More services for western Victoria

This weekend will see upgrades on trains and buses across a lot of western Victoria, so a quick look at what they'll mean. 

The Ballarat Line evening crunch

The Ballarat line has seen quite a bit of investment in recent years - building the infrastructure to increase capacity, and running more services to take advantage of that capacity. But there are still big holes in the timetable that I want to highlight, and which should be relatively cheap and easy to fix. 

Are Trackless Trams the solution to our problems?

The CRRC Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit system, aka Trackless Tram (via N509Z)

Plenty of lobby groups and government bodies have floated the idea of installing "trackless trams" in cities around the world, but at the time of writing, the original 6.5km test track in Zhuzhou has only been succeeded by one line in revenue service, a 17.7km line in Yibin. This presents a huge problem - with basically no real-world examples to look at, people can make huge claims about how great (and especially how cheap) this technology is, and it's hard to sort fact from fiction. 

But the Federal Minister for Cities and Urban Infrastructure, Alan Tudge, announced a while back that the government would fund a business case for a trackless tram in Perth; and it's something that various lobby groups like to float for places closer to home like Geelong and Ballarat from time to time as well. So I'm going to do my best to cut through the hype, and see how they really stack up. 

New timetables for the Ballarat Line

With the Ballarat Line Upgrade project in its final push this month, we'll be getting upgraded services once the line reopens. We've known for a while the basic structure of the upgrades - every 20 minutes in the peak, and every 40 minutes off-peak - but as of Thursday night the full timetables have been released, so let's take a detailed look at what they mean for Ballaratians. 

Ten years of the Maryborough line

Friday was the 10-year anniversary of the government reopening the Maryborough line to passenger trains - so now's as good a time as any to take a look at the history of the line, how it works today, and what should happen for the future.

Save the Overland (Part 2)

The Overland leaving Ararat Station

The historic Overland is struggling to survive - dependant on government subsidies that it cannot rely on indefinitely. Yesterday I discussed why the Overland declined, why this mirrored other rail services in Victoria, and how those other services turned things around - with a bold strategic vision, and the funding to back it up. It should by now be abundantly clear to everyone involved with Victorian rail that if you build it, they will come - serious investments will be rewarded with increased passenger numbers, so rather than just small bandaid measures to keep the Overland on life support, we need to treat it with the same seriousness as any other line.

Save the Overland (Part 1)

Vintage poster for the Overland showing the old VR livery (via PROV)

The Overland has a long and storied history. The service began in 1887 with the completion of the Melbourne-Adelaide railway, though it wasn't called "The Overland" till the 1930s. It was originally run jointly by the Victorian and South Australian governments, with the South Australian portion being taken over by Australian National Railways in the 1970s, the Victorian government dropping out in the 1990s and the service privatised and sold to the Great Southern Rail company shortly after (note that GSR has recently been renamed "Journey Beyond"). Originally an overnight service with sleeper cars, it now runs as a conventional daylight service.

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

How else to get to Eureka Stadium?

In a previous post, I discussed the best place to put a train station serving Eureka Stadium. But building a train station is a big ask - even if it does make sense financially, it will take several years of lobbying and construction before the first train could call there. But matches are already being held, and the traffic and parking problems around the station are real - so what can be done in the meantime?

What's the best place for a Eureka Stadium Station?

Eureka Stadium (via Wikipedia)

Eureka Stadium (aka Mars Stadium) in Wendouree has had a lot of upgrades over the last few years, and they've recently started playing AFL matches there. It's great to see this kind of thing happening in Ballarat, but it's clear that in order to run something like an AFL match you need more than just a good oval and a big grandstand - you need a lot of surrounding infrastructure to get all the punters to the ground before the game, and away afterwards.

Waiting forever at Footscray

We in public transport circles often lobby for more frequent services, better-connecting services, and more consistent stopping patterns. There's a lot of theory behind why these are good ideas - but in a practical sense, what does it mean to the average person?

I'm currently planning a trip which is proving to be a good example. I need to get from Ballarat to Castlemaine, to attend a meeting at 1pm on a Saturday afternoon, and it's proving surprisingly difficult to do it without a ton of waiting around.

Castlemaine Station (via Wikipedia)