----- Forwarded message -----
To:australiantransportnews@... australiantransportnews@...>
Sent: Sunday, 19 September 2021, 10:24:20 pm AEST
Subject: Sat.19.6.21 daily digest
Roderick
200212-Melbourne'Age'-skipping.girl-ss.jpg
"210619Sa-'SMH'-CahillExpressway-b-ss.jpg"
Sat.19.6.21 Metro Twitter:
Aircraft: No ramp access to platforms until late 2021 (pedestrian-underpass works).
Flinders St: still with a lane closed for tunnel works.
Buses replace trains on sections of the Werribee line until the last train of Sun 20 Jun (level-crossing works).
Mernda/Hurstbridge/Lilydale/Belgrave/Alamein/Glen Waverley lines: All trains direct to/from Flinders St all day (maintenance works). From loop stations, take a train from pfm 2 to Flinders St.
Ginifer Station car park will be undergoing asphalting, compacting and line marking work from Sat 19 June to Thurs 24 June. 87 spaces at the north end of the commuter car park on St Albans Rd will be closed. The rest of the car park will be available to commuters.
Frankston line: All trains will terminate/originate at Caulfield from 10.00 to 19.15 today (works). Change at Caulfield to/from Pakenham/Cranbourne trains. These will run to an altered timetable; all trains will stop at all stations Caulfield - South Yarra during this time.
Williamstown line: All trains will terminate/originate at Newport from 11.00 to 19.15 today (works). Change to/from Werribee trains.
14.32 Major delays (police near Frankston). Trains may (ie will) terminate/originate at Mordialloc.
- 15.17 clearing.
15.16 Sandringham line: Major delays (a passenger 'incident' between Elsternwick and Richmond).
15.57 Belgrave Line: Major delays while police attend to trespassers on tracks.
- 16.36 Recovering.
17.23 Frankston line: Major delays (police attending to a trespasser in the Frankston - Kananook area). Trains may be held at platforms.
19.55 Glen Waverley line: Major delays (police attending to a trespasser on tracks).
- 20.33 recovering.
Iconic Skipping Girl building for sale. Simon Johanson February 12, 2020
A slice of Melbourne’s industrial past, the building featuring the neon-lit Skipping Girl sign, is up for sale.
The Skipping Girl Vinegar neon above 651 Victoria Street.CREDIT:LUIS ASCUI
The waterfront office complex opposite the Victoria Gardens shopping centre in Abbotsford has been home to the heritage-listed Skipping Girl since 1970.
Heritage Victoria believes it was the first animated neon sign to be displayed in Melbourne.
The iconic marker features a girl, known as “Little Audrey”, skipping over a rope with painted letters spelling “Vinegar” in neon at the base.
It was originally erected in 1936 above a vinegar factory at 627 Victoria Street and remained there until 1968 before being removed when the factory relocated to Altona.
After a public outcry about its disappearance, the sign was copied and reinstated on the roof of 651 Victoria Street a short distance from its original location.
The new Skipping Girl varied a little from the original, “being slightly smaller, the girl having slightly longer hair and with her dress flying up higher at the back,” according to Heritage Victoria.
The property under the Skipping Girl, a four-level office complex with 3677 square metres of leasing space, is owned by multiple strata title holders who have banded together to sell it in one lot.
The complex is expected to fetch above $20 million.
The transaction is being handled by boutique funds manager Vantage Property Investments. It also owns strata title units in the complex.
Agents appointed include CBRE’s Josh Rutman, Scott Orchard and Lewis Tong and Colliers International’s Peter Bremner, Rob Joyes and Rachael Clohesy.
“This is a truly unique opportunity to own an iconic part of Melbourne’s historic fabric,” Mr Rutman said.
“We expect wide-ranging interest in Skipping Girl Place, given Little Audrey’s iconic status, and the location and potential of the site.”
Richmond’s industrial past – it was once popularly known as Struggletown – has resulted in it having the greatest concentration of surviving sky-signs in the state.
