----- Forwarded Message -----
 To: Tdu Transportdownunder transportdownunder@...>
Sent: Tuesday, 8 January 2019, 21:02
Subject: Mon.7.1.18 daily digest.

No photos until further notice.
Roderick
Mon.7.1.18 Metro Twitter
Pakenham/Cranbourne lines: Buses replace trains Flinders St (Fed Square) - Westall until last train, Sun 13 Jan.
- If I’m going to South Yarra, to save me being squished in a Flinders street to Sandringham train, can I get off at Burnley on my way back from Box Hill?
- No, you'd have to change trains at Richmond for the Sandringham line.
- The replacement bus service is actually pretty good. The one gripe I have is the fact your paying contractors to manage passengers at the replacement bus stops, yet there’s no order being maintained whatsoever. What happened to the concept of a queue?
- Where is this at? We can follow up if we can get a few more details.
- 6.52 Why are there delays on trains ?  Just heard an announcement that there are delays.. Do you have your drivers sleeping?
- 6.53 Why is the announcement saying trains are delayed 9 minutes? No update on the app and no reason given?
- 6.54 This announcement was for Officer, Beaconsfield and Berwick. Can't you even run trains up to Westall on time? Or have the decency to at least give us a reason?
Frankston line: Buses replace trains Flinders St (Arts Centre)-Moorabbin until last train, Sun 13 Jan.
- Do any of the buses from Moorabbin run express to Flinders St?
- This week, express buses are running between Moorabbin and Brighton Beach to connect with Sandringham line services to/from the city.
- So nothing from Moorabbin or Caulfield?
- There are also express buses running between Caulfield and Flinders St.
- The only other buses from Moorabbin are stopping all stations Moorabbin - Caulfield then express to Flinders St.
- But why no express back to Moorabbin from the Arts Centre, only express to the Arts Centre from Moorabbin? When people need it the most? This is beyond a joke.
- Express buses between Brighton Beach and Moorabbin! Much much quicker.
Buses replace trains Frankston - Stony Point until last train, Sun 13 Jan.
Sandringham line: Trains have resumed Flinders St - Elsternwick after major works took place near South Yarra in preparation for the tunnel [which won't have a station there].  Trains will run to an altered weekday timetable while work on the Pakenham/Cranbourne and Frankston lines takes place.
W2.440 leaving Batman Avenue terminus for Camberwell Junction, on a classic Melbourne rainy day.  You can't see trams there now: subsumed into Federation Square. (Melbourne Tram Museum)
- No marker lights and trolley WHEELS not shoes!
Minor delays Pakenham - Westall (an earlier faulty train).
- 7.27 Half the line working, and a faulty train.
7.26 What’s happening on the Belgrave line? No trains leaving for 25 min, and no communication to passengers about estimated delays.
The Glen Waverley line will be busier than usual from Wednesday 2 January to Sunday 13 January, because of work on the Pakenham & Cranbourne lines.  Plan ahead and allow extra time for your journey.
- This also affects the Belgrave line.
- I think those lines have no trains themselves 12-13 Jan. Unless Glen Waverley trains running but not the others.
- How about putting extra trains on the GW line to address this issue instead of just tweeting the issue?
- Any chance of warning people of the disruptions to parking at East Malvern Station this morning too? Not very well organised.- Then maybe add more services to the Glen Waverley line so we can plan better. Creating problems but no solutions and we have to pay for it?! Ridiculous!!!
- Never-ending train work. Poor taxpaying commuters. It’s 2019 and yet, still the same. Most liveable city.
- Metro should be planning ahead and not throwing this onto hapless passengers.  Use the released trains and drivers on the Glen Waverly line.
- “Busier” is not a term that I would use here. “Not running” probably suits better
- There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the Glen Waverley lines from my experience. I made it into the city fine and I'm on another train home now.
- Never-ending train work. Poor taxpaying commuters. It’s 2019 and yet still the same.
- Yes, much better to let the network decay.
- Yes, network is Sh!7! Metro Trains, PTV, any reaction?
7.40 Major Delays between Belgrave and Upper Ferntree Gully (an earlier operational incident).
- It's ok. Just worked put while on it the 7.40 is not terminating at Upper Ferntree Gully. But again, no announcements.
- When did you find out and why no notifications? And then we line up for council bus and then the train goes?  And is the 7.40 to Flinders St or to Upper Ferntree Gully? Communications please.
- it's ok. Just worked put while on it the 740 is not terminating at upper gully. But again, no announcements.
- What is an 'operational incident'?  It isn't equipment failure, or train fault, or unruly passengers, or ill passengers, or police stopping trains, or adverse weather.  What is left for the daily excuses?
- Travel is free on Route 70 & 70a trams for Australian Open ticket holders..We're running extra trains for tonight's game/match at Marvel Stadium (Docklands). Extra Route 86a trams will operate between Melbourne Museum and Marvel Stadium via Bourke St.
18.08 Sandringham line: Minor delays (a passenger incident at South Yarra).
- 18.11 clearing.
- 18.14 Major delays (police near Middle Brighton; and the earlier incident).
- 18.21 clearing.
19.04 Minor delays (police attending to a trespasser near Glen Waverley).
- 19.15 clearing
Pakenham/Cranbourne lines: Our crews are working hard to renew tracks, power supply and other equipment to allow for nine-car single deck trains.  One of Oakleigh's three platforms has had its track removed.
- Thanks for your efforts.
- I think the trains will be more punctual.
- "Punctual" is not a word in Metro's dictionary. Just look at the conditions for what they include in their "on time" statistics.
- Is the third platform and the ability to overtake being reinstated?
- No, the works are primarily upgrades in preparation for the introduction of the new trains.<www.metrotrains.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Frankston-January-DL.pdf>
<www.metrotrains.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Sandringham_7-11_Jan.pdf>

