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Sent: Tuesday, 15 January 2019, 13:30
Subject: Fri.11.1.19 daily digest

Roderick.

190111F 'Brisbane Times' - Brisbane Transit Centre.
190111F Melbourne 'Herald Sun' - letters (road-rail).
190111F Metro Twitter:- Baker St (London, UK). 1863 & today.  (Tim Dunn).- Pakenham work.- 15.17 Cranbourne options.- bustitution.

Fri.11.1.19 Metro Twitter.
Pakenham/Cranbourne lines: Buses replace trains Flinders St (Federation Square) - Westall until the last train of Sun 13 Jan.
- The railway 'upgrade', more like a downgrade; the noisy machines are going all night long on the Frankston line, and the metro morons don’t care.
Frankston line: Buses replace trains Flinders St (Arts Centre) - Moorabbin until the last train of Sun 13 Jan.
- Don’t catch a bus; it will take hours.
Buses replace trains Frankston - Stony Point until the last train of Sun 13 Jan.  [the misleading photo shows electrification work in progress].
- Since I have been on holidays, trains have been delayed three or more times per week.  Why paying taxpayers' money when Metro can’t meet times?
Sandringham line: Trains will run to an altered weekday timetable while work on the Pakenham/Cranbourne and Frankston lines takes place.
7.29 Major delays (Maroondah Hwy level crossing damaged by a motor vehicle near Lilydale).
- 8.09 We have a work team enroute to fix the damage; repairs should commence within the next half hour.
7.51 Alamein/Belgrave/Glen Waverley/Lilydale lines: Minor delays (an equipment fault Richmond - Parliament). All services altered to run direct to Flinders St.  Passengers for loop stations change at Flinders St to pfm 1..
- 7.59 Signalling fault? Shocking! In peak hour? Shocking! This never happens! But at least the rest of the lines are functional and without delay or issues.
- 8.20 loop running has resumed.
- You really should consider the rebranding to the slogan : changes to your service or allow for extra travel time.
7.57 Sunbury line: Minor delays (an ill passenger at Sunshine).
8.03 Sandringham line: All services from Richmond are running direct to Flinders St (an equipment fault).  Passengers for loop stations change at Flinders St to pfm 1. [The line doesn't get loop services on weekdays].
- 8.33 minor delays, clearing.
- 8.47 Is the train going from Richmond to Parliament or not?
- 8.51 Loop services have resumed from Richmond.
15.10 Buses will replace trains Dandenong - Cranbourne (an equipment fault near Dandenong).  Eight buses have been ordered, but will take over 60 min to move into position.  Consider local transport options.
- 15.17 options as an image.
- 15.30 Buses will take 45 min to arrive.
- 15.42 Five buses are in operation, with an additional three enroute.
- 15.55 Six buses are in operation, with an additional two enroute.
- 16.15 Eight buses are in operation; this will increase your journey time by up to 30 min.
- 16.20 Trains are resuming, with minor delays.  The first: 16.21 ex Cranbourne; 16.40 ex Dandenong.  Buses may supplement trains as we restore the timetable.
- Motorists benefited from the level crossing removal project, not Pakenham/Cranbourne line commuters.  New trains with fewer seats won’t benefit those getting on at Yarraman, Noble Park and Sandown, who will struggle to get a seat and spend 50 min standing in cramped [conditions].
- Last day of 6 weeks of disruption and you cock it up again.  What’s with all the signalling faults?  What have you been doing all of Dec and half of  Jan"  Cranbourne/Pakenham line travellers are sick of the constant shit and having our working days extended by hours.
- Metro and the state government have done nothing for Cranbourne and Pakenham line commuters.  By 2025 with thousands more living in the outer areas these current changes will mean jack shit. Fix your damn signalling bullshit boxes for a start b...
18.37 Hurstbridge line: Minor delays (an equipment fault near Watsonia).
20.28 Sunbury/Craigieburn/Upfield lines: All trains will run direct Flinders St - North Melbourne (an equipment fault near North Melbourne).
Passengers at City Loop stations are advised to take @yarratrams services to Flinders St.
- 20.56 loop running has resumed, with delays.
21.15 Sunbury Line: Delays of up to 15 minutes (police at Sydenham Watergardens). Trains may be held at available platforms.
Belgrave/Lilydale/Glen Waverley lines: Buses replace trains Parliament - Burnley from 1.00, Sat 12 Jan until the last train of Sun 13 Jan while upgrades take place.  Buses replace trains Flinders St - Burnley during Night Network hours.
10th Jan, in 1863, London’s first true Underground Railway opened: the Metropolitan. Baker Street then (1863) vs Baker Street now (2018).  (Tim Dunn)
N-scale Xtrapolis https://youtu.be/VjDM0XkQwXY

