Saturday 27 August 2022

Draft Ballarat Net Zero Emissions Plan

The City of Ballarat's Draft Net Zero Emissions Plan (via CoB)

The City of Ballarat has passed a motion to come up with a plan for the whole municipality to reach net zero emissions by 2030. This is an incredibly ambitious goal, and it's fantastic to see this level of ambition from the council. They've released a draft plan - so how'd they do? 

Monday 22 August 2022

The politics of SRL

Concept art of an SRL train (via Big Build)

In Part 1, we looked at what the Parliamentary Budget Office actually says about the costs of building SRL, and why the media narrative has gotten this wrong. In Part 2 I want to talk more broadly about the politics and messaging of SRL. 

Sunday 21 August 2022

Mythbusting the costs of SRL

The Suburban Rail Loop (via PBO)

There's been a lot of political movement on SRL lately, so I thought it was worth a follow-up to my post from last year, to go through some of the myths and misconceptions that have arisen around the project. Today in Part 1 I want to explain why most of the media reporting on the PBO costings is dead wrong, and in Part 2 I'll talk about the political realities of campaiging on a project like this. 

Wednesday 11 May 2022

Travel Diaries: Adelaide


After two years of going basically nowhere, I recently took an interstate trip to Adelaide for a friend's wedding - so a few thoughts on the transport and urbanism I encountered on the trip. 

Wednesday 4 May 2022

Repowering Victoria's Railways

How can we eliminate rail's carbon emissions? (via Network Rail)

Previously we've discussed the Reduce, Replace, Repower framework for cleaning up the transport sector, and spoken in general terms about how best to Repower our vehicles - from cars to buses to planes. Today let's take a closer look at how to Repower and decarbonise Victoria's railways. 

Wednesday 27 April 2022

Clean Transport 101: Repower


In previous posts we've seen that our priorities should be to Reduce, then Replace, then Repower; and we've gone through some guidelines for how to do the first two. So how should we Repower? 

Wednesday 20 April 2022

Clean Transport 101: Replace


Last time, we discussed how to Reduce overall travel demand. This time, let's talk about how we can Replace unsustainable trips with more sustainable ones. 

Wednesday 13 April 2022

Clean Transport 101: Reduce


Last time, we discussed why the Reduce, Replace, Repower framework is the key to cleaning up the transport sector. Today let's go into the details of how we can Reduce travel demand. 

Tuesday 5 April 2022

Clean Transport 101: Reduce, Replace, Repower


Transport is Australia's third-largest, and fastest-growing, source of emissions. If we're to have any chance of keeping climate change to 1.5°C, we have to urgently clean up our transport system - but how? 

Sunday 27 March 2022

Updated designs for Deer Park Station

The latest render of the new Deer Park Station (via LXRA)

LXRA have released updated designs for the new Deer Park Station to be built as part of the removal of the Station Street/Mount Derrimut Road level crossing. Let's take a close look at the details.