-----Original Message-----
From: Roderick Smith [mailto:rodsmith@werple.net.au]
Sent: Friday, 24 November 2017 10:22 PM
To: 'transportdownunder@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: Snippets / daily digest, Fri.24.11.17

Attached:

171124F Melbourne 'Age' - airport link.

171124F Melbourne 'Herald Sun'
- Alinta Loy Yang. with tdu.
- airport railway.
- Swanston St tunnel.
- Metro Movember.
- backup electricity. with tdu.
- Victoria infrastructure funding.
- Comeng (stock).

Roderick

Metro Twitter, Fri.24.11.17
- 18.07 The 19 is packed by the time it gets to Melbourne Central. Sorry to
those waiting from there up.
- 18.19 Route 19 trams may experience higher than usual demand because of
the Upfield line disruption. Please allow extra travel time for your
journey. [The usual stupid phrasing].

Melbourne Express: Friday, November 24, 2017 .
The world's appetite for coal may be dwindling, but it is far from dead.
Yesterday, the Yarra Valley's Loy Yang B brown goal power station was sold
for $1.1 billion to Chinese energy giant Alinta.
The purchase of the plant comes as Victoria is set to face its first summer
without a reliable supply if electricity from Hazelwood, which once supplied
20 per cent of the state's electricity.
Loy Yang Power stations A and B in Victoria's Latrobe Valley Photo: Paul
Jones
A proposed airport rail link via Sunshine has won the support of transport
engineers and planners who say the Andrews government route has serious
merit.
A train line to the airport has been discussed for 50 years but has never
been built.
Read our city editor Clay Lucas's full report here.
<www.theage.com.au/victoria/melbourne-express-friday-november-24-2017-201711
23-gzrvpu.html>

November 23 2017 Sunshine route to Melbourne Airport backed by rail group.
The latest vision for a rail line to Melbourne Airport has been backed by
transport engineers and planners who say the Andrews government's Sunshine
route has serious merit.
A Melbourne Airport train line has been discussed for almost 50 years, with
the first bill to begin its construction introduced to the Victorian
parliament in 1965.
A Melbourne airport rail line has been planned since the mid-1960s but the
Andrews government says construction will begin on the rail link between
Southern Cross Station and Tullamarine airport within less than a decade.
It has never been built.
On Thursday, Premier Daniel Andrews told a business gathering that
construction of the airport rail link would begin within a decade.
The announcement drew immediate ridicule from the Opposition, which produced
a 1999 Labor pledge for a "rapid transit link" to the airport.
"This isn't an announcement, it's a media stunt," Opposition public
transport spokesman David Davis said of Thursday's announcement.
But Mr Andrews said that "planning has already begun" on the rail link,
which had "the potential to unlock western and northern Victoria".
The Sunshine route for an airport train has been given the thumbs up by
planners and engineers. Photo: Paul Jeffers "It can create the extra
capacity that we need in the congested rail corridor between Melbourne and
Sunshine," he said.
While the government released scant detail of its planning work, the
information that has emerged mirrors a proposal by Rail Futures, a group of
respected transport engineers and planners.
In May the group released its plan for an airport rail line via Sunshine
that would see regional trains, including those to Bendigo, running via the
airport.
Rail Futures president John Hearsch, an experienced rail industry
consultant, said an airport rail link needed to get from the CBD within 15
minutes.
It also had to be very reliable, separated from the suburban network, and
"well and truly future proof".
Melbourne's rapid population growth at its fringes is placing immense
pressure on the city's regional trains.
The Regional Rail Link, a new line through Melbourne's west for regional
trains, opened in 2015.
It connected some of Australia's fastest growing suburbs to the rail system
and turned the Geelong line into a "pseudo-suburban service" with increased
overcrowding and slower journey times.
The Regional Rail Link's two suburban stations in Tarneit and Wyndham Vale
already carry almost half the Geelong line's passengers, despite opening
only two years ago.
Mr Andrews said in his speech to the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and
Industry that an airport rail link would untangle Geelong and Ballarat line
trains from the metro network.
He also said it would enable the electrification of services to Melbourne's
western suburbs.
This would mean electrifying the Regional Rail Link - which runs only diesel
trains - as far as Wyndham Vale and building a new pair of tracks alongside
it for express Geelong trains.
Similarly it would mean electrifying the Ballarat line to Melton or even
Bacchus Marsh and building separate tracks for Ballarat trains.
Paul Westcott, the Public Transport Users Association's Geelong convener,
said Geelong passengers "think they've been dudded" by the Regional Rail
Link.
"Overcrowding has been exacerbated by Geelong lines having to become pseudo
metro trains," he said.
Similar problems had emerged on the Ballarat line since Caroline Springs
station opened in January, he said.
Mr Westcott described the premier's announcement as a sketch for planners to
get started on. "He's sketched what he'd like but there's certainly nothing
much on paper," he said.
The Turnbull government has pitched in $30 million for a business case for
the airport rail link, and will spend $15 million this financial year.
Federal Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher said the investigation
would "identify and assess a number of potential alignments, some of which
have been considered before, including an alignment through Sunshine".
A meeting was held at Melbourne Airport on Wednesday of state and federal
transport ministers, rail operators and SkyBus and councils. Also present
was pension fund giant IFM Investors, which owns almost a quarter of
Melbourne Airport. It has previously been reported as wanting to partner
with the Victorian government to build the rail link.
Also at the meeting was Peter O'Brien, a consultant who has been lobbying
for an airport rail line for several years. He was highly critical of the
state government's regional rail push for the airport link. He predicted
little would occur as a result of this week's announcement.
"It's going to be a frankly very timid effort for the next 12 months -
people don't want to progress this at all," he said.
In December, Infrastructure Victoria said a rail link to Melbourne Airport
would be needed within the next 15 to 30 years.
More videos Daniel Andrews adamant to build airport link Related Articles
Airport rail to be under way 'within 10 years'
<www.theage.com.au/victoria/sunshine-route-to-melbourne-airport-backed-by-ra
il-group-20171123-gzrqgl.html>
Yesterday's article has now attracted 79 comments.

