----- Forwarded message ----- To: Tdu Transportdownunder transportdownunder@...>
Sent: Thursday, 11 July 2019, 03:28:50 pm AESTSubject: Tues.9.7.19 daily digest
Roderick
Yahell is still a bit confusing, but delivered no more than 18/22 to tdu.  Ten photos herewith.

190709Tu Melbourne 'Herald Sun' - train-travel safety (letters and editorial).
190709Tu Melbourne 'Age':- letters (energy, gas, electricity). with tdu.- energy (gas). with tdu.

190709Tu 'WA Today' - Perth airport line.

190709Tu - Melbourne Express:- State Library station tunnel.- Flinders St reserved for rail-replacement buses.
190709Tu - Metro Twitter:- Sandringham headways.- Reservoir snacks.- 1945 Richmond aerial view.- Richmond ~1910 [an often-published photo]

Tues.9.7.19 Metro TwitterCarrum closed for months.Pakenham/Cranbourne/Frankston lines: Buses replace trains Caulfield - Flinders St until last train, Sun 14 Jul.- Great work today. More than enough buses, convenient replacement stops, and good crowd control.- A suggestion: have special officers who are based at Flinders and Caulfield who are fluent in other languages just to make visitors or international students understand these works are occuring and would affect their travels; that would be great.Buses replace trains Frankston - Stony Point until last train, Sun 14 Jul.Sandringham line: Trains will run to an altered weekday timetable.- Frequency appears to be only every 14-15 minutes outbound for some reason? How is this acceptable given  the works being carried out now?- Why isn’t frequency every 6-8 minutes until 19.30 to transport people out of the city loop?- If you'd like a response to this question, please send your question to our feedback team (website or 1800 800 007).Our project team will be at Reservoir until 9am to discuss upcoming travel changes in July and August.  We have delicious muesli slices and quiche from Oak Hill Cafe too.- 8.56 Hurstbridge/Mernda Lines: Minor delays (an equipment fault near Croxton).- 12.11 Belgrave/Lilydale/Alamein lines: Minor delays (police request near Camberwell)..- 12.24 clearing.14.29 Werribee/Williamstown lines: Major delays (a track fault at Newport).- 14.39 clearing.- When aren’t there track faults?- 14.40 The fault has been fixed and trains are now on the move. We are expecting delays.15.18 Frankston line: Minor citybound delays (an 'operational incident' near Moorabbin).- 15.25 clearing.16.51 Pakenham/Cranbourne lines: Outbound delays (an ill passenger requiring ambulance assistance at Oakleigh).- 16.57 clearing.Buses replace trains Heidelberg - Hurstbridge from 20.40 (maintenance works).Richmond c1910 and available in high res from our Beta catalog. You can zoom in and see the advertisements lining the station and travellers waiting for the steam train to depart. https://beta.prov.vic.gov.au/collection/PID9164092432- The train in the centre of the photo is bound for Flinders St; the photo is looking in a south-easterly direction.. It appears to have been taken from the top of a signal close to Punt Road underline bridge.- That looks to be a little further east than the current Richmond station.- The older Richmond station near Swan Street with six tracks - four to South Yarra and two to Burnley. In the late 1950s a new station was built over Punt Road, closer to MCG, which involved total reconstruction of the underpasses at Punt Road and Swan Street, and provision for ten tracks. By the mid 1960s the track expansion was completed with the last stage from Richmond to Burnley.- 1945 <maps-collection.library.unimelb.edu.au/historical/1945melb/l_sheets/848b4b.jpg>- Greyhound Hotel (rhs) was enlarged, and survives today after a few renamings.  At the far end of that block is Station Hotel, demolished in the late 1950s to widen the railway easement for extra tracks.  PROV will have the VR photo of that work.  I can't see Corner Hotel lhs.
