Fw: Sun.13.1.19 daily digest
  Roderick Smith


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From: Roderick Smith rnveditor@...>
 
Sent: Thursday, 17 January 2019, 22:46
Subject: Sun.13.1.19 daily digest

Roderick.
Sun.13.1.19 Metro Twitter.
Pakenham/Cranbourne lines: Buses replace trains Flinders St (Federation Square) - Westall until the last train tonight.
- There should be more buses for stopping all stations rather than express buses for train replacements.  Is it that hard to figure out looking at the many people standing for stopping all station buses?
- 22.17 Are you finished now? A lady on the news before seemed to be indicating you are, but who knows?
Frankston line: Buses replace trains Flinders St (Arts Centre) - Moorabbin until the last train tonight.
Buses replace trains Frankston - Stony Point until the last train tonight.
Sandringham line: Trains will run to an altered timetable, and will run direct to/from Flinders St.  No trains will operate from Southern Cross to Flinders St. Take trams along Collins St.
Belgrave/Lilydale/Glen Waverley lines: Buses replace trains Parliament - Burnley until the last train tonight.
4.38 Hurstbridge/Mernda lines: Minor delays (police attending to a trespasser between Flinders Street and Southern Cross). Trains may be held.  [but these trains don't run that way during Night Train hours]
4.40 Craigieburn/Sunbury/Upfield/Werribee/Williamstown lines: Minor delays (police attending to a trespasser between Flinders Street and Southern Cross). Trains may be held.
13.01 Belgrave/Lilydale lines: To those passengers on the train between Hawthorn and Burnley, we have a track fault at Burnley.  Please remain on the train and listen to further announcements and directions from staff.
- 13.17 we're working towards getting your train back to Hawthorn.
- 13.32  Trains will depart from altered platforms between Burnley and Box Hill.
- 14.49 and 15.05 To those passengers on the train between Upwey and Upper Ferntree Gully we have a hazard/vandalism on the line. Remain on the train and listen to further announcements or  directions from staff.
- 15.35 delays now minor and clearing.
- 17.08 Minor delays (earlier platform congestion at Burnley, also affecting Glen Waverley).
Sunbury line: Buses replace trains North Melbourne - Sunshine from 20.25 (maintenance works); also each night until Wed.16.1.
Werribee/Williamstown lines: Buses replace trains Nth Melbourne - Newport/Williamstown from 20.40 (maintenance works); also each night until Wed.16.1.  Trains will run to an altered timetable Newport - Werribee.
23.57 Buses will be replacing the last two outbound trains between Bell and Mernda tonight (a person hit by a train). Buses will take some time to arrive.
- 0.28 Buses are now arriving. B83 in VicRail tangerine ‘teacup’ colours and S303 in VR blue and gold at Dynon Loco Depot.  28 September 1985.  S303 is today in VicTrack’s operational heritage fleet and B83 is on static display at the ARHS museum, North Williamstown.  (Australian Rail Maps)
- I would have paid a lot more attention and train spotted a whole lot more in 1985 if I knew that these amazing behemoths would be gone from our railway lines by now.
- Still a few of them around doing heritage tours, and even some pulling freight trains.


Shocking video emerges after two women and child 'racially abused' on Melbourne train 13 January 2019.
Ugly footage has emerged after a woman allegedly verbally abused a mother and child over their religion on a Melbourne train before yanking the hijab off a passenger who tried to help.
Fahima Adan, 20, appeared on Nine News on Sunday night sporting bruises and scratches on her arm following the incident which occurred shortly after midday on Saturday on a train from Dandenong, resulting in the arrest of a 39-year-old Clayton woman.
The young Dandenong woman said she tried to go help a 42-year-old mother and three-year-old boy when she saw them being racially abused by a "racist crazy lady" who screamed "I hate Islam".
"She saw that I was from the same religion and she sort of, you know, attacked me, she pounced to my scarf and tried to remove it and that's where the physical altercation [started]" Ms Adan said.
"My scarf... this is my world, this is my religion."
Footage from the train shows passengers watching a heated exchange between the alleged perpetrator and Ms Adan, who is heard yelling, "I'm Australian as well".
Fahima Adan, 20, says she feels "hurt and disgusted".
"No you're not!" screams the the other woman in reply.
In a Facebook post, Ms Adan said the incident "really opened my eyes".
"No one even tried to stop the lady once she jumped towards me trying to take my hijab off, when they saw that it was getting worse and I was fighting back as self defence, this man stopped it half way into the fight, all everyone did was record," she wrote.
"I’m so hurt and disgusted that I was even disrespected like that, I’m an Australian citizen, I work and take public transportation just like everybody else".
Passengers filmed the incident on the train on January 12.
Ms Adan wrote that the alleged attack continued at Westall railway station in Clayton South.
"The lady continued to harass me and actually took my scarf off me, threw it into the bushes and fought with me again, she didn’t only just do that but scratched me in multiple areas on my body during this fight," she wrote.
Fahima Adan says she was assaulted on a Melbourne train.
In the post Ms Adan wrote she waited for police to arrive for an hour and a half but that they "never showed up".
"I was disrespected in so many ways," she wrote.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said police were called to Westall railway station, where they arrested a 39-year-old woman from Clayton.
"Investigators have been told a 42-year-old woman and her three-year-old son were verbally abused by a woman on a train from Dandenong," she said.
"The woman also allegedly poked the victim in the shoulder. All parties got off the train at Westall station and police were called about 12.20pm."
After her arrest, police said the Clayton woman was interviewed and released pending summons for unlawful assault.
Anyone who witnessed the incident is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/shocking-video-emerges-after-two-women-and-child-racially-abused-on-melbourne-train-20190113-p50r56.html>

