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Sent: Thursday, 6 December 2018, 15:24
Subject: Wed.5.12.18 daily digest

 
Attached:

181205W Melbourne 'Herald Sun' - letters (rail, energy, road).

181205W Melbourne 'Age':- energy. with tdu.- letters (rail).
181205W Melbourne Express:- Southland (Daniel Bowen)- ducklings (Harry Hasapis).

181205W 'Canberra Times' - tram.

Roderick.

Wed.5.12.18 Metro Twitter.
Today is International Volunteer Day; we’re celebrating the thousands of VICSES volunteers who give up their time and put their lives on the line to create safer and more resilient communities. Thank you for all the work that you do!
Pakenham/Cranbourne lines: Buses replace trains Westall -Pakenham/Cranbourne until last train on Sun 16 Dec while 'upgrades' take place.  Further changes to your service apply until last train on Sun 23 Dec.
- We need more buses. All are full, sometimes people have to wait nearly 20 min for a bus into which they may not fit.  Buses to Dandenong need to depart from the other side of the road at Westall. They are taking  over 30 minutes just to get back  onto Westall Red,  which is 500 m away!
- We will pass on your message to the team running the replacement buses.
- Did anyone think this was a horrible idea leading up to Christmas where traffic is already horrendous?  Surely it could have waited until January?
- I wish every day was like this with Pakky trains being forced to stop at Westall during peak ! It’s great for me.
- Some buses do not have proper airconditioning and no open windows...please remove these buses from service during this hot weather.
- You have been doing this a long time now; you should be able to get the replacement buses correct on both lines if you say express have them ready.
15.15 Mernda line: Buses to replace trains between Bell & Epping (a track fault between Keon Park and Epping).  Buses have been ordered, but may take over 1 hour to arrive; consider alternative transport.
- 15.19 How is this possible, given you just completed track maintenance work recently through that section?
- 15.26 Alternative transport: bus routes 552 and 553 Bell – Reservoir, bus route 555 Reservoir – Epping Plaza and bus route 556 Reservoir – Epping.
- 15.31 Not again, how can you have these issues so often?
- Every time the sun comes out.
- 15.56 Are trains still running to Bell from the city?
- 16.07 Just got told trains are now running through to Mernda.
- 16.10 Trains have resumed, with minor delays.
- 17.43 You guys suuuuuck!
- 18.11 Massive delays on right now on this line.  Where is the communication?
- 18.21 Correction: Delays still ongoing, trains crawling up to Clifton Hill.
- 18.21 This line is not moving at all.  Driver mumbled something inaudible.
- He was speaking to his uber driver.
- 19.03 Major delays (Hurstbridge too; an ill passenger requiring medical assistance at Clifton Hill).  Trains may depart from altered platforms.
- The sick passenger is the result of trains not moving and being jam packed. No doubt tomorrow will be chaos with hot weather.  I won’t be tapping on that’s for sure.
- I hope that you don’t need medical attention on a train one day. Disrespectful.
16.27 Cranbourne/Pakenham lines: Minor delays (an equipment fault near Malvern).  Trains may be held.
- 16.29 Trains may depart from altered platforms between South Yarra and Caulfield.
- 17.21 Only few trains are running and you can't even do that properly...keep up the good work.
18.09 Alamein/Belgrave/Lilydale lines: Major delays (an earlier ill passenger at Glenferrie), clearing.
- 18.17 How can one person be responsible for so much disruption?  Has the counter terrorist group been informed?
- 18.18 There was no announcement. A train which should have stopped at all stations between Camberwell & Box Hill just didn't stop.  I needed to get off to meet connection to Alamein line.  A full train back to Camberwell and not one announcement or apology. Just a heads up would be nice.
- 20.50 There should have been an announcement, and at least some services changed to cater for patrons who go to stops that may have been missed with all the cancelled and delayed trains.
18.17 Glen Waverley line: Minor delays (an earlier ill passenger at Tooronga).
Major delays - The 9.30 Sunbury to Flinders St has been terminated at Ginifer (a train fault). The following train (the 22.00 Sunbury to Flinders St) is scheduled at Ginifer at 22.19.  [leaving a 1 h gap because of Metro's horrible headways].

