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Sent: Thursday, 23 September 2021, 09:28:10 pm AEST
Subject: Wed.23.6.21 daily digest

Roderick

Down diesel 22.50 through Surrey Hills: long pull-push plant train.

Mon.21.6.21 was posted wrongly as Tues.21.6.21

 "191031Th-'BrisbaneTimes'-GoldCoast-line-forATN.jpg"

"210623W-MetroTwitter-MontAlbert.jpg"

 "210623W-Melbourne'HeraldSun'-Selby.house-sold-1.3million-a-ss.jpg" with ATN & v-n
 "210623W-Melbourne'HeraldSun'-Selby.house-sold-1.3million-b-ss.jpg"
 "210623W-Melbourne'HeraldSun'-Warburton-rail.trail-ss.jpg" 

Wed.23.6.21 Metro Twitter
Aircraft: No ramp access to platforms until late 2021 (pedestrian-underpass works).
Flinders St: still with a lane closed for tunnel works.
Ginifer Station car park will be undergoing asphalting, compacting and line-marking work until 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.
7.10 Buses replace trains Frankston — Stony Point (a train fault), adding 25 min to journey time.  [lasted all day]
Have you seen the new Glen Huntly station designs? Watch now to see the features.  The new station will be open and the Neerim Road & Glen Huntly Road boom gates gone in 2023, with the job done in 2024 – 1 year ahead of schedule.
7.43 Werribee line: Major delays (a train fault near Laverton).
8.05 Closures are in place along Mont Albert Road today until 20.00, as part of the upcoming levelcrossings removal. Use Canterbury or Whitehorse roads.  See http://levelcrossings.vic.gov.au/projects/mont-albert-road-mont-albert
This International Women in Engineering Day we also celebrate all the women engineers working at Rail Projects Victoria and with our construction partners. Read these profiles to learn more about the career opportunities in engineering https://railprojects.vic.gov.au/women-of-rpv-2021
18.37 Frankston line: Major delays (police btween Caulfield and Moorabbin. Trains may [ie will] terminate/originate at intermediate stations.
- Buses replace trains Caulfield - Mordialloc from 20.45 until the last train (maintenance works).
21.11 Pakenham/Cranbourne lines: Major delays (olice near Murrumbeena).
- 21.19 clearing.  trains may terminate/originate at Westall or Dandenong.
Buses replace trains Ringwood - Lilydale from 22.30 until the last train (level-crossing works).

Hey pedestrians, it’s time to take some responsibility for your own safety. Rob Margeit 22 June 2021 121 comments
<www.drive.com.au/news/hey-pedestrians-its-time-to-take-some-responsibility-for-your-own-safety>