Southland Station finally ready to open this Sunday.
Moorabbin Kingston Leader November 24, 2017.
..New Southland station in sight
..All aboard newest train station
..Southland works on Frankston line
..'We had next to no sleep for two nights'
THE long-awaited Southland Station will open to its first trains and
passengers on Sunday.
More than 350 people have worked more than 61,000 hours during the 15-month
construction of the controversial $21 million stop on the Frankston line,
moving about 600 tonnes of earth.
A pedestrian underpass will lead from the nearby Westfield shopping centre
to the station.
Labor and the Coalition both pledged to build a train station at Southland
and while the Coalition won the 2010 election, it wasn't until 2013 that
detail of the plans for a basic, no-frills station emerged and it took until
2014 for full funding to be provided.
In March 2015, the Labor government announced the long-awaited transport hub
would be open a year later than previously planned.
MPs Nick Staikos and Tim Richardson take a sneak preview of the new station.
Picture: Supplied Labor Member for Bentleigh Nick Staikos said the new
station will make travelling to Southland easier for thousands of staff and
shoppers every day.
"We promised a new station and we've delivered - right on time for the busy
Christmas period," he said.
But the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees union has planned a protest
at the station against Westfield Southland's decision to charge workers to
park at the centre.
SDA State Secretary Michael Donovan said retail workers can't afford the
$1,300 a year and would be forced to find alternative parking arrangements.
"We have female shop assistants working at night who used to have safe,
convenient parking at their workplace. Now, they will have to find parking
in surrounding suburbs and that brings risks," Mr Donovan said.
"I will be asking WorkSafe to look at issues like safe lighting, and other
health and safety matters. I have already raised these issues with Westfield
to no avail."
Public Transport Victoria will host a free coffee and BBQ breakfast in the
station forecourt to celebrate the opening on November 26 from 9.30am and
11.30am..
<www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/inner-south/southland-station-finally-ready-to-
open-this-sunday/news-story/dcf6efbe7ff1249510bbe9b8c0fc0d7d>

November 24 2017 'Circuit breaker': Industry calls for government to get on
with energy rules .
<www.theage.com.au/business/energy/industry-calls-for-gov-to-get-on-with-the
-neg-20171124-gzs9rt.html>