Melbourne Express, Tuesday, July 9, 2019* 9.07 The buses continue to flow for commuters on tunnel-affected lines. There are more delays on the Hurstbridge and Mernda lines (an equipment fault).- 8.29 Train work triggers 'bus jam'.  Not enough buses yesterday, and too many today. Also concerns about too many express buses and not enough all-stations services.- We've got some questions in to Metro and PTV about replacement buses and possible extra trains on other services.- There is always a bus jam at Caulfield station.  It seems that there are too many buses waiting to take people into the city; as a result arriving buses can’t drop passengers off. Just waiting here unnecessarily!- 7.35 It's not just trains affected by the winter construction blitz. Part of Flinders Street is closed to cars to allow for replacement buses. See if your travel plans will be upset here.- Until Sunday 14 July, Flinders Street is closed westbound between Batman Avenue and Russell Street, to allow better movement of rail replacement buses. Detour using Exhibition, Collins and Russell streets.- 6.55 Commuters dragged their feet towards buses as a new section of tunnel works interrupted the Cranbourne, Frankston, Pakenham and Stony Point lines yesterday. An RDO for tradies didn't ease the angst. How's it all going this morning? if you're planning on travelling in the next few days, check for interruptions with our handy interactive.- 5.53 Another day of train pain for world-weary commuters on the Cranbourne, Frankston, Pakenham and Stony Point lines. Sandringham also working to an altered timetable. It's all because of tunnel works.* 8.35 Construction of the new State Library station continues as our three roadheaders continue to excavate the cavern under Swanston Street. Our third roadheader has reached the 72-metre mark as it moves south down Swanston Street.* On this day in 1979, the world's eyes were turned skywards as the stricken Skylab space station continued its Earthward plunge. In India families were reported to be fleeing their homes, and at least one United States woman left for Norway to avoid Skylab’s flight path. 'Skylab Repellent' went on sale, with a money-back guarantee.The station did not burn up as fast as NASA expected. Debris landed about 500 kilometres east of Perth. The Shire of Esperance fined NASA A$400 for littering, according to Wikipedia.Skylab in 1979, at the end of its mission. Credit: NASA* 7.24 If there's one consolation to rail works, it normally means free breakfast. Commuters around Reservoir are reaping the benefits this morning. And they're not even on the buses yet.* When Scotsman John Irvine was told his carry-on bag was 8 kg over the limit before a flight home from France, he quickly solved the problem by unpacking and donning the extra kilos of clothes – all 15 shirts and jumpers – as the temperatures outside Nice Airport hovered around 30 degrees.  Staff were in stitches, but getting through security was a struggle.* Commuter Heather Bailie left a cake on a Hurstbridge train yesterday. She tweeted desperately as her by-now possibly well-travelled cake departed the station. By 5pm last night there was still no word at Flinders Street station's lost property office. Heather has accepted she'll no longer get her cake and eat it too but she'd love her bag back. It was a gift from a friend.  The whole thing got us thinking about lost property and the honesty of people. Have you been reunited with something you lost on a train? We'd like to know. Get in touch via email or Twitter.<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/melbourne-express-tuesday-july-9-2019-20190709-p525d0.html>
Cashed-up sky rail managers on $200k allegedly ordered sophisticated rorts July 9, 2019High-ranking sky rail building managers on salaries of about $200,000 allegedly orchestrated a sophisticated copper and wage theft racket that bred a "toxic work culture" on Labor's signature project, a court has heard.Magistrate Jack Vandersteen has slammed the rackets run from the Andrews government's $1.6 billion Caulfield-to-Dandenong sky rail project, which saw thousands of kilograms of lucrative copper stolen and timesheets allegedly falsified, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.It comes as the Victorian Coalition and the Greens call for the case to be investigated by the financial and corruption watchdogs to ensure corruption and theft is not plaguing other major government projects."This was a complete rort," Magistrate Vandersteen said as he fined sky rail worker Hozay Crewther, who was convicted in May of stealing copper from the project and selling it for thousands of dollars."The entire entire operation in which you [Crewther] were working seemed to be rorting what was otherwise a very good deal: $60 an hour for labouring on top of overtime, on top of any other rates you'd be entitled to."The magistrate also took aim at handsomely paid senior managers who were contracted by the government and allegedly led the rorts."You had bosses who were skimming off the top," Mr Vandersteen said.Former Lendlease building supervisor Kory Oxley was on a salary of $185,000, while CPB Contractors manager Steven John