Who is the barefoot trumpeter of Southern Cross Station? 11 January 2019.
Most weekday mornings at peak hour, waves of office workers swarm straight towards Phil Day across the forecourt of Southern Cross station.
It can look daunting, but they can’t mow him down because he stands safely above them on a bollard, playing his trumpet.
Barefoot.
video Start your workday with a tune.
Phil Day has been supplying commuters with their back to work soundtrack, playing trumpet on Spencer Street each morning.
Day has been a familiar fixture in the last six months, hoping to make people smile (or at least muster a wry grin) by playing songs like Dolly Parton’s toe-tapping Nine to Five, the rather manic It’s a Lovely Day Today, or the pessimist’s nightmare, the Judy Garland staple Get Happy.
He says he plays barefoot because he uses his whole body to create the sound, and ‘‘I can breathe and stretch my body better if I don’t wear shoes''.
‘‘It’s about efficiency and effectiveness: if my body’s not working, it just makes playing the trumpet hard work.’’
(Day says he last year ran the Melbourne Marathon barefoot.)
Sure, for some, his presence is a blur as they head for the traffic lights across Spencer Street, on their way to offices in Collins Street, but he says you never know when a piece will move someone.
He once played the Mexican love ballad Besame Mucho, and a woman thanked him, with a $5 note and tears in her eyes.
Make my day: Trumpeter Phil Day is a familiar sight at Southern Cross station during morning peak hour. Credit:Paul Jeffers
She said it was the favourite song of her father, who had died a year ago that day.
He gets little notes saying ‘‘thanks for the music’’ and one admirer left a box of lemons.
He knows hundreds of songs by heart, without needing sheet music. Favourites include Ave Maria and Somewhere Over the Rainbow, which ''people have in their history''.
If someone throws him a curve-ball request, such as an obscure song from the British mining town movie Brassed Off, he can often ‘‘bluff well enough so you think I can play it’’.
Day plays Summertime most days, but in different styles depending what the actual weather is.
He’ll play a Beatles song if someone walks past in a Beatles T-Shirt, or the Star Wars theme if they're sporting that emblem on their clothes.
Day, 36, who grew up on a farm in Euroa, has played trumpet since age 10 and has studied jazz in Miami, taught brass music at Edward Said conservatory in Palestine and played in a jazz band in Nicaragua.
He busked in 15 countries including Costa Rica, Turkey and Austria, before coming home 14 months ago.
He says cavernous Southern Cross station has great acoustics and more Melbourne public spaces such as the underground station plazas and platforms, should be open to buskers.
Day plays regular gigs at night, including with a jazz rock fusion band at 303 bar in Northcote, but says busking is good mental and physical exercise; you practise in public and it helps pay the rent.
On Wednesday, Serena Tuifeai, 15, of Officer, enjoyed Day’s jazz version of My Funny Valentine as she sat on a bollard waiting for friends to take her to rehearsal for a hip hop singing gig at the Australian Open on the weekend.
Serena said the trumpet music was calming. ‘‘It makes me feel good.’’
She said if people were feeling anxious, ‘‘they can listen to the music and de-stress themselves''.
Barry Dodd, 72, of Essendon, who was waiting for a train to Bendigo, to spend the day with friends, said he liked to listen ‘‘as long as he doesn’t get in my face when I’m shopping".
"I’m no expert in music but he’s all right. He’s not annoying anyone.’’
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/who-is-the-barefoot-trumpeter-of-southern-cross-station-20190109-p50qf1.html>