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 2: Buses

In Part 1, I talked about how great the changes to the rail network were. Things are less positive when it comes to the bus network. As I said, there are a lot of changes throughout the network, both in Melbourne and in the cities that RRL trains serve - so I can't comment on all of them. Some of the changes in Geelong or Melton may be great for all I know - although one commenter on Part 1 was unimpressed with the Deer Park bus tweaks. Even some of the other routes within Ballarat may have been changed for the better - not riding them every day, I can't be sure. But the route 10 Buninyong bus in Ballarat has been messed with, seemingly for no good reason, and it has made things unequivocally worse.

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.

Ballarat's walkable CBD

This blog deals primarily with public transport, but it is occasionally worth touching on other aspects of transport policy - after all, public transport is important, but it is only part of the way people get around a city.

Primer: Patronage versus Coverage

Public Transport has two primary goals, which actually compete with each other rather than complement each other - Patronage and Coverage. This distinction between the two functions matters a lot for how public transport networks are designed, and which projects are worthy of funding - but it's a distinction that's rarely made explicit. So you'll often have one group of people arguing for a project on the basis of Coverage and the other against it on the basis of Patronage - neither side is really speaking the same language, so the debate goes nowhere.

Railway Archaeology: Ballarat's Phoenix Foundry

Ballarat's Phoenix Foundry began producing various iron components for local businesses in 1856, moving onto stationary steam engines and eventually steam locomotives in the coming years. Initially one of many foundries in Ballarat, it came to dominate the locomotive business in Victoria and played a key role in transforming Ballarat's economy from being based solely on gold into the more diverse economy it has today. Despite this, it seems to be relatively unknown to most Ballaratians today.

Should we have free public transport?

A campaign was recently launched for free public transport in Victoria. The group behind this, Free PT Victoria, had a Twitter account and a website asking you to join, but both seem to have disappeared now, despite gaining a lot of approval from some of the people in my Twitter feed. Nonetheless, they're not the first to push for this and they won't be the last.

The website didn't seem to have any kind of detail on why they think it's a good idea, or how it would work. This is not that surprising, really, as people who advocate free public transport seem to think that it's fairly self-evident why we should have it - just as many of those who think we should pay for it think that's self-evident. So I think it's still worth exploring.