Winter whose house was allegedly renovated by taxpayer-funded sky rail labourers was paid more than $200,000, the court heard.Mr Oxley, 37, is accused of taking taxpayer-funded labourers off the sky rail job and instead instructing them to secretly renovate the private home of Mr Winter in Selby over a three-week period using trucks and excavators belonging to the government project.Kory Oxley, who worked for Lendlease, is facing 11 criminal charges. Credit: Joe ArmaoHe allegedly authorised $75,000 in labourer wages for the work done on Mr Winter's home last year, as well as orchestrating a $200,000 wage theft racket.Mr Winter, 49, was charged last week with obtaining financial advantage by deception, while Mr Oxley - who allegedly bought a motor boat and a caravan using money siphoned from the project - is facing 11 criminal charges.The house in Selby that was allegedly renovated by sky rail workers.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui The magistrate also criticised the practice he referred to as "phantoms", whereby labourers claimed money for shifts they never worked, allegedly under the instruction of Mr Oxley.Crewther's defence lawyer Liliana Dubroja accused the cashed-up sky rail managers of breeding a culture of lies, theft and corruption that made labourers feel pressured to engage in the rorting."This was a situation where a toxic work culture was fostering this kind of deception ... and allowing employees to engage in it under the direction of the supervisors," Ms Dubroja said."It's a very sophisticated operation."Crewther is a fly-in fly-out worker from Western Australia who, alongside a team of other labourers facing criminal charges over the project, flew to Melbourne to join the signalling crew on the south-eastern level crossing removal project.He pleaded guilty to two counts of obtaining property by deception and was convicted and fined $1750.Ms Dubroja said that Crewther was "led astray by his superiors" and claimed Mr Oxley was in "quite a high position of trust" but is now facing serious charges relating to the alleged fake timesheets and "keeping the share of the payment"."He [Crewther] didn't go off on a frolic of his own ... he was essentially encouraged by others he was working with," she said.On September 10 and 11 last year, more than $11,000 was deposited into Crewther's private bank account after he sold 1.7 tonnes of stolen copper from the sky rail project to a scrap metal dealer, the court heard.That same month, Crewther and sky rail labourer Hayden Tarawa sold another 1.1 tonnes of stolen copper to the same dealer for more than $6000, the court heard.The lawyer told the court that a diary keeping records of the operation by one of the accused men indicated the amount of copper stolen with Crewther's nickname "Hoz" next to it.Tarawa pleaded guilty to selling more than $30,000 worth of stolen copper last week.Hayden Tarawa pleaded guilty to stealing copper from the rail project.Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui The magistrate noted that copper was selling for a profit as it was in high demand."If you think about it, it wasn't much copper for the amount [of money] you got, it just shows it's of a very high value," Mr Vandersteen said.He also inquired whether Crewther would give information about other people's role in the racket to help with Victoria Police's investigation, which Crewther refused to do."It's a picture puzzle," the magistrate said. "Every piece puts together that jigsaw."Seven people linked to the sky rail project are facing charges, including the two men who have pleaded guilty to illegal activity.A Lendlease spokeswoman said that "the alleged actions of one former employee in no way reflects the behaviour of the thousands of hard working people across our work sites around Australia".CPB Contractors has refused to comment or say whether Mr Winter still works for the company.Alan Martin, acting chief executive of the Level Crossing Removal Project, said the project has an inventory management system which ensures that accounts are monitored monthly. This process led to the fraud being detected, he said.Related Article The house that was allegedly renovated by sky rail workers. Supervisor allegedly siphoned sky rail money for home improvements, caravan and a boat<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/cashed-up-sky-rail-managers-on-200k-allegedly-ordered-sophisticated-rorts-20190709-p525iw.html>
Mortlake Power Station could be at half capacity for months July 9, 2019. 79 comments
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/mortlake-power-station-could-be-at-half-capacity-for-months-20190709-p525je.html>

