The state of Melbourne's public transport - 7 News

[ozbob]

--> http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/vic/watch/28582263/the-state-of-melbournes-public-transport/

The state of Melbourne's public transport

Figures show that despite many criticisms Melbourne's public transport is a system we can't do without.

March 12, 2012, 6:27 pm

[somebody]

What's their main complaint?  Overcrowding due to growth in use.  Sounds like a good problem to have.

I'm glad we don't have stupid yearly tickets here.

[#Metro]

I like to compare with Toronto.

Patronage on the TTC is about the same as Melbourne and they are looking at expansion (Light Rail as feeder services) and are currently expanding the main subway artery further north and upgrading the line with larger vehicles.

Melbourne has an extensive network, which means better access to rail, but it also means high cost and subsidy because you have 10 lines and 200+ stations or whatever the number is
doing the same job as a system with just 4 and 69 stations. The amount of heavy maintenance and rollingstock you need to service that is just massive, and not only that the Melbourne bus network is absolutely and completely awful. I reckon Brisbane does a better job!

The sooner they get a single network organisation like TL, the better.

I always shake my head when people propose Car Rapid Transit for growing cities. If your city (i.e. Us) is moving towards being a Sydney or a Melbourne or a Hong Kong, there are very good geometric and physics reasons as to why the balance needs to shift to PT. Do people really think London, Paris, Hong Kong get people moving around by car? There would be no space!

Melbourne needs to sort out its own core by solving the "everything to the centre" problem by separating out lines within the core and decentralising the core more. A lot of these expensive rail projects - Rail to Avalon, Rail to Rowville, Rail to Doncaster should probably be cancelled and the money spent on (a) fixing up the core and decentralising it; and (b) putting more buses on. In the case of Avalon, Roville and Doncaster, BRT would be a good option IMHO.

[Jonas Jade]

Melbourne already has Metro 1, which is the CRR equivalent to "fix the core", and the current government (Liberal!) is establishing the transport body to coordinate services as we speak.

Metro's network plan is fairly clear and pratical, and it has spelled out a lot that needs to happen, and these upgrades are proceeding as fast as they can at current.

Doncaster is already served by BRT-lite - the "Smartbus" - a pseudo-BUZ network (runs 30 minutes after 9 and on weekends  ), and if you look at the options for rail recently presented, could be used to form another decentralised route skirting the CBD fringe. Rowville is a furphy since it requires upgrades to the Dandenong corridor before anything can be done, but they have buses operating every couple of minutes to Monash already, and their own Smartbus 900(?) route.

Avalon, at present is served fine by the Sunbus but they've scaled back rail plans aiui to be connections to Lara station, rather than the previously mooted heavy rail link straight in to the airport.

[somebody]

Melbourne already has Metro 1, which is the CRR equivalent

I'd say that the city loop was the CRR equivalent.

[#Metro]

I'd say that the city loop was the CRR equivalent.

It did increase capacity and decentralise to an extent, but let's say a train broke down in the loop and had to be fished out.
Would the entire network go into chaos and cascading delays on multiple lines - yes it would.

If a train broke down on Toronto's Yonge University Spadina subway at either Union (= Central for us) or Bloor-Yonge (= Roma Street for us), services on the other lines
would continue to run. Indeed on weekends when doing maintainence on the core, the TTC can still operate the network without the core in operation (i.e. core is shut down), and can divert trains onto other lines as well. The risk of network-wide cascading delays is low IMHO.

http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/local/article/11894--ttc-diversion-gives-riders-chance-to-see-station-hidden-for-40-years

[Jonas Jade]

To be fair, for an incident in the loop, it would be cascading delays on "groups" of lines. Eg, an incident in the Burnley loop would delay that group (which affects the Glen Waverley, Belgrave, Lilydale and Alamein lines) but the Caulfield, North and Clifton Hill groups could still operate.

The massive failures in Melbourne have been at Flinders St & Southern Cross where all trains have to go through presently, and the City Loop did nothing to remove the lines from those locations.

Metro 1 is a much more "CRR" project as it provides a complete alternate path through the city (that the Loop didn't do - still have to go to Flinders St/Southern Cross) from Footscray to South Yarra, and opens up new stations & development opportunities (ala CRR @ Gabba + Albert St) at Parkville & Domain.