They include the Nylex, Victoria Bitter, Slade Knitwear and Pelaco signs.
<www.theage.com.au/business/companies/iconic-skipping-girl-building-for-sale-20200211-p53zsx.html>
Cahill Expressway to be closed for seven-day New Year’s Eve party. Angus Thompson June 19, 2021
<www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/cahill-expressway-to-be-closed-for-seven-day-new-year-s-eve-party-20210618-p582bj.html>
* IF they got rid of the Cahill it would just leave the trains on the City Circle as the next level down, what are they planning to do about that as getting rid of those will not be so easy
* If that monstrosity isn’t going to get torn down (which it should have 30 yrs ago), then this feels like a far better use than cars
More wild weather on the way after parts of Victoria still without power. Kimberley Seedy, Laura Armitage, Mitch Clarke and Jade Gailberger [with ATN]
<www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/outer-east/yarra-ranges-storm-kalorama-monbulk-dandenong-ranges-power-phone-outages/news-story/6444862991430baf6b30058d71830d91> [just one paragraph]
Sat.19.6.21 Melbourne 'Herald Sun' Metro gets a rails run on targets, TESS IKONOMOU
METRO has met its performance targets each month this year, as the number of passengers dropped during the pandemic.
The operator delivered 93.6 per cent of services on time in May, above the 92 per cent target, and 98.9 per cent of scheduled trains.
More than 850 incidents involving trespassers, police operations and near misses delayed services last month.
In March there was a 2 per cent drop in punctuality from a month earlier, with 93.1 per cent of train services on time.
A police operation at Flinders Street station during the afternoon peak in March delayed 400 services and led to line suspensions across the network.
Before Victoria was plunged into lockdown last month, patronage levels for trains had risen to 57 per cent of pre-Covid levels.
Metro chief operating officer Catherine Baxter said passengers crowding on platforms and extreme weather events could affect performance.
About 91 per cent of VLine services ran on time in May.
Peak hour train trips on new Suburban Rail Loop set to be twice as quick as using the car. Matt Johnston June 19, 2021 Herald Sun
The train trip on the first stage of the Suburban Rail Loop is set to be at least twice as quick as taking the car between the same commuter hot spots.
video: Suburban Rail Loop, where it goes and what it means. The state government will spend $2.2m on early works for the Suburban Rail Loop which will transform Victoria’s public transport system
Train passengers using the first section of the multibillion dollar Suburban Rail Loop have been promised 22 minute trips from Cheltenham to Box Hill.
The 26km journey would take at least twice as long to drive during peak hour, and is based on trains taking an average of 3-4 minutes between six new underground stations.
The modelling for the journey times is included in a long-awaited investment case for the 90km mega-project, likely to cost tens of billions of dollars for just the first stage.
Public transport advocates say the impressive journey times mean the government should consider an extra stop being inserted between Cheltenham and Clayton to cater for a nearby industrial precinct and potential urban renewal.
The Andrews Government has said planning won’t preclude a station from being built near to a stabling site in Heatherton in future, but there is currently no economic justification.
Construction work continues ahead of schedule at the Arden Metro Station site in North Melbourne. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw
Set to be the most expensive rail tunnel ever built in Victoria, the plan for a Suburban Rail Loop is to build a 90km orbital line that would connect almost all radial train lines in Melbourne.
Stage one early works have started, despite no pricetag or cost benefit study being released, and will run 26km with new underground stations at Southland in Cheltenham, Clayton, Monash University, Glen Waverley, Burwood near to Deakin University, and Box Hill.
Box Hill is the most challenging engineering feat due to high rises around the station box, which is designed to be 350 metres long.
Trains will take between three and four minutes between stations, with the journey from Cheltenham to Monash University done in under 10 minutes.
Suburban Loop Minister Jacinta Allan said Melbourne’s population will be the size of London’s today by the middle of this century meaning the loop is “more than a rail line”.