Melbourne Express, Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Before Southland station was built, there were people who claimed that nobody would use it. Some delays at present so this is a bigger crowd than usual, but it's still one of the busier suburban stations.
7.52 Minor upsets on the Frankston and Hurstbridge lines.  For those on the trams around Port Melbourne, there are delays.
7.47 Route 109 trams towards Port Melbourne are delayed [blocked?] due to a traffic incident on Cotham Rd.
- 8.10 trams have resumed, with delays.
7.21 Still clear on the trains, except for Pakenham and Cranbourne commuters, who are back on the buses to cap off an interruption-filled year.
Southland, the station that defeated the odds,  A true case of "if you build it, they will come" from the Public Transport Users Association's Daniel Bowen.
City of Melbourne is considering a behemoth redevelopment project designed to rejuvenate almost an entire CBD block, with ambitious plans for it to become the city's most sustainable urban landmark.
<www.theage.com.au/melbourne-news/melbourne-express-wednesday-december-5-2018-20181205-p50k8w.html>

Australia's climate change impasse 'has surprised me': UK high commissioner 5 December 2018 14 comments.
<www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-s-climate-change-impasse-has-surprised-me-uk-high-commissioner-20181205-p50kd0.html>

Canberra Times Letters 5 December 2018.
* Trackless trams and the fantasy of community co-operation.  I know I shouldn't believe everything I read on the web but I am brought up short when I see Prof Peter Newman, the urger of 19th-century trams on Canberra, compare their "high cost, long construction period", with their trackless, wireless 21st-century Chinese descendants described as "low-cost, short construction period, huge volume, energy efficient and environmentally friendly".
I ponder the lost opportunity cost of $1 billion and the endless months of construction chaos and loss of a Northbourne avenue of urban trees.
Canberra Metro protection officer Graham Doneley preparing for light rail testing in November.Credit:Elesa Kurtz
Today I read that the Property Council "want stage 2 done as quickly as possible". ("Taking the path of least resistance", December 4, p.1 ).
I pinch myself in astonishment when I read that "a business case for a trackless tram route ... between Canning and Stirling is being prepared" and that "work is also being done with the cities of Stirling, Vincent, Perth, Victoria Park and Canning, the Property Council and local community groups on how the system could pay for itself".
* Better light-rail route.  The route of light rail stage 2, Civic-Woden, is still not right ("Taking the path of least resistance", December 4, p.1).
For the same reasons the tram line has now apparently (and rightly) been removed from King George Terrace and Kings Avenue south, it needs to be removed from Commonwealth Avenue altogether.
Using that avenue would: pander to inappropriate property development; cause traffic delays; destroy the architectural and engineering integrity of the bridge (and its match with King's Avenue bridge); cause massive construction cost and disruption; and ruin a cultural landscape (notably superb established trees).
And there's still the problem of getting the tracks up to Commonwealth Avenue from London Circuit, and installing two-way tracks at the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and State Circle.
Better, cheaper overall, faster at rush hours, more inclusive, and less construction-disruptive, to go via: Edinburgh Avenue; Lawson Crescent; a beautiful new curving bridge (á la Griffin's missing third central lake crossing) springing from south-west Acton Peninsula (preserving the West Lake yacht course); a shared zone across expanded Lennox Gardens; Flynn Drive; the State Circle cutting; and around to Adelaide Avenue, serving Barton and Parliament House on the way.  Back from "good" to "perfect", Mr Barr.
* Put brakes on stage 2.  Surely before proceeding with stage 2 of the light rail there should be a detailed cost-benefit analysis conducted.
If this is not to be done, then we should wait until stage 1 has been running for 12 to 24 months. The cost to the ACT budget of light rail is very significant. We need some certainty of its effectiveness and efficiency before blindly committing to further expenditure.
* Population reality.  Recent ABS population projections suggest that Canberra could have 500,000 residents within a decade, up from 419,200 in March 2018.
The Chief Minister is claiming his government had been planning for the increase, to avoid the congestion and strain on infrastructure experienced by Sydneysiders and Melburnians.
The reality is different: increasing congestion, decreasing housing affordability, the failure to undertake a thorough review of the ACT planning strategy, inadequate land supply, ad hoc rural lease purchases, inadequate school and retail planning, the failure to influence employment location, the inadequate management of development and the provision of light rail that does little to reduce greenhouse emissions and diverts funds from more effective and responsible projects. Light rail does not a strategy make.
Mr Barr, your words are hollow. High-quality, evidence-based planning is urgently needed to accommodate projected growth. Please do some.
* Activist students right.  Mr Morrison has said the government did not support "schools being turned into Parliaments ... what we want is more learning in schools and less activism in schools".
Students have already learnt enough to know that Mr Morrison is selling their future up the river to keep his job as captain of a sinking ship.
If they learn any more about how pathetic the LNP has been on climate change the activism can only get worse.
Mr Morrison is betting his future on the fact many Australians are self-interested morons who could not give a stuff about anything but their hip pocket and who don't understand his climate policy void pushed up energy prices in the first place.
He may well have 40 per cent of the population pegged but that won't be enough come election time.
* So our latest PM is happily spreading the coal message around the world via the G20 under the guise of substantiating free trade agreements in wilful disregard of the great damage coal is doing to our world. The number one cause of rising Co2 levels is coal. Australia is one of the world's major traders in this dangerous commodity. Shame on ScoMo.
<www.canberratimes.com.au/national/act/trackless-trams-and-the-fantasy-of-community-co-operation-20181204-p50k8f.html>

