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Sent: Friday, 30 July 2021, 11:46:46 pm AEST
Subject: Sun.25.4.21 daily digest

Roderick

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Sun.25.4.21 Metro Twitter
12.59 Mernda/Hurstbridge lines: Major delays (a trespasser in the Clifton Hill loop). Trains will run direct between Flinders Street and Jolimont.
- 13.10 Trains have resumed via the loop, with major delays.
17.45 Heading home from AFL? We've got plenty of extra trains to get you home.
- Passengers for Werribee, Sunbury, Craigieburn and Upfield lines, enter via Olympic Bvd for trains to Flinders St to connect.   Access is via the footbridge over rail lines towards  Melbourne Arena [we no longer provide through trains: too much effort].
- 18.14 Current wait times leading into the station from Brunton Ave are 1-2min.
- 18.18 Crowds are flowing well through the Brunton Avenue subway. 
- 18.22 Jolimont: Crowds are flowing well through Yarra Park and the station. 
- 18.28 Richmond: Current wait times leading into the station from Brunton Ave are 2-3 min.  Please also use the Olympic Bvld, Swan St and Stewart St entrances.
- 18.31 Jolimont: Crowds are clearing well and waiting times are minimal. There's still a few football specials yet to run.
- 18.35  Richmond: Current wait times leading into the station from Brunton Ave are 3-4min.
- 18.39 Jolimont: Crowds are clearing well and waiting times are minimal.
- 18.45 Richmond: Crowds are clearing well and waiting times are minimal via Brunton Avenue subway entrance.
21.52 Mernda Line: Major delays (police). Trains may be held at platforms.
- 23.29 unchanged.

APRIL 25 2021 New cashless transport ticket system by 2023, ACT government says. Jasper Lindell
The ACT government wants a new public transport ticket system in operation by 2023. Picture: Elesa Kurtz
 The ACT government wants a new public transport ticket system in operation by 2023. Picture: Elesa Kurtz
The days of hunting for the exact change to buy a bus ticket in Canberra could be over, with the territory's new system set to be entirely cashless.
<www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7223684/new-cashless-public-transport-ticket-system-on-track-for-2023>
* I love the way the card-carrying party hacks, better known as advisors, put a spin on things. The system is well past its promised delivery but apparently it is "on track for 2023" Fact - "The ACT government will begin an open tender process in its long-running hunt for a new ticketing platform, four years after it first promised to replace the now decade-old MyWay system." Ah, yet another promise, that Mr Barr's Labor Green coalition proudly trumpeted leading into the previous election, only to have it badly miss its target. City to the Lake, new rectangular stadium in the city, Canberra Hospital SPIRE redevelopment. Boy, can't they deliver on their promises!!! Oh well, at least they are not always tardy; Dickson land swap with CFMEU was quick and Minister's using their "call in" powers to help developers is another thing they seem to be able to do with haste...
* Starting out in 2017, this pandemic, 3 years later, certainly is a "unique opportunity" for Transport Canberra "to accelerate a cashless ticketing system". To help the cynics like me, could TC also rename the project - this will help bury the glacial progress of the past and help establish the image of an agile, population focussed organisation pulling out all stops to deliver. I suspect that the 2020 pandemic will achieve a status akin to the floods of 1967, referenced in Yes Minister, where "no end of embarrassing files" were lost - e.g. "... such great progress could have been made, alas the pandemic ..."
* Canberra Transport made my bus trip to work 'twice as slow and half as regular' under their 'more buses, more often' project in 2019. How can any Canberran have faith that the Transport Minister and his directorate will deliver on time and to the level promised?
* Odds on this will be late, over budget and not work.

Sun.25.4.21 Melbourne 'Herald Sun' Pandemic hangover for public transport. TESS IKONOMOU KIERAN ROONEY
MOTORISTS across Melbourne are facing gridlock as commuters shun public transport because of coronavirus.
The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal public transport patronage isn’t expected to rebound until late this year, with the latest Department of Transport figures forecasting the network to reach 70 per cent of pre-COVID levels by mid-year, despite a 4 per cent rise in traffic and work trips.
Every metro municipality had more cars on the road — apart from the Yarra Ranges, the Mornington Peninsula and Casey.
Public transport use is at its highest since the start of the pandemic, peaking at 60 per cent.
Metro buses are at 70 per cent of pre-COVID figures, trains are at 56 per cent and trams at 46 per cent.
Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen said the lower usage of trains could be explained by fewer people travelling into the city as they worked from home, while buses served suburban areas.
“I think most people are getting more comfortable with life getting back to normal, including using public transport,” he said.
“The reality is even once the pandemic is behind us there’s going to be a lot of people working from home a lot more and so public transport may not get back 100 per cent of what it was.
“It may indicate the government may need to invest in more bus services as that continues to increase.”
Nick Foa, Head of Transport Services at the Department of Transport, said more than 540 extra weekly rail services had been added.
Public Transport Minister Ben Carroll said more people were returning to the network as the state emerged from the pandemic.
“We’re providing more choice than ever before for passengers across the public transport network,” Mr carroll said.