BrizCommuter Blog

[BrizCommuter]

http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/suburb-severed-by-qr.html
Two rotting bridges closed in Alderley
Temporary bridge closure on Rosewood Line
100km of potentially dangerous track
Concerned?

[HappyTrainGuy]

Nope 

[BrizCommuter]

http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/translinks-network-plan-201112-pass-or.html
TransLink Network Plan 2011 - Pass or Fail? You can probably guess!

[somebody]

How's counter peak on the Northern Busway doing after 330+340 BUZing?

[SurfRail]

http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/translinks-network-plan-201112-pass-or.html
TransLink Network Plan 2011 - Pass or Fail? You can probably guess!

I'd say it would be a fail by virtue of it not being an actual plan!

2012 still MIA and we hit the 2012/2013 fin year tomorrow.

[BrizCommuter]

How's counter peak on the Northern Busway doing after 330+340 BUZing?

As it's been the uni exam period and holidays since the changes, then there hasn't been much observed overcrowding (just 1 full bus observed). The proof in the pudding will be when university starts again in a few weeks.

[BrizCommuter]

http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/23-minutes.html
A 23 minute wait for...

[BrizCommuter]

http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/london-olympics-2012-vs-gold-coast.html
Public transport options to/from London Olympics 2012 vs Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018.

[Mr X]

I'd be a bit cautious about the comparison you are trying to make there, BC.

[Gazza]

What do you mean Mr X, GC 2018 is totally the same calibre as London 2012 

[BrizCommuter]

I'd be a bit cautious about the comparison you are trying to make there, BC.

Why be cautions? Both are major sporting events.

London - decent public transport, good public transport legacy.
Gold Coast - stadium half the size, but poor public transport, no/limited public transport legacy.

[Gazza]

but poor public transport

Nothing wrong with buses so long as they are deployed properly.

Its bad enough IMO we're stuck having to build venues that will be white elephants after the games, but it seems to be throwing good money after bad to be building rail infrastructure (Implied by the London comparsion?) out to these places, which would be underutlised lines IMO.

Its implied that Carrara is lacking because it wont have an LRT line going past....But what is along that coridoor that warrants a line full time?

[SurfRail]

A few buses sounds just fine thank you.  The stadium is in woop woop and being on a floodplain/riverbank there is no prospect for significant redevelopment.  PT capacity elsewhere in the city is much more important.

50000 attendees / 75 per bus movement = somewhere between 650 and 700 bus movements.  With a few hundred loaners from interstate it should be just fine.

[somebody]

Would a few hundred loaners be possible?  I'd imagine it would need to be school holidays.

[colinw]

LRT to Carrara is a dumb idea, with a capital D. Pure foamer fantasy.

Frequent bus service to rail @ Nerang and LRT at Broadbeach will do nicely for GC 2018.

[SurfRail]

Would a few hundred loaners be possible?  I'd imagine it would need to be school holidays.

It probably will be anyway.  The same thing happened for Sydney 2000 - buses from everywhere descended on the place.

I don't foresee a major problem. 

One of the good things about the games is that new major facilities will largely not be required.  Carrara can be scaled up to 50,000 temporarily and them scaled down to its usual 30,000-ish pretty quickly and without mammoth expense - the other upgraded facilities should see some good use even for local purposes.

[BrizCommuter]

http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/fare-petitions-empty-road-tunnels-and.html
Fare petition, another empty road tunnel, and more TransLink incompetence.

[Golliwog]

http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/fare-petitions-empty-road-tunnels-and.html
Fare petition, another empty road tunnel, and more TransLink incompetence.

This time it was probably the printing guy on holidays. Either that or they're trying to avoid the questioning from passengers as to why there's a whole new timetable but no changes to peak hour.

[Gazza]

You should tweet this at QR, they always answer every tweet, so you should get some traction.

[BrizCommuter]

You should tweet this at QR, they always answer every tweet, so you should get some traction.

BrizCommuter is not on twitter.
Still no paper timetable available this morning.

[Golliwog]

You should tweet this at QR, they always answer every tweet, so you should get some traction.

BrizCommuter is not on twitter.
Still no paper timetable available this morning.

I messaged them on Facebook. Got a response this morning that was a link to the Translink page on it. I responded that my main issue was the lack of signage at the stations. No response on that yet.

However, that said I did note this afternoon at both Park Rd and Ferny Grove they had A4 notices of the changes with the times past the hour the new trains would be running. The one at Park Rd was on the wall of the ticket office (down on platform 2/3) next to the A4 sign about upcoming track closure. The one at Ferny Grove was in a similar location near the new ticket office. My problem with this is that neither sign is big enough to get anyone attention and so they're failing pretty badly to advertise the upgraded timetable.