'Leave no stone unturned': Architect's message on light rail stage two 5 December 2018.
Parliament House architect Harold Guida has urged the Barr government to leave "no stone unturned" in its investigations of a new route for the second stage of light rail.
One of the architects behind Parliament House, Harold Guida.Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong
Chief Minister Andrew Barr voiced support for a "compromise" route for the light rail to get from Civic to Woden, after a federal parliamentary committee found the government's chosen course through Barton would likely lead to time delays and cost blowouts in getting the project approved.
Instead, the light rail could use State Circle to go south, a route that sits between the two options that were voted on by the public earlier this year - the Barton dogleg and a more direct route via State Circle.
State Circle was investigated as an option to send the tram to Woden by consultants at least three years ago, although it's unclear why the route was spiked.
It was also highlighted in the joint standing committee's report as a pre-approved route for inter-town public transport under the National Capital Plan.
As a Parliament House moral rights holder, Mr Guida was interviewed by the consultants looking at prospective routes, and said a tunnel behind the exposed stone wall on State Circle - and the cost penalty that it would involve - was part of the discussions.
"We talked about the potential then of having underground stops connected to the Parliamentary Triangle through lifts that might arrive where there's currently car parks, so the idea is you would tunnel behind the stone wall and have stop points where you'd rise up to Federation Mall," Mr Guida said..
While they would have to be careful about how close the tunnel was to the stonewall, Mr Guida said it would not be impossible to build it.
"What I would say is it's probably worth exploring to see what the benefits and liabilities are of that approach to make an informed judgement as a comparison of the other options that have been put forward. Leave no stone unturned," Mr Guida said.
"I don't have an opinion one way or another until I see a development proposal and that's not what I saw a few years ago. They were scouting concepts and issues that arise around them."
Mr Barr on Monday described the State Circle route as the "path of least resistance" in getting the second stage of light rail approved quickly, although stressed on Tuesday the Barton route was still a live option.
"We can have all the debates we want about preferred routes but in the end the preferred route is determined by the Commonwealth Parliament," Mr Barr told ABC Radio.
"[The Barton route is] still on the table but obviously we’ve been advised that would require a lot more work and potentially a lot of additional cost without a guarantee of approval," he said.
"Whereas if we have an in-principle approval for a State Circle alignment but we continue to work through these issues, we’re not going to make a decision until after the federal election and we see the final makeup of the new federal parliament because that will have big implications for our capacity to secure the support we need in the House of Representatives and the Senate."
Mr Barr said they would have to look at the final details at where the stops would be located to determine if the State Circle route would work.
"Where they're located will determine our capacity to make a State Circle alignment work well but necessarily in all of these considerations will be a series of compromises and trade-offs between a variety of competing interests and outcomes, not least of which is the capacity to get a project approved by the federal parliament because in the end this is Commonwealth land that requires the Commonwealth parliament to approve it," Mr Barr said.
Griffith University transport expert Dr Matthew Burke said the change in route could mean a cost saving.
Early estimates have placed the cost of the second stage of Canberra's light rail network at between $1.3 billion and $1.6 billion.
"If they move to State Circle and in particular build one less station it might actually expedite the project in terms of approvals and so we could see light rail stage two up quicker and so there's savings in both time and cost could be realised with this change," he told ABC Radio.
<www.canberratimes.com.au/politics/act/leave-no-stone-unturned-architect-s-message-on-light-rail-stage-two-20181204-p50k14.html>

Runaway sheep shot on Kwinana freeway after evading capture 5 December 2018..
A sheep has been shot dead after it wandered onto train tracks in Perth, causing rail and traffic delays.
The incident on Kwinana Freeway on Wednesday was filmed by car occupants and train passengers as traffic slowed to a trickle, with one commuter commenting "tranquilliser, though".
City of Cockburn recreation and community safety manager Travis Moore said the sheep was humanely euthanised by a ranger after attempts to capture it over several hours.
"These proved to be unsuccessful, causing a number of delays to train services and danger to motorists and officers involved," Mr Moore said in an emailed statement.
"The agencies involved determined that euthanising the sheep via the use of a firearm was the most appropriate course of action, after it was observed to be in distress, further increasing the risk to public safety."
The council is trying to determine where the sheep came from.
<www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/runaway-sheep-shot-on-kwinana-freeway-after-evading-capture-20181205-p50kgw.html>