Dig this: Bella the 4000-tonne boring machine has arrived in Melbourne 13 January 2019.
Meet Bella. Soon she will be 90 metres long, 15.6 metres high and weigh 4000 tonnes.
But first she has to be pieced together.
video Tunnel-boring machine 'Bela' set for Melbourne dig.
Bella the tunnel-boring machine is dissembled so it can be shipped to Melbourne to evacuate tonnes of dirt and rock to build the West Gate Tunnel.
Bella was built in China, but she was far too big to transport in one piece, so she was disassembled and put into 40 containers, ranging from 50 tonnes to 300 tonnes, so she could be shipped to Melbourne.
By the middle of this year she will be put to work on the job she was designed to do – cutting a path for the West Gate Tunnel in the earth under Melbourne.
Bella, one of the 4000-tonne boring machines that will create the West Gate Tunnel in Melbourne, is dissembled at a factory in China so it could be shipped to Australia.Credit:West Gate Tunnel Project
For the tunnel’s construction director, David Hake, getting the machine built and shipped out to Melbourne has been 14 months in the making.
Bella is the first of the two machines that will excavate the West Gate Tunnel to arrive in Melbourne.
Parts of Bella were being unloaded at the Port of Melbourne on Sunday morning, and more than 100 trucks will take the pieces to the tunnel’s starting point in Footscray, where they will be assembled.
Mr Hake said the largest piece was the main drive of the machine, a 290-tonne structure of almost nine metres in diameter that houses the motors turning the cutter. It will be the last piece that comes off the ship, and will be transported to the tunnel site on Tuesday.
From there it will take about 12 weeks to assemble Bella, Mr Hake said.
It is the first time a full-scale tunnel boring machine will be used in Victoria, according to the West Gate Tunnel project group.
Acting Premier James Merlino said that when Bella is put together “it will be something to behold”.
He said boring was expected to start on the West Gate Tunnel by the middle of this year.
“[The West Gate Tunnel] will deliver – finally – an alternative to the West Gate Bridge, create 6000 jobs and move thousands of trucks off the West Gate Freeway,” Mr Merlino said.
He said a further 150 jobs had been created from a $124 million contract awarded to Liberty Steel to provide more than 92,000 tonnes of steel for the tunnel.
Bella takes her name from Bella Guerin, who in 1883 was the first woman to graduate from an Australian University.
The second tunnel boring machine has been named Vida after women’s rights campaigner Vida Goldstein, and Mr Merlino said it would reach Melbourne in about eight weeks.
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/dig-this-bella-the-4000-tonne-boring-machine-has-arrived-in-melbourne-20190113-p50r3p.html>
* I presume that the beast runs on electric motors? Are they diesel generated power? any Ideas?                                                 

Man pleads guilty to attack on Sydney bus. 13 January 2019.
An 18-year-old bus passenger has pleaded guilty to attacking a Sydney driver with a knife in the city's west.
Emergency services were called to Blacktown railway station about 1.30pm on Saturday where they found the bus driver - aged in his 30s - with a cut to his ear.
A bus driver, who was attacked outside Blacktown Train Station.Credit:Nine News
Police alleged passenger Jase McDermott attacked the driver before fleeing on foot.
The driver was taken to Westmead Hospital for treatment and McDermott was arrested when he showed up to Blacktown Hospital a short time later.
The 18-year-old was charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and a plea of guilty was accepted at Parramatta Local Court on Sunday.
McDermott didn't apply for bail and it was formally refused. He's now due to face Blacktown Local Court via video link on Friday.
<www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/man-pleads-guilty-to-attack-on-sydney-bus-20190113-p50r54.html>

