-----Original Message-----
From: Roderick Smith [mailto:rodsmith@werple.net.au]
Sent: Friday, 26 May 2017 1:39 PM
To: 'transportdownunder@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: Snippets, Fri.26.5.17

Enclosed:

170526F Metro Twitter - 1985 Flagstaff (PTV).

170526F Melbourne 'Herald Sun' - horse vehicles.

Roderick.

Metro Twitter Thurs.25.5.
Have you noticed a few flagpoles missing from Flinders St station dome?
They're being kept safe during works, and will be back soon. (PTV).
Fri.26.5
Metro proudly supports the Salvos Red Shield Appeal. Keep an eye out for
collectors at your station.
Flagstaff station is 32 years old on Sat.27.5. It's also 32 metres deep.

Melbourne Express: Friday, May 26, 2017.
Keep an eye out for the Salvos at Melbourne railway stations today. They
will be out in force with their collection tins for the Red Shield Appeal.
<www.theage.com.au/victoria/melbourne-express-friday-may-26-2017-20170525-gw
cuvk.html>

May 25 2017 Green Square is Sydney's 'public transport disaster' even before
apartments built .
When Shelley Simonian began catching city-bound trains from Green Square six
years ago she often waited with only a handful of other passengers on the
platform.
Nowadays, passengers flood into the station on the Airport Line during the
morning peak for trains that are often overflowing before they reach Green
Square in Sydney's inner south.
"It's pretty chocker now, and that is before all these apartments [are
built]. I am curious to know what it will look like after that," she said.
While underscoring the growing pressure on Sydney's train network, Green
Square risks becoming a congestion choke zone for the entire city because of
the extra tens of thousands of people who will call it home over the next
decade.
The number of passengers passing through Green Square station on a week day
is already estimated to have more than doubled in a year - from an average
of 4810 in 2015 to 9766 last year. And that is before thousands of new
apartments are built.
Mathew Hounsell, a researcher at the University of Technology's Institute
for Sustainable Futures who did the modelling, said the surge in apartments
around Green Square meant the only solution was high-capacity public
transport such as light rail. "No transport expert believes that buses can
service the demand," he said.
Transport Minister Andrew Constance freely admits Green Square is "public
transport disaster" but blames the previous Labor governments for allowing a
high concentration of apartments without plans for an "appropriate
mass-transport solution".
The City of Sydney has pushed the state government to commit to a light rail
line from the central city to Green Square, and has spent $40 million buying
land to preserve a 4-kilometre corridor from Central Station.
Local resident Shelley Simonian has seen huge change in the past six years.
Photo: Peter Rae .
The challenge for the "Green Square urban renewal area" - encompassing
Waterloo, Zetland, and parts of Alexandria and Rosebery - is plain in
forecasts of a near tripling of its population from 21,000 people to more
than 61,000 within 12 years.
With 22,000 people packed into each square kilometre by 2030, it will easily
become the most densely populated part of Australia.
Patronage at Green Square is estimated to have doubled in the past year.
Photo: Peter Rae .
At the moment, Pyrmont in inner Sydney holds the title with 14,000 people
per sq km (the average across the city is 390 people).
Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said residents in the precinct did not see
public transport as a "looming disaster but one they experience every day".
Many trains in the morning are crowded before they get to Green Square.
Photo: Peter Rae .
"We had the foresight to acquire the corridor before land value and
development made a light rail line near impossible, but the NSW government
is responsible for Sydney's transport network - after years of lobbying them
to build it, it's still not clear whether this essential project will go
ahead," she said.
"The government is enjoying the stamp duty rewards from apartment
construction in this area, now it's time for them to provide ... essential
services."
The area's population is forecast to almost triple over the next 12 years.
Photo: Peter Rae .
Mr Constance said he would not rule in or out the government opting for a
light rail line to Green Square, saying he did not want to pre-empt a
transport master plan due later this year. "I have asked our agency to look
at all options," he said.
However, he said short-term measures would have to rely on improvements to
the bus network and encouraging "active transport" such as cycling.
The Committee for Sydney told a federal transport inquiry last year that
there was a "growing realisation that we are going to need to augment public
transport in and around Green Square with a light rail service" - even with
the existing heavy rail line from the airport and plans for a metro railway
station at Waterloo.
However, the advocacy group said the problem was funding a new light rail
line because the government was unlikely to have money left over from
constructing a $2.1 billion light rail line from the CBD to the city's south
east and the new metro line.
It has suggested the council impose a "special rate" on residents, which
could raise more than $12 million in revenue a year. In addition to fares,
it said a levy would "go a long way to repaying the cost of capital"
required to build the line.
Local resident Russ Johnson has been catching the train from Green Square
for the past three years, and "lately it has got a lot more densely
populated at peak hour".
"At peak hours in the morning you have to be in the right place at the right
time. It's standing room only every day in the mornings," he said. "It's
going to be like Tokyo and Hong Kong."
The crowding was challenging because trains picked up passengers at Sydney
Airport who carried large bags after arriving on flights. "They don't
realise they are [about to get] on a peak-hour train," he said.
Transport for NSW said it had made a concerted effort in recent years to
ensure that public transport to and from Green Square kept pace with its
development.
Since 2011, an extra 400 weekly trips have been added to the M2 and 343 bus
routes through the area - half of which began in February.
Infrastructure Australia has put the need for better transport links between
Sydney's CBD and Green Square among the country's top infrastructure
priorities.
Related Content:
Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance.
Green Square needs light rail, minister says in break from past .
Tram services on the new light rail are due to begin in early 2019.
Sydney's transport blind spot .
More videos.
The reason CBD train trips cost more.
A quirk from the time of paper tickets means some commuters are unwittingly
paying to travel further than the actual distance of their trip.
<www.smh.com.au/nsw/green-square-is-sydneys-public-transport-disaster-even-b
efore-apartments-built-20170523-gwazy9.html>