Perth Airport link: Toxic slurry causes severe chemical burns to worker's feet July 9, 2019.New safety concerns have emerged over the Forrestfield-Airport Link following reports of a senior worker receiving chemical burns to his feet and legs while on duty.The incident occurred on June 27, when the 64-year-old worker was operating a boring machine on Tunnel Two, the same site at which a dislodged pipe caused a slurry spill in May, stalling tunnelling operations.A tunnel boring machine on the Perth airport link project.WAtoday understands the man was carrying out his regular work duties when contaminated slurry entered his knee-high gumboots, causing severe chemical burns to his feet and legs.The man was taken to Fiona Stanley for treatment.During an interview on 6PR's Mornings with Gary Adshead, CFMEU WA secretary Mick Buchan said companies were using bore operators to clear the built-up toxic sludge in the tunnel instead of hiring additional workers to manage water levels."There should be people on the ground on that tunnel, dewatering and cleaning up the toxic slurry on a continuous basis," he said."Instead of that happening, in a way of cutting costs, they used these workers to hop off the machines they are operating and clean up around themselves."The height of the water at this stage, or the contaminated slurry, was above his gumboot level."Mr Buchan accused project developers Salini Impregilo-NRW Joint Venture of jeopardising safety in a bid to make ends meet."You don't get a project some hundreds of millions of dollars less than it costs without someone paying the price for it," he said."They've tendered the job way below the cost and they do whatever they can to reduce those costs, and at times like this safety is jeopardised and shortcuts are taken."He said the issue was another example of WA's flawed tender process, where "the cheapest bid wins the day"."We've seen it time and time again, accidents happening on Western Australian taxpayer infrastructure, whether it'd be a school, whether it'd be a hospital, whether it'd be an infrastructure tunnel project," he said."I'll tell you what, things have to improve before Metronet kicks off or we are going to see a repeat of it all."We've had enough of it and we need to fix this problem."A Public Transport Authority spokeswoman said they were working closely with Salini Impregilo-NRW Joint Venture to "monitor the project's safety processes and culture"."Since the start of the year, the PTA has carried out more than 1900 safety inspections, including 275 safety walks, 421 compliance inspections, 1135 hazard inspections and 128 targeted process inspections," she said.She said Worksafe attended the site on June 29 and water levels had been reduced since.During an interview at 6PR, Premier Mark McGowan said the government was working to make the site "as safe as possible" to avoid any further injuries."It's a pretty amazing construction when you think about it," he said.The Forrestfield-Airport Link will be delayed up to a year.Credit:Unknown"It's an eight-kilometre tunnel under the Swan River, we want to make sure it's as safe as possible so we've ensured that there's been an enormous number of work safety inspections, safety walks, compliance inspections, everything to try to improve the safety because I don't want to see anyone injured or worse on that site."The Forrestfield-Airport Link is a joint initiative between the federal and state government set to deliver a new rail service to Perth's eastern suburbs by creating three new stations, Redcliffe, Airport Central and Forrestfield.The project is part of the state government's Metronet vision, which aims to connect communities through "world class public transport."Since the start of the Forrestfield-Airport Link construction phase in 2017, the PTA has recorded 10 lost-time injuries on the construction site.The project made headlines in July last year, when a 26-year-old New Zealand man was left in critical condition after being struck by a flailing hose on the site.Barely a month later, Worksafe inspectors were sent to the site after a pipe connector providing fresh air to the tunnel failed, only for a leak to spring in the Forrestfield-Aiport Link tunnels in September, causing a sinkhole in Dundas Road.Earlier this year, the trouble-plagued $1.8 billion rail line received national attention again, when the state opposition accused the government of downplaying the the level of toxicity in the soil unearthed by tunnelling work.The project is scheduled to be completed in the second half of 2021.Related Article CFMMEU WA state secretary Mick Buchan faces allegations in the Federal Court over strike action the construction watchdog says is unlawful. Union trio to face court over 'tummy bug' strike on Forrestfield-Airport Link project<www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/perth-airport-link-toxic-slurry-causes-severe-chemical-burns-to-worker-s-feet-20190709-p525gp.html>
Explosion at Mortlake gas-fired power station could threaten electricity supply [paywalled; with tdu]
Herald Sun July 9, 2019<www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/explosion-at-mortlake-gasfired-power-station-could-threaten-electricity-supply/news-story/4d9afd35c67b5ebe3302e848bbe0066d>

