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 To: Tdu Transportdownunder transportdownunder@...>
Sent: Saturday, 9 March 2019, 11:45
Subject: Mon.4.3.19 daily digest

Roderick
Melbourne Express ran all day, and devoted its time to an extensive coverage of the bushfires, with lots of photos.
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/melbourne-express-live-coverage-of-victoria-s-bushfires-20190304-p511il.html>

Mon.4.3.19 Metro Twitter.
5.13 Alamein/Belgrave/Lilydale lines: Trains will run direct to/from Flinders St (a track-equipment fault near Melbourne Southern Cross].
- 6.29 Loop services are resuming.
5.14 Mernda & Hurstbridge lines: Trains will run direct to/from Flinders St (a track-equipment fault near Melbourne Southern Cross].
- 6.28 Loop services are resuming.
9.39  Major delays (an [unspecified] equipment fault between Gowrie and Upfield).  Trains may terminate/originate at Coburg.
- 9.49 Buses to replace trains North Melbourne - Upfield.  Buses have been ordered, but may take over 60 minutes arrive, consider alternatives.
- 9.59 link to alternatives.
- 10.04 consider tram route 19.
- 10.16 Four buses have been dispatched to Upfield, one to Coburg and three to North Melbourne.
- 10.22 Five buses are in operation, with a further three enroute.
- 10.33 Six buses are in operation, with a further two enroute.
- 10.44 Eight buses are in operation.
- 11.16 Trains are resuming Flinders St - Coburg.  Eight buses are in operation beyond, with an extended journey time of 30 min.
- 11.26 Services are resuming Coburg - Upfield,  with minor delays.  The first will be the 11.04 ex Flinders St and the 11.24 ex Upfield.
12.21 Minor delays Ringwood - Belgrave (police).
- 12.32  clearing.
17.45 Frankston line: Minor Delays (an equipment fault between Carrum and Bonbeach).
Why are trains running so late? The 18.15 Belgrave is 10 min late at Camberwell.
- Unintelligible announcements don't help either.
Buses replace trains Richmond/Caulfield - Glen Waverley from 20.15 (maintenance works).
Belgrave/Lilydale lines: Buses replace trains Parliament - Camberwell from 20.30 (maintenance works), also Tues. & Wed.
22.01 Pakenham line: Buses to replace trains Dandenong - Berwick (a person hit by a train).  Buses have been ordered, but may take over 60 minutes arrive, consider alternatives.
- 22.24 Anticipate bustitution until the end last service.
- 22.42 Four buses are in operation, with an extended journey time of 30 min.
- 23.03 Buses are departing from Dandenong towards Berwick every 30 min.
- 23.30 Seven buses in operation, now Dandenong - Pakenham, with an extended journey time of 30 min.

No more sad streamers: the redesign of Melbourne's garish train seats March 4, 2019.
If the train seats on your daily commute fill you with existential anguish it seems you’re not alone.
Metro Trains’ “streamers and confetti-inspired” seat fabric design (a hangover from Melbourne’s old suburban train operator Connex) was recently named among some of the world's most garish.
The design that "summons a bleak reminder of that tear-filled childhood birthday party you had the year Daddy left,” according to CityLab. Credit:Joe Armao
“[This] summons a bleak reminder of that tear-filled childhood birthday party you had the year Daddy left,” CityLab caustically opined in an international round-up of bus, train and subway seat designs.
CityLab, the urban-focused website of The Atlantic, invited followers on Twitter to send examples of public transport seat coverings from all over the world.
The website also singled out the “delirious kitschiness” of fabrics such as those used on Canberra bus seats.
“These … must be like what a drugged, woozy fly sees as it is slowly digested alive inside a Venus flytrap,” CityLab declared.
When ACTION, the bus operator in Canberra responsible for these seats, completed its refurbishment a few years ago, the headline in CityNews.com.au stated cheerfully: “You’ll never see the vomit now”.
There is a science behind these lurid, slightly trippy patterns on moquette, the velvety textile usually used on public transport seats.
“A lot of the bad and ugly examples around the world are trying to create visual noise,” says Dean Butler, the creative lead at Public Transport Victoria’s customer service division.
While this visual noise camouflages graffiti, vandalism, stains and wear and tear it is “not a good basis for getting a nice design aesthetic outcome”.
So what does Mr Butler think of CityLab’s claim the streamers and confetti design on some Metro trains evokes a “tear-filled childhood birthday party”?
“I don’t disagree with it,” he says, adding, "but it was of its time."
For the past 18 months, Mr Butler has been the lead designer of a new moquette that will replace the seat fabric on all trams, trains and buses in Victoria over the next five to 10 years.
Public Transport Victoria's Dean Butler, the man behind the new public transport seats which aim to reflect Melbourne's visual identity.Credit:Eddie Jim
It is being first used in the fleet of 70 upgraded Comeng trains currently being rolled out.
The moquette will come in five colours - blue for Metro trains, purple for V-line trains, green for trams and a darker colour being developed for buses. The fifth colour - a bright orange - will be used across the entire fleet to make priority seats for people who have a disability or are pregnant more visible.
The new priority seats on Metro Trains
(This is opposed to incorporating a symbol into the design of priority seats to indicate for whom they are intended. CityLab suggested Scottish rail company ScotRail’s attempt to do so “give the impression of being covered with images of women apparently caught mid-poop”.)
Mr Butler’s team researched the best and worst public transport seat designs from all over the world.
“We are design nerds, we live and breathe that stuff,” he said. “We tried to come up with a consistent pattern that allows us to tick the boxes for wear and tear and maintenance but at the same time is a bit more harmonious.”
In London, public transport seating textile is a celebrated part of the city’s visual identity, so much so that London Transport Museum has a project looking into the use of moquette on the transport system since the 1920s.
“We tried to take a similar approach and have a thoughtfulness of design that reflects we are part of the fabric of the city and state,” Mr Butler says.
The new comparatively sober moquette design incorporates the triangles that make up Public Transport Victoria’s logo and are prominently displayed on the exterior of trains, trams and buses.
But the shards also echo the faceted angles that are embedded in the architecture of Melbourne, including Federation Square.
“Most people will put a bum on it and not give it a second thought,” Mr Butler says.
“But it’s often a feeling people get when they walk into a space that they may not consciously even acknowledge.”
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/no-more-sad-streamers-the-redesign-of-melbourne-s-garish-train-seats-20190304-p511lc.html>

