Fact-checking The Australia Institute's EV Mythbusting

The Australia Institute has been very vocally opposed to Victoria's EV tax, and recently put out a video called Electric Vehicle Myths Busted with Dan Bleakley from Coal Miners Driving Teslas. While the video does a good job of calling out some of the myths that right-wing politicians and culture warriors have been circulating for years, it also repeats some of the myths TAI have been perpetuating throughout the EV tax debate - so I thought I'd quickly run through it and fact-check them. As I've said before, EVs are much better than ICE vehicles - but they're no silver bullet. 

Audrey Quicke & Richie Merzian from The Australia Institute

A new station for Deer Park

Draft design for the new Deer Park Station (via LXRA)

A few weeks ago, LXRA announced that the removal of the Mount Derrimut Road level crossing and the revamp of Deer Park Station would be happening a year ahead of schedule - it'll still happen a bit after the Robinsons Road and Fitzgerald Road crossings, presumably to help manage local traffic during construction, but they're now aiming for 2024 instead of 2025. They've also released some draft designs for the new station, and consultation has just opened, so let's take a look. 

Travel Diaries: Germany and Denmark (Part 2)

Bombardier Twindexx train on a DB Regio Schleswig-Holstein service (via Regionalbahn 77)

After a few days spent checking out Hamburg, I was off to Denmark. I ended up with a First Class ticket on a cheap deal for the first leg of my trip, on a double-decker DB Regio train to Flensburg, right on the Danish border. 

Travel Diaries: Germany and Denmark (Part 1)

The outbound (red) and inbound (blue) paths of my trip

A few days after I got back from London, I was off again - this time heading east, on a bit of a loop through Germany and Denmark. 

Designs for the new Bridge Mall

Renders for the new Bridge Mall design (via CoB)

The City of Ballarat's chosen design firm, Hassell, has come back with a preferred design option for the Bridge Mall. It's going before Council for approval tonight, so let's take a look. 

Updated drafts for Deer Park level crossings

The new design for Robinsons Rd, looking south (via LXRA)

About nine months after releasing their first draft designs, the Level Crossing Removal Authority (LXRA) have released updated drafts for the Robinsons Rd, Deer Park and Fitzgerald Rd, Ardeer level crossing removals. I made some suggestions when the initial drafts were released, so let's take a look and see what's different. 

New Ballarat bus timetables

A bus heading down Sturt Street

With very substantial changes to the timetables on the Ballarat rail line introduced at the end of January, the Department of Transport has revamped the timetables for the Ballarat bus network, and launched them last weekend. Let's take a look at what this means.