Melbourne visit January 2010

[ozbob]

Re Myki Mick.   Melbourne clearly has a fare structure that is nothing short of brilliant.   The equipment is a lot better designed and usable than go stuff.  Having used the go card for a couple of years it does allow a good comparison.  I had no problems using myki at all.  For someone used to the go card it is a no-brainer.  New folks will have a minor period of adjustment as for any new ticketing system.  I agree the Metcards work fine.

Much of the feedback in the Melbourne is due to the change to the new technology and processes.  The have a lot of software issues and things to sort but the basics are there.

The cost for the project is huge, partly because the system is to be state wide (81 zones).  I think it could have done for 50% less though.

There are some issues with the trams at the moment, possibly electrical interference.  I am sure that could be overcome with some shielding.

[O_128]

Its labor what do you expect. It wouldnt feel right if it wasnt 150% over budget and not functioning correctly

[Mick_L]

Thanks Mick.  The information I was given must have been jumbled, I suspect the Noojee closed as a result of the fires 1939 and re-opened 1941 and subsequently closed as you have indicated.  These temporary closures occurred a number of times following fires.

Cheers
Bob

I once posted a yarn from Patsy Adam Smith's "Folklore of the Australian Railwaymen" (Later reprinted in Outback Heros by the same author) about the Noojee Trestle Bridge in another forum. Noting that the line was closed from Nayook 3 days after the event described below,  I now doubt that the bride was the one photographed ealier in this thread - I doubt they would rebuild a bride on a closed section of line. However, reference to 'big trestle' is confusing. It does seem though, that the line to Noojee was indeed finally closed due to the loss of a large bridge. The Noojee bridge was apparently rebuilt three times on account of fire. Here is the story:

It was 23 March 1954. I was on Warragul Yard. Stan Stewart, a Melbourne driver, rushed up and said he had to relieve us as we had to go to Noojee. We told him that someone was pulling his leg as we didn't run Noojee's at 8pm on Saturday nights. Jim Steer my fireman went off to find out who was the jokier but in minutes flat he was back shouting we had to got Noojee as the biggest trestle bridge was on fire.

We collected six water tanks and N460 and took off for the bridge. After a wild ride we arrived to find the points of the bridge burning, dry leaves and rubbish had blown into the points and now it was all ablaze. We took the train to the middle of the bridge and the repairers, the gang, worked their way past the engine hanging on by their finger tips with nothing between them and a 100 foot drop. They were magnificent. there was no railing on the bridge, but they crept on the end of their toes past us. we had 10000 gallons of water. The gang - us to for that matter - believe to this day that we culd have saved the bridge if we were allowed to use the water. Instead they tried to bring hose pipes over the hill.

Well, as time went on, I wasn't any too happy with us there on the loco in the middle of a burning bridge. I was squinting back along the track in the darkness lit up orange by fire and as soon as I saw the guards lamp move sideways I backed off the bridge without any further invitation. We sat there and watch the bridge crash down into the valley; it was a terrible thing. Then we be backed up to Naynook.

[ozbob]

Interesting yarn, thanks.  Checked out your blog too Mick,  nice photographs.  Would have been impressive in the steam days.

[verbatim9]

I like what the new rail boss had to say down here in Melbourne, Reported from the age

Train timetables 'too complicated'
CLAY LUCAS
January 16, 2010
MELBOURNE'S timetables are far too complicated and need to be drastically simplified as part of a major two-year regeneration of the rail network, the new head of the city's rail system says.

A ''run-to-failure philosophy'' that had endured under previous train operators was no longer good enough, Metro chief executive Andrew Lezala said yesterday in an interview with The Age.

''It is time for the railways to step up now and play our part in keeping Melbourne moving, because with another 1 million people coming in the next 15 years, the roads simply won't cope,'' he said.

Mr Lezala does not own a car in Melbourne, does not yet have a myki card and rides the tram to work from his inner-city home.

Yesterday, at the end of another torrid week for Melbourne train travellers - with 43-degree heat on Monday resulting in 247 of 2050 scheduled services being cancelled - Mr Lezala said the city deserved better.

Melbourne needed a public transport system as good as that of Hong Kong or Singapore, he said, and the existing system needed upgrading to run reliably in temperatures as hot as 45 degrees.

Mr Lezala said Metro had embarked upon several projects to improve Melbourne's rail system. These would ultimately take two years to work their way through the system. ''But that is too long to wait for an improvement in reliability,'' he said, stressing that Metro was working on a range of immediate fixes to make the system noticeably better.

A simplified timetable was needed so customers could remember it, and so train controllers could recover the system when things went wrong, he said.

''We have some fantastic train controllers and they keep in their heads a timetable that is more complex than many I have seen,'' he said.

Mr Lezala said he deliberately did not own a car in Melbourne. ''I am an advocate of public transport. I like the tram network because the frequency is such that you do not need to understand the timetable.''

The train network needed that frequency, he said. The Public Transport Users Association campaigned in 2008 to get trains, trams and buses running every 10 minutes. He said this was the correct approach.

Mr Lezala said Melbourne's trains, tracks, signalling and overhead power all needed much work. He said the way the last train contracts were structured ''created a bit of tribalism'' that led to a blame game.

The complex contracts that Connex operated under were set up in 2004 by consultants and senior bureaucrats who included the now Secretary of the Department of Transport, Jim Betts.

The contracts established Connex as train operator, another company, Mainco, as track maintainer and a third firm, United - now part of Metro Trains - as train repairer.

The new contracts bring responsibility for all of this into one company, Metro. Mr Lezala - who repeatedly apologised to the public this week for Monday's problems - said people should expect excellent service from Metro. ''If it is not going right, we should apologise and let people know what we are doing about it.''

Overhead power lines on the city's train network are now his biggest concern after wires sagged in this week's heat, causing cancellations.

Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky had been ''very successful at getting finances for this railway'', said Mr Lezala, 54, who has worked on railways in Asia, Europe and Australia.

''I've worked with a lot of politicians ... and the sincerity with which they [the State Government] want to make this system better is fantastic compared to a lot of other places.''

http://www.theage.com.au/national/train-timetables-too-complicated-20100115-mck6.html

[longboi]

When Mr Lezala is done with Melbourne, maybe he can come up to Queensland and knock some sense into QR's timetable planners  

[O_128]

When Mr Lezala is done with Melbourne, maybe he can come up to Queensland and knock some sense into QR's timetable planners  

please please please.

[stephenk]

I will +1 on the backlit Myki card reader screens being much more readable than Go-Card readers (which are verging on unreadable in low light, bright light, at wide angles, and whilst wearing polarising sunnies). There are also more obvious than the Go-Card readers, so would be much harder for new users to accidently walk past and forget to touch on/off.