victorian media another water cooler topic. They’re having so much airtime with their public transport debacle and terrorist bullshit, no thought is given to something that’s very close to all Australians.

Don’t get me wrong. I like to arrive on time in a non-crowded train and not be subjected to retinal checks when I’m at the airport. I don’t start doubting the Muslim’s intentions just because he prays seven times a day or his wife wears a hijab. Hell I’m sure terrorists exist in other religious denominations as well. The bottom line is, who needs a world class transport system and a terrorist-free country if there’s no water for consumption in the long run. We need to think long term. I’d rather be stuck in a hot, humid train, pressed against other sardines and am thirty minutes late. At least I have my delish cold bottle of shit water in my bag and not be worrying what my children will be drinking 30 years from now.

Following Adrock’s post on Melbourne’s railway overhauls, I caught the the new Connex advertisement on TV one evening and it rocks my socks. Of course, everyone still hates Connex anyway.

It’s a great PR campaign for a network that is constantly failing, though - just blame the city that is growing exponentially.

Imagine if tomorrow you had to move a city,
Take nurses to hospitals, school kids to schools,
Futures analysts to, well… wherever it is futures analysts go.

Imagine getting all these people,
Hundreds and thousands of them to where they needed to be.
That’s what Connex does everyday.

It’s a big job, and as Melbourne grows it’s getting bigger.
Which is why we’re making changes to the network,
Adding more carriages, more staff and more services.
You can see our new plan at connexmelbourne.com.au

Connex - We’re moving more people everyday.

And the score that plays throughout the advertisement reminds me of the theme from Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind. Though, when the tractor in the advertisement stopped at the intersection (when everyone turned to stare in awe at the speeding Connex train), I was half-expecting a semi-trailer to come running into it and turn it into an advertisement for safe driving.

See the advertisement on Connex’s site here: http://www.connexmelbourne.com.au/index.php?id=204

More trains in railway overhaul

Clay Lucas, Transport Reporter
April 9, 2008 - 11:41AM

Yay. Time to pop the champagne and watch the fireworks.

Myki, so-called smartcard, but should really be called stupid-card.

Myki, was supposed to have been introduced in the second half of 2007. Well, we are almost into the mid-year of 2008, and we have just been informed that there is a delay of a mere 3 years and a billion dollars over budget.

Why do we bother? Cheaper to give everyone free rides for the next couple of years, if the government is into throwing money away.

I can understand the complexity of the required software to compute the best fare for the user, but this contract was tendered for a specific time period for a specific budget. I can never understand why nor how an overdue project can be extended, seemingly, indefinitely and money continuously poured into it until completion, regardless of whether the requirements have been achieved.

Last week, Vivian Miners, chief executive of the Transport Ticketing Authority, is no longer there. Who else is next?