High Speed Rail, or just high-er speed?

N700A Shinkansen in Kyoto

There's a long-standing debate amongst public transport advocates in Australia over whether we should be pushing for a brand new High Speed Rail link between Melbourne and Sydney, or for upgrades to the existing line. There are pros and cons to both approaches, and I've always struggled to come to a firm conclusion - but I think I've finally made up my mind. 

Is walkable urbanism just for our capital cities?

The idea of the 15-minute city (or neighbourhood) is an important one for reducing carbon emissions, and for making livable, vibrant cities - cities where you can meet most of your daily needs within 15 minutes walk or bike ride from your house, and destinations further away are connected by quality public transport. Unfortunately, it has attracted some conspiracy theories, so the term "15 minute city" itself might be falling out of favour - but the idea is a good one. 

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. 

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. 

SRL and the Tsar's Finger

The three phases of the Suburban Rail Loop (via MTIA)

Recent coverage of the secretive origins of the Suburban Rail Loop has highlighted the failures of process that have led to the plans we see today, and has led some people to question whether it's even worth proceeding with the project. So should the project go ahead, and if so, what needs to be improved? 

Re-naming Melbourne's Metro lines

The lines of Melbourne's rail network are generally known by their terminal stations, usually out on the fringes of suburbia. The line between Werribee and the city is known as "the Werribee line", the line between Sunbury and the city is known as "the Sunbury line", and so on. This makes sense at the moment, because Melbourne's rail network is very radial - trains start out on the outer fringes of the urban area, they converge at the CBD, and they turn around and come back out again - in many cases after doing a lap around the City Loop. But the shape of our network is starting to change, so we need to reconsider our naming conventions as well. 

Level crossing-free lines

Union Rd, Surrey Hills (via Philip Mallis)

The government recently announced they'd be grade separating ten more level crossings, bringing it to a total of 85 pledged and/or delivered under the Andrews government. They also announced they'd be closing four crossings, so it's sort of 89, but their messaging consistently says 85 so let's stick with that. As Daniel Bowen pointed out on his blog, this means about half the level crossings in suburban Melbourne on the 2008 ALCAM list will have been eliminated - very impressive. 

Can buses attract more passengers?

There is a persistent view among some politicians, policy-makers and members of the general public, that people won't use buses unless they absolutely have to. There is a not-insignificant (though shrinking) chunk of the population who think public transport as a whole is only for people who can't afford to drive a car, and that anyone who has the option of driving would be mad to do anything else. But there's a much larger group who see it as perfectly valid to take a train or a tram - and who may regularly do so themselves - but who would never take a bus if they could avoid it, and assume everyone else thinks the same way. I think this is worth examining, because it has a lot of implications for the policy - and the politics - that drives our transport systems. 

The Squaresville algorithm: optimising Melbourne's buses

Diagram of the proposed layout (via Steve Pemberton)

Last week, RMIT Masters student Steve Pemberton released a paper on optimising Melbourne's bus network by changing from its current "tailor-made" network, where many buses meander through backstreets to ensure most of Melbourne has a one-seat journey to key destinations, to more of an "everywhere to everywhere" grid-based system, which prioritises speed and short waiting times over coverage, and was tested by a computer model. This is a great example of the tension that exists between patronage and coverage in public transport planning, and presents a good starting point for something that could actually be implemented in Melbourne, so let's take a look at it. 

Amsterdam Lelylaan: a model for level crossing removals

The current spate of level crossing removals means that more stations are being rebuilt around Melbourne than at any time in living memory. These stations, by virtue of the selection process, are generally adjacent to roads - and often those roads are major public transport corridors, whether for trams or buses. Perhaps because we've gone from zero to 100 so quickly, and therefore don't have a ton of station design experience in our local public service, some of these new stations haven't been ideal from an urban design perspective - in fact in some cases they are worse than the ground-level stations they're replacing. The Dutch, however, are very good at this, so I thought I'd go through a case study to see what lessons Melbourne can learn from it.

Should the Airport Rail line use existing tracks?

There's been some speculation in the media recently about whether the Andrews government might not build a tunnel between Sunshine and the city, as part of the Airport Rail line they're currently planning. There's been a lot of ink spilled on this topic already, and my PTUA colleague Daniel has done a good job responding to this, so I won't retread the same ground - but I did have a few brief points I wanted to emphasise.

Changi Airport Station in Singapore

Ballarat to Melbourne in under an hour

The launch of the #59minuteballarat campaign

The Committee for Ballarat has a long-standing campaign called #59minuteballarat. They've been talking about it for several years, formally launched it in September 2017, and did their utmost to secure commitments from politicians in the leadup to the November 2018 election. Although there are other elements, the thrust of the campaign is to make it so that there's a regularly timetabled train from Ballarat to Melbourne in 59 minutes every morning, and another one in the opposite direction every evening.

What should we call Melbourne Metro's stations?

Concept art for Parkville Station (via MMRA)

The Hun is reporting that PTV/Melbourne Metro Rail Authority will be seeking feedback on what to name Melbourne Metro's five new stations, which have the working names of Arden, Parkville, CBD North, CBD South, and Domain. The Hun (and the various people they quote) have suggested names like "Archer" and "Shinboner" for Arden, "Barassi" for CBD North, "Federation" for CBD South, and "Shrine" for Domain.

PTV's new university shuttles

via Public Transport Victoria

With the University semester starting, PTV have announced a raft of improvements to Melbourne's bus network to better serve University staff and students. Before we look at the specific routes, it's worth touching on why they are necessary.

RRL Roundup Part 1: Trains

via Public Transport Victoria

On June 21, Geelong-line trains will finally start using the Regional Rail Link tracks, separating them from Werribee-line suburban trains and grouping them together with Ballarat- and Bendigo-line regional trains. Although the infrastructure was finished months ago, the Andrews government decided to push back the opening date until more trains were built - which was entirely reasonable, given how close to capacity V/Line's fleet is.

Slightly less reasonable, however, is the fact that the new timetables for this change were only released on Sunday, three weeks before the opening date - and they mean sweeping changes for a lot of the network. It's not just the trains that run on these lines that will be affected, but the buses in Melbourne and in regional cities that connect with them. It is quite a lot to digest, so I've divided it into two parts for ease of reading. Part 1 on the trains is below; Part 2 on the buses here.

Railway Archaeology: Balaclava

Bothwell Street in Balaclava (via Augustus Brown)

Something happened on Twitter the other day that I thought would provide some insight into how this whole Railway Archaeology thing generally goes. Fellow train nerd @AugustusBrown noticed that Bothwell St in Balaclava looks like it diverges from the Sandringham line just south of Balaclava station, which suggests the street might have been built along the rail alignment. He then traced it out and suggested that it might connect up to St Kilda station since it was only a minor diversion to do so.

The Misguided Metro Rail Capacity Project

Seemingly willing to promise almost anything to win Public Transport points after sticking too stubbornly to the unpopular East-West Link, the Coalition have been announcing as many rail projects as they possibly can. Some of these are just re-announcing things that were already going to happen, like the delivery of individual trains. Some are projects the government has been promising for years without actually making progress on, like Airport Rail. Some of them are fantastically worthwhile projects I am very glad the government is doing, like the St Albans Grade Separation or the Mildura line Standardisation (more on which soon). And some...well, some are just desperate.

The Free CBD and the Unfair Fare

The Victorian Government has recently announced plans to significantly alter the fares for Melbourne's public transport system. Firstly, the CBD and Docklands will become a free zone, so anyone can jump on a tram in the CBD without charge; and secondly, Zone 2 will be, to some extent, abolished.

Source: Premier of Victoria