'No place for mining': coal mines drain water from dams 7 January 2019.
<www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/no-place-for-mining-coal-mines-drain-water-from-dams-20190106-p50pu3.html>

The grand plans that would have changed Canberra as we know it 7 January 2019.  25 comments.
We've dusted off some of the forgotten plans that could have changed the city as we know it.
A gondola up to Black Mountain
An artist's impression of the proposed cable car or aerial gondola system on Black Mountain.Credit:ACT Heritage Library
Canberra received 4.99 million visitors last financial year, but how many more people do you think would have come here if we had a cable car running up one of our iconic mountains?
In 1975 a group of Canberra businessmen filed plans with the Department of the Capital Territory to build a cable car or aerial gondola on Black Mountain.
The $2 million proposal included 35 cable cars, whizzing 800 passengers an hour up the mountain for $2 a ticket, records dug up by ArchivesACT show. Sounds optimistic right?
Well actually, a 1977 tourism study ranked Black Mountain as the tenth most popular attraction in Canberra.
A 1982 feasibility study revealed almost one in five visitors to the city included Black Mountain in their itinerary.
For context, Telstra Tower had opened in 1980, and quickly become more popular than the War Memorial. The tower had 42,000 visitors in its first year, but there were serious access and parking issues on the mountain.
The company estimated 30 per cent of visitors to the mountain would use the gondola, and with tickets now priced at $2.80 per adult and 80 cents for a child, they reckoned they could make nearly half a million dollars a year.
So why do I have to drive up the mountain like a chump instead of gliding majestically over the bush?
According to a Canberra Times article from 1983, then territories and local government minister Tom Uren knocked back the proposal on environmental grounds.
A tunnel for fast rail through Mount Ainslie
Mount Ainslie taken from the lawns of Parliament House. Credit: Richard Briggs
While the prospect of fast rail to Canberra has been making headlines for decades, a plan to take the train line through Mount Ainslie right into the heart of Civic reportedly left some bureaucrats aghast.
The radical plan was one of three options presented for fast trains into Canberra presented to then prime minister Julia Gillard and her infrastructure minister Anthony Albanese in 2012.
After four kilometres of tunnel passing through the mountain, the line would continue down Ainslie Avenue and terminate in Civic.
It was expected the three-platform station under Ainslie Avenue would eventually serve more than 3000 passengers in peak hour.
However the ACT government called for big changes to the route in 2016, saying it should go to Canberra Airport rather than into Civic.
Instead, the rail line would be connected to Civic via light rail, the territory said.
However the proposal has remained parked, although the federal, NSW and ACT governments have all committed more money to additional studies on fast rail in the past 18 months.
Given every federal government since the 1980s has looked at high speed rail but never taken it past the planning stage, Mount Ainslie appears to be safe for now.
<www.canberratimes.com.au/politics/act/the-grand-plans-that-would-have-changed-canberra-as-we-know-it-20181210-p50l8n.html>