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To: Tdu Transportdownunder transportdownunder@...>
Sent: Wednesday, 12 December 2018, 12:23
Subject: Sun.9.12.18 daily digest

Roderick.
181209Su Melbourne 'Age':
181209Su Melbourne 'Herald Sun':- letters (tram, road,energy).- oil prices. with tdu.

181209Su MetroTwitter - Comeng, work.

Sun.9.12.18 Metro Twitter
Buses replace trains Westall -Pakenham/Cranbourne until the last train of Sun 16 Dec (work).  Further changes apply until the last train of Sun 23 Dec.
- Why don't these replacement bus drivers turn on the airconditioning?  There's no ventilation at all on run 32.
- We'll get them to check the airconditioning.
- You didn't do anything.  Are  you waiting till we die inside the bus?
- It has been passed on to be radioed to the driver.
- Never received a radio msg. I had to yell, as I was at the back.  Luckily the rest of the commuters also requested that, so he switched it on quickly.
- Buses have been great last week. Today I've got 50 people waiting 15 minutes for a bus at Noble Park.   I wonder how many at Sandown and Springvale?

All-night earth-eater, Bella, on its way to Melbourne 9 December 2018.
Its name is Bella. It is 90 metres long, weighs more than the equivalent of 80 trams and is on its way to Melbourne.
It's one of two $50 million massive tunnel-boring machines that will work all night excavating thousands of tonnes of dirt and rock for the West Gate Tunnel project. Bella will leave China next week for the month-long trip to Australia.
Video Building a mammoth machine to tunnel under the Yarra.
This is Bella, a gigantic tunnel-boring machine being constructed in China that will excavate thousands of tonnes of dirt and rock for the West Gate Tunnel project.
Standing at the tunnelling hub shed in Yarraville to discuss the project, Premier Daniel Andrews said the shed was one piece of the puzzle.
"We’re getting on and delivering this massive piece of road infrastructure, $6.7 billion, 6000 jobs, that critical second river crossing to take the pressure off the West Gate Bridge," he said.
The project includes a widened West Gate Freeway joined to CityLink via a new tunnel under Yarraville, and an elevated Transurban six-lane toll road through West Melbourne.
Transport Minister Jacinta Allan says the shed, which is still being constructed, would help minimise disruption to local communities, a point of contention for families in Yarraville, Brooklyn and Spotswood, who were starting to feel the effects of the project.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Transport Minister Jacinta Allan (second left) tour the West Gate Tunnel site. Credit: David Crosling.
Road closures had directed thousands of trucks off arterial roads onto residential streets in Melbourne.
Ms Allan said the shed had been designed to reduce truck movements on local roads and the impact of noise and dust on the community.
"All the earth that's removed as the tunnel-boring machine chews its way through underground, it will be coming here on conveyer belts," she said.
The soil will then be loaded onto covered trucks inside the shed.
Massive tunnel-boring machine, Bella, will leave China next week to arrive in Melbourne in a month.
The boring machines weigh up to 4000 tonnes each and stand 15.6 metres in diameter, as tall as the dome at Flinders Street Station.
The first to arrive is named after the first woman to graduate from an Australian University, Bella Guerin, and is the first full-scale boring machine to be used in Victoria. It will be joined by another named after one of the first women to run for parliament, Vida Goldstein.
Vida will leave China in February and will start work in the middle of next year. It is so large it will include offices, kitchens and bathrooms to support up to 14 people.
The $50 million boring machine named Matilda on the Clem7 tunnel in Brisbane.Credit:AAP
"This is a critically important project, one that we’re proud to have done the hard work over these past four years, to make sure we can have this completed by 2022," Mr Andrews said.
The huge TBMs will be assembled by some of the largest gantry cranes ever built in Australia, with up to 500 tonnes of lifting capacity.
Video Timelapse shows construction of the enormous shed.
The tunnelling hub shed in Yarraville will house the two massive boring machines.
Mr Andrews said the machines were perhaps "the biggest piece of engineering to ever come to our state" and would be recycled at the end of their use.
The tunnel-boring machines used on the Melbourne Metro Tunnel are smaller than the TBMs that will dig the West Gate Tunnel project.
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/all-night-earth-eater-bella-on-its-way-to-melbourne-20181209-p50l5k.html>

Parliament station commuters injured in falls from city’s longest escalator
Herald Sun December 9, 2018.
video: Metro Tunnel digs up a surprise
Disorientated commuters are struggling to stay upright on escalators at one of Melbourne’s busiest train stations, where up to three serious falls are recorded every week.
Metro Trains will launch a new passenger safety campaign after a study examined the number of people hurt on the large escalators at Parliament and Melbourne Central.
Figures show more than 600 incident reports about escalator injuries have been filed over the past decade and the majority of these took place in the underground tunnels at Parliament Station.
The escalators are thought to be the longest in the southern hemisphere and the study found the lighting, colours and layout of the space might be distracting passengers.
Melbourne's longest escalators at Parliament station.
“We’re looking at new and innovative ways to ensure passengers keep safe on escalators — because the research clearly shows that accidents do happen,” Metro general manager of safety and security Anthony Fewster said.
“The study found that many of the accidents came from distractions to passengers travelling along the escalators, while many were also believed to be disorientated by the lighting and colours scheme of the tunnels.”
Metro has recorded new safety messages and has launched a new advertising blitz to improve safety.
Upgrades are being made, including anti-slip floor treatments and improved lighting.
The operator estimates between two and three serious accidents happen every week and wants to reduce this figure in 2019.
The vertigo-inducing escalators at Parliament station.
RMIT researchers analysed each report and went through CCTV footage of falls to determine the details. The results of the study show that:
44 PER CENT of people fell back when travelling upwards on a moving escalator;
22 PER CENT of people fell forward on a downward moving escalator;
28 PER CENT fell down mid escalator despite already having a solid footing.
Public Transport Minister Melissa Horne said: “As we head into the holiday season, I really encourage people to take extra care as they’re travelling the rail network.
“A simple loss of balance is all it takes to cause a serious accident on an escalator — that’s why it’s so important for people to stay safe.”
About 22 per cent of people who fell on station escalators were in company and during some accidents both people lost their balance.
PLANS TO EXPAND SUBURBAN RAIL LOOP.
METRO TRAINS PASSENGER NUMBERS TO DOUBLE .
SAFETY FEARS OVER MELBOURNE METRO PROJECT.
<www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/parliament-station-commuters-injured-in-falls-from-citys-longest-escalator/news-story/31449a010f43398e3b9eedc58554b16b>
* Melbourne's station escalators are notoriously slow: half the speed of those in Moskva.  Parliament is long by Melbourne standards, but not by world standards.  Run them faster; crowds will be cleared quicker; there will be no time to get dizzy.
* A simple landing platform midway would have solved the problem indeed a simple thing like looking up and down at the bottom from the top is dizzying sometimes the most marvelous piece of engineering not not really human friendly Melbourne's station escalators are notoriously slow: half the speed of those in Moskva.  Parliament is long by Melbourne standards, but not by world standards.  Run them faster; crowds will be cleared quicker; there will be no time to get dizzy.