Brisbane Metro will be missing key tunnel, busway upgrades at launch. Matt Dennien June 23, 2021
One of the tunnels dug for the Brisbane City Council’s $1.2 billion Metro project will not be finished in time for its “soft launch” and key upgrades to the Cultural Centre station, Victoria Bridge and Buranda Busway will also be incomplete.
Further details of the council’s flagship project aired this week revealed the full funding set aside for its 60 articulated buses, and that a pilot vehicle was not expected to make it onto existing city busways until at least early next year.
Concept images showing the planned entrance at North Quay for the Brisbane Metro Adelaide Street tunnel, not expected to be finished until May 2024.CREDIT:BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL
The developments follow a series of delays, cost blowouts and state government interventions since the project was announced in 2016 to ease inner-city bus network congestion.
The council budget handed down last week showed more than half the project’s remaining cost – $540 million – was not projected until the 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years, prompting councillors to probe public and active transport committee chair Ryan Murphy on its progress on Monday.
“We anticipate the commencement of the project will be essentially a soft launch,” he said.
“So services will start, drivers will need to be trained, passengers will need to slowly integrate with the new experience ... it will be a progressive rollout.”
Cr Murphy said construction on the Adelaide Street link, which will allow high-frequency buses to travel below the surface between the Victoria Bridge and King George Square busway, was now likely to take about 18 months, with an extra six months of additional work to finalise it.
“We’re expecting construction on the tunnel to start in late 2021, with completion due in May of 2024,” he said.
The council will reheat its push for the Cultural Centre station to go underground if Brisbane’s 2032 Olympic bid is successful, after long-running disagreements with the state about the design and location forced an agreement on a street-level upgrade.
Asked about progress on the station, Cr Murphy said the council hoped to finalise plans within a year but said talk about any extra costs for a move back underground needed to wait for a Games decision in July.
An above-ground Cultural Centre station upgrade was expected to be finished in early 2024. Work is also expected to be ongoing along the Victoria Bridge and Buranda Busway, when buses begin entering service primarily on the Metro 1 route between Eight Mile Plains and Roma Street.
Arrival of the pilot vehicle for testing around the city has been pushed back to at least early 2022 due to COVID-19 disruptions faced by Switzerland-based contractor HESS.
Asked by Labor council opposition leader Jared Cassidy how much was being paid for the vehicles, Cr Murphy said a total of $252 million had been budgeted.
Excluding contingency funds, the design, manufacture and delivery costs were still expected to reach the $190 million figure flagged when the council announced the change to an electrified fleet in 2019.
A staged review and planning for bus network changes, to be undertaken with TransLink and other public transport operators, was expected to start in 2022.
Speaking during the budget debate on Wednesday, Cr Cassidy said the claimed increase in capacity would come from busway changes, not “60 banana buses”.
Responding to questions from this masthead, Cr Murphy said the project’s budget had not changed since the delays caused by “political interference” by the state government.
“However, we have put that behind us, and the project is now progressing well towards major construction commencing this coming financial year,” he said.
RELATED ARTICLE Brisbane City Council has confirmed it plans to extend the Brisbane Metro bus network to the airport. Olympics to reheat council push for underground Brisbane Metro station
RELATED ARTICLE The latest design image for Brisbane Metro. 'Is it a bus, tram or train?': What is Brisbane Metro and do we need it?
<www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/brisbane-metro-will-be-missing-key-tunnel-busway-upgrades-at-launch-20210622-p583b2.html>
* If they buy buses with one bend instead of two, couldn't they use the existing Queen Street - King George Square bus tunnel? Then they wouldn't need to extend the platforms at every busway station.
* Just scrap this idiotic glorified bus idea before any more money is wasted. Either just buy more bendy buses off the shelf or go the whole hog and turn the busway into higher capacity light rail.
* The Paris Metro system (equivalent of the New York Subway and London underground) runs very successfully on rubber wheels and has done since the 1950s. Putting down rails doesn't improve capacity one little bit. Latest effort, the Newcastle Light Rail, runs on tracks and is a white elephant.
* As long as it gets me to my destination quickly and reliably, I don't mind whether I ride on a tram, light rail, bus, or a special bus.
* That's $4million per bus. No doubt very well built ones. But new busses are normally about $500,000. Is the balance because they are electric? Using electricity generated by burning coal? How much solar electricity could be generated with $200,000,000?
* No surprise at all and zero accountability. Little wonder that council and developers meetings kept secret.
* Am I surprised by this? No. BCC probably wouldn't be able to organise a charity BBQ at Bunnings..
* Aided of course by a state government that did its best to delay this project for as long as possible. Actually, if I recall correctly, the last two major pieces of infrastructure delivered by the BCC were on time and budget (Kingsford Smith Drive and The Legacy Way).
* Not really - Kingsford Smith Drive was delivered over a year late (causing a great deal of pain to local residents and businesses) and around $100M over budget….
* Kingsford Smith drive project was about 12 months behind original schedule and over-budgeted!
* Kingsford Smith Drive was late and over budget. Legacy Way was entirely built and managed by a Canadian company called ACCIONA.
* It seems to me that a major issue with this project is that (LNP) BCC decided they wanted to do this project on a (Labor) state government asset (the busway) without necessarily thinking about the implications. I rather suspect politicians on both sides have not behaved as well as they could have to ensure a quality project for Brisbane was completed on time.

All the Covid restrictions changing in Melbourne, regional Victoria this week. Shannon Deery and  Mitch Clarke June 23, 2021. 444 comments with ATN
More restrictions will be rolled back in Melbourne this week — but will the indoor mask mandate stay? These are the changes set to be announced.
<www.heraldsun.com.au/coronavirus/all-the-covid-restrictions-changing-in-melbourne-regional-victoria-this-week/news-story/e7f88da3dda8f1d6b731514f0575b2bb>

No 20, 21,22 or 23.6 HS links; back issues down for a few days.