Cables under bridge spark new Canberra light rail construction fears.  13 January 2019.
Talking points:
•Electrical cables are installed under a bridge on Flemington Road, outside EPIC.
•One enclosure that holds the cables reduces the space for floodwaters to pass through by 75cm.
•Government flood maps classify the part of Sullivans Creek that flows under the bridge as "high hazard".
High-voltage cables to power Canberra's light rail have been installed under a bridge, reducing capacity for floodwaters from the creek below to pass through and increasing the risk of trams being rendered inoperable.
The electricians' union says Sullivans Creek should have been underbored to avoid placing cables under the bridge, and that water from less serious floods is now more likely to be pushed up onto the tracks between Gungahlin and the city centre.
Electrical Trades Union officer Mick Koppie stands under two sets of cable trunking – enclosures used to protect electrical cables - installed beneath a bridge on Flemington Road.Credit:Dion Georgopoulos
Two sets of cable trunking – enclosures used to protect electrical cables – have been fixed to the underside of a bridge on Flemington Road, outside Exhibition Park in Canberra.
It is understood one contains high-voltage cables and the other houses low-voltage cables including the ones needed to operate signals.
Sullivans Creek flows underneath the bridge. The bridge is about 2.97 metres high, but the deepest section of trunking reduces that height by 75 centimetres.
According to ACT government flood maps, the area of Sullivans Creek in question is classified as "high hazard" – the most serious level.
Two sets of cable trunking – enclosures used to protect electrical cables – fixed to the underside of a bridge on Flemington Road. The area between the two shows the bridge's regular height.Credit:Dion Georgopoulos
The depth of flooding in the area during a one-in-100-year flood would be more than 1.5 metres, according to the maps.
Sullivans Creek has flooded as recently as February 2018, with rainfall in some parts of the catchment exceeding one-in-500-year levels according to an ACT government flood information document.
Electrical Trades Union ACT officer Mick Koppie said if floodwaters could not pass under the bridge because the trunking had made it lower in two areas, the water would be pushed up onto the light rail tracks.
Asked whether he believed even a small amount of flooding on the tracks could render trams inoperable, the experienced electrician replied: "Yes, I think it would."
"Any floodwaters that come up and start running across the road will not be good," Mr Koppie said.
"Too much water is definitely an issue. It would interfere with the electrical supply to the tram.
"I think even 100 millimetres [of water built up on the tracks] would make it inoperable."
Construction company John Holland is responsible for design, construction, operations and maintenance as part of the Canberra Metro consortium that was in 2016 awarded an ACT government contract to build and operate stage one of the light rail project.
A spokesman for Canberra Metro and the ACT government's Transport Canberra and City Services directorate said questions submitted by the Sunday Canberra Times about the cables under the bridge were detailed and technical.
He said they deserved an equally detailed and technical response, which would not be possible by the deadline.
The latest concerns about electrical work on the light rail project come after the Sunday Canberra Times revealed last weekend that electricians and their union representatives believe the project might fail to receive the independent approvals it requires because high-voltage cables are installed too close to the surface.
Photos of electrical conduits in a pit near the intersection of the Federal Highway and Flemington Road appear to show some cables installed just a few millimetres below ground level.
A pit near the intersection of the Federal Highway and Flemington Road in Canberra, where electrical cables appear to be installed just a few millimetres below ground level.Credit:Sunday Canberra Times
This is despite the Australian standard the ACT government expects to be adopted for the light rail project requiring cables installed underground in areas accessible to the public to be buried at least 75 centimetres below ground level.
Transport Canberra and City Services said it "fully expected" the light rail project to achieve certification against all relevant standards, before starting to take passengers early this year.
The Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator said the light rail project could still receive accreditation even if the electrical cabling was too shallow to meet Australian standards, so long as Canberra Metro can prove it is safe.
Related Article A pit near the intersection of the Federal Highway and Flemington Road in Canberra, where electrical cables appear to be installed just a few millimetres below ground level. 'White elephant': Fears Canberra light rail network won't be certified
Related Article A light rail vehicle arrives at the Gungahlin terminus. There are concerns about the electric cabling on the project.  'Non-compliant' light rail could still get accreditation
<www.canberratimes.com.au/national/act/cables-under-bridge-spark-new-canberra-light-rail-construction-fears-20190109-p50qbs.html>

Waste crisis looms as thousands of solar panels reach end of life 13 January 2019. 456 comments. with tdu.
<www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/waste-crisis-looms-as-thousands-of-solar-panels-reach-end-of-life-20190112-p50qzd.html>