New metro line signals change ahead for commuter habits March 4, 2019. 40 comments.
Commuters in Sydney's north west will increasingly need to switch modes of public transport, such as from buses to trains, to get to their destinations following the opening of a new $8 billion metro train line in May.
Changes designed to route more bus services from suburbs in the north west to stations along the new 36-kilometre rail line from Rouse Hill to Chatswood will be gradually introduced to give commuters time to adjust their travel habits, the government says.
The government says express buses from the north west to the central city via the M2 motorway will remain unchanged.Credit:Peter Rae
In an attempt to allay concerns from commuters, the government says express bus services between the north west and central Sydney via the M2 motorway will be maintained.
Transport for NSW secretary Rodd Staples said the changes to the bus network in the north west would be progressively rolled out following the opening of the new rail line.
"What we're going to do with customers is give them a bit of time to adjust.. So when that service starts running on day one, people can keep doing what they're doing now in terms of buses," he said.
However, Mr Staples said the public could expect, over the longer term, fewer buses running directly from suburbs such as Rouse Hill directly to the central city; instead, more of them would be focused on providing a link to the metro stations.
The prospect of trains running along the rail line every four minutes during peak hours was "ideal for interchange" because it meant passengers would not be left waiting on platforms for long periods, he said.
"For some people, there will be more interchange than maybe what they've been used to. But at the same time, they are not running on a motorway where there's risk of traffic congestion," he said.
"If you want to get from Rouse Hill to Central [station in the CBD] at the moment, just getting through the city on a bus is very busy. So you have to look at the total journey."
Once the first stage of the metro project opens in May, the time taken to travel by rail from Tallawong station at Rouse Hill to the CBD is estimated at 57 minutes. The rail trip will require commuters to change trains at Chatswood or Epping stations. But when trains begin running along the second stage of the metro line to the CBD and onwards by 2024, the journey time is estimated to be about 48 minutes.
A driverless metro train at the new Tallawong Station in Sydney's north west.
Transport Minister Andrew Constance said bus services in the north west would not be cut, rather the intention was to operate more to the new train stations.
"We have the benefit of Opal data and the aim is to put more services in, not less, in terms of transport options for the people of the north west," he said.
"The growth in the city means people do have to interchange like every other global city. What we want to do is make it easy and that is why we have done that with the $2 transfer discount built into the transport ticket."
Adult Opal card holders receive the $2 discount when they switch modes of public transport, such as from a bus to a train, in a single journey and within an hour of their last tap off. Seniors, children, students and holders of Opal concession cards get a $1 discount on their journey.
But Labor's candidate for the seat of Epping, Alan Mascarenhas, said residents in the north west were concerned that there would be a significant reduction of direct bus services to the central city.
"The people right on the rail line will really benefit but these are big suburbs and people live an hour's walk from it. They would rather keep the existing door-to-door Hillsbus," he said.
"People need to have a say on what services are kept and what won't be."
Transport for NSW will launch a campaign to help make commuters aware of changes to buses in the north west about three weeks before they are introduced.
Related Article The Berejiklian government is banking on the Sydney Metro project. Old, crowded trains and maxed-out credit: Will the Sydney metro project sway voters?
<www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/new-metro-line-signals-change-ahead-for-commuter-habits-20190304-p511jw.html>