Frustrated commuters call on government to ‘urgently’ duplicate and extend Cranbourne railway lineCranbourne is officially Melbourne’s worst-performing train line, with long-suffering commuters plagued by constant delays, cancellations and disruptions. This is the one thing that would fix it.Cranbourne Leader July 9, 2019Long-suffering train users say the station desperately needs a track duplication and an extension. Picture: Penny StephensFrustrated commuters on Melbourne’s worst-performing train line are calling on the state government to “urgently fix” the problem.Just 86.5 per cent of Cranbourne line trains arrived on time in 2018, and only 85.3 per cent so far this year, against a network-wide average of 98.5 per cent.Long-suffering users say the problem-plagued line desperately needs to be duplicated, and extended to Clyde to stop the constant delays, cancellations and disruptions.One angry train user showed the Cranbourne Leader a personal log of delays he has kept since 2016, documenting more than 200 disruptions.“Initially I wanted to keep the log so I could take it to our local MP to discuss and ask what are they doing about it. It (the log) gives an indication what life is like using such a poor train system,” the Cranbourne man, who didn’t want to be named, said.“If our train is a few minutes delayed in the afternoon from Glenferrie we miss our connecting Cranbourne train from Richmond, that also means I miss my bus from Merinda Park.”The Cranbourne Leader visited the station last week and spoke with dozens of commuters.Mark Rogers said the line needed duplication of the 8km of single track between Dandenong and Cranbourne.“This will remove the bottlenecks that cause delays,” Mr Rogers said.James Asgarda said he was frustrated by constant delays.“I expect my train to leave on time and get to my destination on time, every day. Why is that so hard? I do my part, pay and touch-on and get to the train station in time,” Mr Asgarda said.Meena Thorat said she was arriving more than two hours late to work due to disruptions.“I’m running to work late and the platforms are so crowded — it’s just a lot of hassle,” Ms Thorat said.Cranbourne commuters have had enough. Picture: Penny StephensMark Rogers said the line needed duplication of the 8km of single track between Dandenong and Cranbourne.“This will remove the bottlenecks that cause delays,” Mr Rogers said.James Asgarda said he was frustrated by constant delays.“I expect my train to leave on time and get to my destination on time, every day. Why is that so hard? I do my part, pay and touch-on and get to the train station in time,” Mr Asgarda said.Meena Thorat said she was arriving more than two hours late to work due to disruptions.“I’m running to work late and the platforms are so crowded — it’s just a lot of hassle,” Ms Thorat said.Cranbourne commuter Barry Gibbins says the station’s carpark fills up very quickly.Meena Thorat is arriving to work late because of the disruptions.Barry Gibbins said the station’s carpark was atrocious.“I’ve parked all the way out at the shopping centre today because it fills up so quickly — there desperately needs to be more all-day parking around the station,” Mr Gibbins said.Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen said the track needed to be duplicated to ease congestion.“This is the key issue that is limiting the number of trains that can run, which leads to long waits between services and disruptions very quickly snowball causing Metro to sometimes terminate trains early without running all the way down to Cranbourne,” Mr Bowen said.Since 2015, the Leader been fighting for the train line to be extended through its ‘Put Clyde Back on Track’ campaign.video: Demographer Bernard Salt on transport congestion in Future MelbourneLate last year, Labor pledged to remove the last four level crossings along the line, and duplicate the track between Dandenong and Cranbourne, to allow for doubling the number of trains during peak times and deliver services every 10 minutes.But Premier Daniel Andrews stopped short of guaranteeing cash to extend the line to Clyde.Leader spoke to commuters about disruptions on the Cranbourne line. Picture: Penny StephensPublic Transport Minister spokesman Joel Dwyer said the State Government understood how important extending the rail line to Clyde was for the community.“That’s why we’re getting on with the vital planning work needed to make this a reality,” Mr Dwyer said.“We’re also undertaking a massive upgrade of the Cranbourne Line, including removing level crossings and delivering a full duplication of track between Dandenong and Cranbourne.”He said it was unfortunate disruptions were occurring on the network, but duplicating the line would reduce delays and allow trains to run every ten minutes to the city in peak hour.Metro spokesman Andrew Nelson said the authority was running “more services on the Cranbourne line than ever before” to get passengers where they need to go.“We understand how frustrating disruptions can be — that’s why our priority is minimising delays to passengers, and deploying replacement buses as needed to keep people moving,” Mr Nelson said.“Signalling and upgrade works as part of the Metro Tunnel will result in more reliable journeys on the Cranbourne line and pave the way for turn up and go services.”REVEALED: MELBOURNE’S 10 MOST DANGEROUS TRAIN STATIONS [ie most dangerous ten]<www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/south-east/frustrated-commuters-call-on-government-to-urgently-duplicate-and-extend-cranbourne-railway-line/news-story/8c770e6a9ab1fe18c60ab5c2a13c0b36>