An artist's concept of a Suburban Rail Loop train at Cheltenham. Source: Suburban Rail Loop Authority
“Suburban Rail Loop will reshape how Melbourne grows – the delivery of fast and convenient travel connections between key employment, education and health precincts in our suburbs will attract thousands of businesses, jobs and services in areas around the stations, reducing the pressure on the Melbourne CBD.”
Public Transport Users’ Association spokesman Daniel Bowen said the travel times sounded good but the key would be getting interchanges right so that commuters can seamlessly connect to buses, trams or trains nearby.
Stations will be between 17 and 23 metres below ground, with planners trying to make the trip to the surface as quick as possible.
“They really do need to deliver on that so people have a seamless experience,” he said.
“You don’t want to have to exit and then walk down the road in the rain and then down into another station.”
Mr Bowen said it looked like a “missed opportunity” in Heatherton where there was a chance for industrial precincts and “potential urban renewal” to hook into a public transport line.
<www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/peak-hour-train-trips-on-new-suburban-rail-loop-set-to-be-twice-as-quick-as-using-the-car/news-story/654a0a2075a0fb124414c04026255779>
More Coverage
Where homes will be bulldozed for mega rail loop
* There may or may not be economic justification for a station in Heatherton, but there sure is social justification with the local community heavily impacted by the loss of amenity and liveability from the proposed stabling yard. Even better, move the stabling yard to an industrial area where the land hasn’t been earmarked and promised as parkland for 25 years. Consider a station around Moorabbin Airport/DFO instead. They argue they are an activity centre.
* Green wash.This will never happen,it’s green ideology to think that people will get on trains when the car offers more flexibility. Where’s the money coming from.
* Will never happen. The Victorian Government will be $155B in debt by 2024/2025 based on their current predictions. They've only allocated $2B to this project which doesn't get you anything apart from superficial relocation of utilities, some test drilling and lots of fancy brochures/graphics. Once they release the business case and realise this thing will cost $50B+ you watch it die a very quick (but subtle) death.
* Who wants to catch a train to the city now anyway? If the virus doesn’t get you, the gangs that run rampant will!
* People who can't drive or don't want to pay $30 for parking. That's who'll get the train to the city.
* How many people actually live in Cheltenham and work in Box Hill, or visa versa? Thought so! Plus, when will this first stage be completed, in the year 2030 or 2040?
* Projects and the other word modelling rarely deliver what is promised. Under this government, those two words together are so far apart why bother with modelling or costs.
* How many people need to travel from Cheltenham to Box Hill? What a spectacular waste of money!
* Compare to the number of people who need to travel from the Eastern freeway to Citylink or Monash or West Gate or Tullamarine or Calder freeways.
* Why do a story on this propaganda? it wont be built for another 10 years.
* No one is driving there.
* Can’t understand why it wouldn’t start at Sandringham, have a stop in Beaumaris or Black Rock also so it actually links all lines.
* Have you checked the demographics of those electorates?
* Of course, the train line has to wend its way through Monash and Box Hill.
* Spin spin, spin the urban circle!
* All because Dan wants a big train set dedicated to his memory!
* Yet they can’t reinstate the Clyde rail line from Cranbourne,a growth area.Instead they ripped up some of the line,go figure.
* Build build build, no matter what's said at least we have infrastructure.
* Useless as an ashtray on a motorbike
* This tunnel will be about as handy as labors nth-sth water pipeline that has never been used.
* Thanks for reminding me of this, yet another monumental waste of our money by Labor governments. “No business case, but will be an asset” … meanwhile tens of thousands of cars and trucks daily crawl along Alexandra Parade and through a two lane road in Royal Park from the end of the Eastern Freeway heading for the Tullamarine and the west …. but no need for the EW tunnel.
* As they used to say about NZ last one out turn of the lights as the locked down residents of Victoria flee this mess, last one out turn of the lights.
* Meanwhile, many are actively escaping greater Melbourne. Are there going to be any commuters left to use this service?