May 26 2017 Privatise public transport and reap the benefits, Infrastructure
Australia says.
Victoria could save about $1 billion - enough money to buy 80 new E-Class
trams - by putting its struggling bus network out to competitive tender, the
Turnbull government's infrastructure adviser says.
Infrastructure Australia wants state governments to hand the operation of
their public transport systems over to private operators, arguing they could
cut costs and improve service quality by doing so.
Infrastructure Australia says Metro Trains' franchise agreement with the
Victorian government has been a success. Photo: Craig Abraham .
The federal authority argues Victoria's example of entering franchise
agreements with Metro Trains and Yarra Trams is the shining light other
states should follow.
The former Kennett government's decision in 1999 to replace an inefficient
state-run public transport system with a leaner privately operated one put
Melbourne on the path to better and more cost-effective train and tram
services, Infrastructure Australia says.
The independent authority's chairman, Mark Birrell, was a senior minister in
the Kennett government.
But the authority argues the job of opening up Melbourne's public transport
system to competition will only be complete once it has put the city's
entire bus network out to tender.
Economic modelling by consultants PwC found this would save the state $841
million to $1.08 billion between now and 2040.
Adrian Dwyer, Infrastructure Australia's Executive Director of Policy and
Research, said demand for public transport in Melbourne is on course to
double between 2011 and 2030, and the government had to invest wisely to
handle the rapid growth.
"These savings could be reinvested back into the public transport system to
deliver new trains, trams and buses, station upgrades or additional network
capacity - all of which will be vital to cope with the expected increase in
passenger demand," Mr Dwyer said.
The Andrews government announced in February its intention to phase out
Melbourne's historical system of exclusive bus contracts, many of which have
been held by the same company for decades.
Industry group the Bus Association said at the time it would fight to keep
the current system in place.
Only Transdev, which operates 30 per cent of the city's bus routes, won its
contract through a competitive tender process. A 2015 report by Victoria's
Auditor-General found the tender process was yet to deliver value for money
for the state.
Infrastructure Australia has offered its advice in a paper titled Improving
Public Transport: Customer Focused Franchising, released on Friday.
Franchising is the term for when a government privatises the operation of
the public transport system through a competitive bidding process, but keeps
ownership of the infrastructure such as trains, trams and stations.
This is the system by which Metro and Yarra Trams have been contracted and
are rewarded or penalised for hitting performance targets.
Mr Dwyer said franchising had delivered a better system for Melbourne
passengers.
"Customer satisfaction with Melbourne's tram and train services is at a
15-year high," he said. "Performance targets for private operators have
driven clear improvements in punctuality with, for example, on-time running
for Melbourne's Metro improving by 7.1 percentage points since 2009."
Victoria's franchising system has its critics.
John Stone is senior lecturer in transport planning at the University of
Melbourne and argued Infrastructure Australia had glossed over many flaws.
"The problem is that once you bring a private company in they are very
skilled at finding ways of increasing revenue without improving service, for
example Metro's stop-skipping in Melbourne," Dr Stone said.
He argued Metro's improved punctuality performance was illusory because it
had been achieved in part by padding out the timetable on some lines, such
as the Frankston line.
"Changes in punctuality have been masked by changes to the definition of
what a punctual train is and slack that has been introduced to the
timetable," Dr Stone said.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union is campaigning to renationalise Melbourne's
rail and tram networks. Victorian branch secretary Luba Grigorovitch said
franchising was popular "with governments looking to distance themselves
from responsibility".
"Whether it's short-shunting trams that dump passengers to get a bonus, or
massive maintenance backlogs that impact on service reliability, Victorians
know the profits from franchising are built on shortcuts," Ms Grigorovitch
said.
Related Content:
Services on the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines have been partially suspended.