[SurfRail]

People from QR read this forum.  Ask yourselves this question:

Do you miss basic things like this because of lack of attention to detail, or do you have to actually study to be this bad?

[HappyTrainGuy]

What would be interesting to know is who is responsible for it? Is it QR that should be advertising Translinks services or is it Translinks responsibility for advertising its own services via QRs marketing dept/its own dept. I know that this has been an issue before with TravelTrain advertising/WIFI/Quiet Carriage vs Translink/Citytrain advertising.

[BrizCommuter]

As of 8:30am this morning (<1 working day to go), still no new paper timetables at FG Line stations. FAIL!

[SurfRail]

Not surprised.

Why would they care when they have no reason to increase their patronage?

[Gazza]

As of 8:30am this morning (<1 working day to go), still no new paper timetables at FG Line stations. FAIL!

I Tweeted, and got this response...What is the station you use?

@gazzads Hi, believe they're already out at stations. Certain they're at FG. Which stations would you be able to collect from & we'll check.

[BrizCommuter]

As of 8:30am this morning (<1 working day to go), still no new paper timetables at FG Line stations. FAIL!

I Tweeted, and got this response...What is the station you use?

@gazzads Hi, believe they're already out at stations. Certain they're at FG. Which stations would you be able to collect from & we'll check.

It was Enoggera, which is one of the better staffed stations on the FG Line.

Thanks for tweeting. 

[Golliwog]

So far the only saving grace was that the guard on my inbound train this morning mentioned the changes 3 times. But thats still only 1 working day before the changes are implemented.

[BrizCommuter]

http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/brizcommuter-becomes-melbcommuter.html
BrizCommuter becomes MelbCommuter for a week.

[ozbob]

Nice summary Briz.   Melbourne is a good system overall, still recovering from the years of infrastructure neglect though although much better these days. 

Anything on 5'3" has to be good .. LOL  (only jiving ... )

[Gazza]

The luminous yellow readers are also much harder to miss than the metallic grey go card readers.

GoCard readers have been orange for quite a while now.

[BrizCommuter]

The luminous yellow readers are also much harder to miss than the metallic grey go card readers.

GoCard readers have been orange for quite a while now.

When the stickers are still on. There is no lack of un-stickered go card readers around.

[BrizCommuter]

http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/how-auck-ward-for-brisbane.html
BrizCommuter jumps on the Auckland bandwagon.

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

20th October 2012

How Auck-ward for Brisbane!

Greetings,

Well worth the time to read this blog article:  How Auck-ward for Brisbane!

--> http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/how-auck-ward-for-brisbane.html

Events this week have further confirmed the path  of failure we are on.

Other worthwhile links:

The Urbanist
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/theurbanist/2012/10/14/what-can-auckland-tell-us-about-doing-public-transport-better/

Transport Blog NZ
http://transportblog.co.nz/2012/10/04/october-rail-timetable-changes/

Human Transit
http://www.humantransit.org/2012/10/auckland-how-network-redesign-can-transform-a-citys-possibilities.html

There are many worthwhile lessons to be learned from NZ and other Australian States.  Queensland, particularly SEQ is being seriously damaged by a failing transport bureaucracy .

Best wishes
Robert

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org

[#Metro]

Let's not forget this abomination --->

SEQ: Perth overtakes SEQ rail patronage

http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=7818.msg89887#msg89887

[BrizCommuter]

Brisbane - a 1960s theme park!
http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/brisbane-1960s-theme-park.html
Amusing, but sadly true. 

[ozbob]

LOL ...   

[Gazza]

Coincidentally, I've ridden the actual worlds longest stand up roller coaster :

http://www.parkz.com.au/photo/US/Valencia/Six_Flags_Magic_Mountain/313-Riddler_s_Revenge/0,1,4345-Riddlers_Revenge_Loading_Station.html

[BrizCommuter]

Coincidentally, I've ridden the actual worlds longest stand up roller coaster :

http://www.parkz.com.au/photo/US/Valencia/Six_Flags_Magic_Mountain/313-Riddler_s_Revenge/0,1,4345-Riddlers_Revenge_Loading_Station.html

So has BrizCommuter. As with many B&Ms, thought it was a bit too "vanilla".
"X" at SFMM, now that's a different story!

[Gazza]

Gazza is amused that BrizCommuter knows what a B&M is 

Though I'd disagree that Riddlers was vanilla...It seemed like a good example of the old school generation of B&Ms (Like Nemesis, the Batman clones, Kumba etc) when they were still doing intense rides.
That said, they do seem to do seem to get back to their roots on the odd occassion (Eg Oz'iris, Starry Sky Ripper)