* The more this govt stinks, the more often they put out this waffle about a project that is not funded and will never ever get built. Predictable if nothing else, but hey, some people will swallow this stuff.. they will be still be building the west gate tunnel and looking for somewhere to dump their dirty soil in 2040.
* Reminds me of the film "Field of Dreams". Build it and they will come.
* Dan's uncosted thought bubble. Most of it will never get built.
* Still have not seen a business case. How they can claim 'but there is currently no economic justification' is beyond me. Reporters really need to be better than rewording fanciful media releases!
* Each of the five or six commuters travelling from Box Hill to Cheltenham or South Yarra to South Kensington will be thankful. Expensive rail trips funded by a diminishing number of Victorian taxpayers, as many wise heads flee Melbourne and head to the country or move to northern states, tired of Labor's deepening mess.
* A white elephant to end all white elephants. The most stupid thing this stupid government has ever thought of. Just love the detailed business case.
* Pipe dreams from a stupid Labor Party
* Yeap. Who travels from Chelt to box hill? secondly, it’s greats to have the speed, but if the cost is going to be $10 one way.
* After November next year, these tunnels will be known as the catacombs beneath Melbourne in which the Andrew’s Government was buried.
* I still won't catch public transport, I'd rather walk or crawl
* Same dodgey modelling as the tunnel it BC will take twice as long. I take what this gov says with a grain of salt
* Costs mean nothing to them. Theyll even rip up $1billion contract NOT to build a road. Its all just rubbery figures
* Sadly it’s real money they are burning here. Your right though, they treat these projects as if we are spending Monopoly money
* How many people do they think travel from Cheltenham or Box Hill on any one day. More blockhead dreamers at work. Just give us your figures.
* Exactly. With everything City based, how many would make those trips. The Inner City Circle carried passengers for approximately four years before it was dissected to those sections which carried enough passengers to justify the service. The Alamein line from Camberwell is it's last remaining operational section.
* Vote Dan out
* There is no doubt this line is greatly needed. However, it is a bit rich telling us how good it will be when the first shovel has not turned over a single grain of dirt. I will make my own judgment if it gets completed in my lifetime. Fingers crossed as I am 49.
* Suburban Loop Minister Jacinta Allan said Melbourne’s population will be the size of London’s today by the middle of this century ... No thanks, we don't want Big Melbourne.
* They're all getting out and moving to the regions and interstate. By the middle of the century, Melbourne's population will be less than that of a mid sized country town today.
* too late look at the Chinese pile in
* Who really wants to go from cheltenham to box hill?
* All 6 people who currently make the trip by bus! Usually all but empty!
* So how much is it going to cost and does it "stack up" to use cost benefit analysis terminology? Who knows but neither Andrews nor any of his ministers or minions give a hoot because they'll be long gone by the time it's half finished and paying for it will be anybody else's problem but theirs. Just as long as the unions are kept happy - that's all that matters.
* And the Chinese construction companies!
* Clowns making estimates without facts again
* Won’t get built Labor won’t be there long enough to build it.
* "Stage one early works have started, despite no pricetag or cost benefit study being released," ...SOO WHAT the case in favour of the project? It not been certified nor recommended by the state govts alleged 'independent' advisory body, Infrastructure Aust has not listed it as a priority project, just how much will this great big white elephant cost our already crumbling Victoria economy courtesy of the State Govt's constant bungles during Covid and their waste of YOUR money on the doomed to fail west gate tunnel project? It is not worth the incredibly monstrous price tag....can the project for our own sanity's sake.. lease Vic Govt..oh wait..you dont listen nor respect us..that right...!
* Only because of the bike lanes!
* I pretty sure the fares will go up soon
* You can bet on it!
* This project is really only creating jobs for a very small number of people and may only have relevance if our outer suburbs become over populated urban cesspits. Cheltenham to Boxhill, $50billion, please, give me a break. Do we want our city to become a belt and road experiment. I don't
* Dan's building this only for the foreign students to get around, never mind the rest of us. Meanwhile here in Mount Evelyn, we have hourly buses during the day, every day.