Billions go to train and tram operators with little improvement .
Melbourne's bus contracts are set to be overhauled.
The $600 million fix for Melbourne's least popular public transport .
<www.theage.com.au/victoria/privatise-public-transport-and-reap-the-benefits
-infrastructure-australia-says-20170525-gwcymv.html>

May 26 2017 Uber for buses? The inner west might soon find out what that
means .
Bus passengers in Sydney's inner west may be able to summon smaller vehicles
to pick them up on demand, according to Andrew Constance's vision for a
franchised bus operation in the area.
But the bus union has rubbished the idea, saying on-demand buses are a
fanciful notion for the inner city.
A 24-hour bus strike added to traffic and commuter woes in Sydney's inner
west last week. Photo: Peter Rae .
In the two years since Mr Constance assumed the Transport Minister's job
from Gladys Berejiklian, he has been an enthusiast for using technological
change to overhaul transport services.
The minister legalised the use of ride-sharing services such as UberX in
2015. And now that he has embarked on his first major industrial relations
battle in the job - a face-off with inner west bus drivers that has already
triggered a day's strike - he is keen to open up public transport to new
ways of doing things.
"Bus companies themselves can play in the ride-sharing space, start running
small mini-buses around, on-demand services," Mr Constance said this week.
A fortnight ago he announced that buses in the inner west, currently run by
the government-owned State Transit, would be "franchised" to a private
operator.
The minister said the government would talk to the market over the next
month or so, and then seek requests from private operators.
"Out of that I want to see innovation come into it," Mr Constance said. "I
want to see how we can use technology, particularly in some of those smaller
areas and smaller suburbs, where you might be able to run some on-demand
services and how they can link into the broader network."
Under the government's model, the state will own buses and depots, and be
responsible for timetables and fares. But Mr Constance said the bus fleet
could be complemented by smaller vehicles. These would not run down the main
corridors in the inner west, such as Parramatta Road, but potentially on
smaller suburban streets.
The secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union's bus division, Chris Preston,
dismissed Mr Constance's idea.
"He is fanciful if he thinks he's going to be able to create this Uber-style
transportation for buses," Mr Preston said.
He said councils in Sydney's north already ran loop buses and these often
ran with few passengers.
"Whenever you don't have somebody in your bus and you are driving and your
wheels are moving, that is an expense," Mr Preston said.
"If he thinks he can run a network on demand and it is going to make money,
and it is not going to be a burden for the taxpayer, he's laughable."
Corinne Mulley, professor of public transport at the Institute of Transport
and Logistics Studies at Sydney University, said there was scope for
innovation in bus services in Sydney.
Professor Mulley said route changes could work in the inner west if they
were complemented by higher frequencies on major routes.
"My view would be that places like Burwood might have small vehicles that
take people to Parramatta Road where they would interchange to a core
service. This could increase the frequency for people who live in Burwood,"
she said.
"It could work as an innovation if the network planning was restructured."
This type of change would require bus passengers to interchange between
services. The overseas experience, Professor Mulley said, was that
passengers accepted interchanging if it was easy and quick.
But she was sceptical about the use of mini-buses. "This was trialled in the
UK following deregulation and while it upped the frequency, operators found
that minibuses were not as reliable or cost effective."
Meanwhile Infrastructure Australia, the federal advisory body, released a
report on Friday arguing that "franchising" more bus and train services
could save NSW about $9 billion by 2040.
Mr Constance said a new operator should be in place in the inner west by
July 2018.
<www.smh.com.au/nsw/uber-for-buses-the-inner-west-might-soon-find-out-what-t
hat-means-20170525-gwd9w1.html>