* With no price tag or cost benefit analysis it undoubtedly will be the most expensive tunnel eventually built in Victoria
* The original Glen Waverley station was built in 1930!! It was the end of the line. The area at that time was almost in the sticks. I have lived in the area since 1971, there was no South Eastern suburbs to speak of. Now the SE extends past Clyde. In 91 years Glen Waverley line had not been extended. And there is no feeder transport other than buses. Politicians have been promising a light rail from Mulgrave, Rowville for last 40 years but never happens. Anyone remember the nighttime drive to Waverley Park for the footy?? I cannot see anyone doing a daily trip from Box Hill to Cheltenham. My view anyway.
* Buses doing it now are usually 'packed' with about 6 people!
* A line from nowhere to nowhere. Only in Victoria.
* no business case - how are we paying for it ? On the credit card I presume.
* So anytime other than peak hour this huge investment be what, the same or slower than driving it? Can’t understand why routes are prioritised over glaring gaps.
* I really doubt Melbourne’s population will be that of today’s London by 2050. The population is currently in decline due to this appalling Government.
* People cannot sell and get away quick enough! Can you blame them. Streets in the city are deserted and people are leaving in droves.
* I know at least 2 people that might go from cheltenham to box hill at least twice a year. They are very excited. This project is real value for money
* How many people will be utilising these new services given the continuing presence of Covid? From my observations, a lot of people are still working from home and want to continue to do so.
* Let's not forget train delays when the temperature is over 25 degrees, under 15 degrees, it's raining, it's too hot, cold, whatever. I know the loop is underground but they'll give us any excuse as to why trains are late
* No price tag released... no cost benefit analysis released... typical Labor. Here comes the ALP Circus's next white elephant.
* Chinese construction companies are delighted with Dan!
* Make Victoria Great Again!
* $50bn! ROFLMAO
* Ok drive to the station - wait for a train - get train -,where's the destination - oh it's a 10 minute walk at least in bad weather verses leave house -.drive car / arrive at destination / go inside - let me see which is better
* Forgot to say - if not at Cheltenham but say Chelsea station - drive to station - find a park if lucky - catch train to Cheltenham - get off - wait for connecting train - catch train - get off and then walk 10 min or just drive straight to your destination
* 50 billion dollars. Great if you live in Melbourne.
* Even better if you want to travel between Cheltenham and Box Hill.
* Train passengers using the first section of the multibillion dollar Suburban Rail Loop have been promised 22 minute trips from Cheltenham to Box Hill. - Article. That's FANTASTIC for everybody that goes from Cheltenham to Box Hill every day.......
* And so much faster than road "in the peak periods" - how about other times of day?
* All 3 of them
* And that will be zero, Meanwhile the long promised rail link from / to Mulgrave, and South Eastern suburbs is ditched again.
* The seat of Mulgrave being Dan Andrews seat is getting not only getting the line running just to the north of it, wit Monash and Glen Waverley, they will also ve getting a tram line to take you to the station, or the city, running right through your Chairman Dan's electorate!
* Believe me Dan’s been in my local area for years. Seen him once. Nothing ever gets gone - it’s all spin!
* it will go through the middle of Dan's Electorate!
* While the outer suburbs have no train lines.
* Melton mernda craigiburn lilydale to name a few
* “No economic justification”? How would they know? This “project” has no business case.
* Don't worry, they're bound to hit contaminated soil sooner or later.
* Let’s get on with the full loop, not just first part.
* Yeah, excellent for a tiny minority of Victorians. How about something that's actually useful for most Victorians? Such as Dan's resignation?
[Saturation propaganda. Whenever a newspaper article claims that project will 'slash' travel times, it can't be believed. As noted by PTUA, real travel time has to include connection time, something which PTV and the minister always ignore. Unless better services are provided on connecting routes, the travel time will have only marginal improvements. The government would get better bang for the buck by making the current system work properly: fix the chokes and the signalling].