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Sent: Monday, 29 November 2021, 10:05:25 pm AEDT
Subject: Sun.29.8.21 daily digest

Roderick

Sun.29.8.21 Metro Twitter
Aircraft: No ramp access to platforms until late 2021 (pedestrian-underpass works).
Flinders St: still with a lane closed for tunnel works.
Mooroolbark: Station closed until late-2021 (level-crossing removal). A shuttle bus will operate Croydon - Mooroolbark - Lilydale, connecting with trains. There will be no access to station platforms or facilities during this time.
Edithvale/Chelsea/Bonbeach: Stations closed until late 2021 (level-crossing removal). A shuttle bus will operate Mordialloc - Carrum, connecting with trains. There will be no access to station platforms or facilities during this time.
The level crossings at Argyle Avenue, Bondi Road and Edithvale Road are closed until early-October.  Chelsea Road is closed permanently. See http://levelcrossings.vic.gov.au/projects/chelsea-road-chelsea
Buses replace trains between Newport and Williamstown until the last train of Friday 12 November (level-crossing removal).
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 3 to Flinders St.
Cranbourne/Pakenham lines: Buses replace trains city - Oakleigh until the last train of Sun 29 Aug (tunnel works). Take a train to Burnley for express buses.
Frankston line: Buses replace trains City - Caulfield from first train of Sat 28 Aug until the last train Sun 29 Aug (tunnel works).  Take a train to Burnley for express buses.
6.17 Buses to replace trains Ringwood - Lilydale (a person hit by a train between Mooroolbark & Croydon). Buses have been ordered, but may take over 40 minutes arrive.  Consider alternatives.
- 7.17 Two buses are in operation, adding 20 min.
- 7.37 Anticipate buses to replace trains until at least 9.30.
- 8.59 Trains have resumed. 
7.16 Delays as we recover from a train fault at Upfield.
9.18  Major delays citybound, as we recover from an unruly passenger at Frankston. 
20.27 Buses replace trains Darling - Glen Waverley (an overhead power fault near Holmesglen). Buses ordered, ETA 60min.  Consider alternatives.
- 20.55 Buses ETA 45min.
- 21.15 Buses ETA 30min
- 21.25  Buses in operation, adding 30 min.
- 22.00 Trains resume, with major delays. First trains: 21.39 ex Flinders St; 22.28 ex Glen Waverley.
- 22.01  An additional Flinders St train will originate from Holmesglen at 22.07. Buses will supplement trains as we restore the timetable.
Sunbury line: Buses replace trains North Melbourne - Sunshine from 20.45 until the last train (maintenance works).
Buses replace trains North Melbourne - Werribee/Williamstown from 21.00 until the last train (maintenance and level-crossing works).

Flight from the city set to strain train services in fast-growing fringes. Timna Jacks August 29, 2021
Train lines and roads throughout Melbourne’s fringe suburbs will become more congested in coming decades than was previously thought, as a shift in work patterns wrought by COVID-19 prompts more people to move to the city’s outer edges.
Many thousands of people are set to populate Melbourne’s outer-northern and western areas due to work-from-home arrangements, the state’s infrastructure adviser has warned. This pattern will “aggravate” Melbourne’s urban sprawl, Infrastructure Victoria’s deputy chief executive said.
Erum Ali from Werribee hopes she never again has to take the train into the city for work.CREDIT:EDDIE JIM
But with jobs and key services set to grow in the city centre, people will inevitably continue commuting to the CBD. This will put enormous strain on train lines that were already expected to reach their capacity by the end of the decade.
By 2051, crowding on trains servicing growth areas including Cardinia, Casey, Hume, Melton, Mitchell, Whittlesea and Wyndham will be 25 per cent worse than pre-pandemic forecasts, the advisory body found.
The number of daily public transport trips from these areas will increase by 8.5 per cent in 2036 compared with pre-pandemic projections – a rise of about 5000 trips.
Roads in these growth areas will be 3.4 per cent more congested than was expected by 2036, with Infrastructure Victoria warning road projects committed to by government are “unlikely to meet the scale of demand”.
This modelling, prepared by consultancy firm Arup, bucks a broader trend across the state.
Overall, Victorians are expected to take fewer daily car and public transport trips than was previously expected due to changes in work habits. This will result in less road congestion across the network, Infrastructure Victoria found.
Melbourne’s inner areas will draw fewer residents than was previously thought, leading to a 10 per cent decline in public transport trips from the city in 30 years.
Infrastructure Victoria’s deputy chief executive Jonathan Spear said the pandemic would result in a greater pull towards affordable housing in the outer areas if people continue working from home.
But many would continue coming into the city on the days they do travel to work, he said, with jobs growth set to return to inner Melbourne.
“The pandemic aggravates sprawl but reinforces the role of the city,” Dr Spear said.
“It induces more people to live in growth areas and peri-urban areas but also induces employers to locate centrally because it’s got good transport connections.”
Before the pandemic, Erum Ali, who lives in Werribee, took the train every day to her banking job in Docklands. The overcrowded, jolty V/Line train rides reminded her of the donkey carts used in her birthplace, Pakistan.
“If you sit on the metro, you will feel the same pushes and movement,” she said. “People stand back to back.”
While many people will return to those crowded conditions once lockdown measures lift, Ms Ali hopes she is not among them.
She wants to work from home as much as possible to avoid the daily commute.
“Travelling really takes up so much time and energy,” Ms Ali said. “I want more time with family.”
Before the pandemic hit, suburban passengers were flooding V/Line trains on the Geelong, Ballarat and Seymour lines, causing overcrowding.
Patronage is currently at 13 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, but Infrastructure Victoria expects demand to recover in the medium to long term.
Ballarat and Seymour lines are set to reach capacity by the end of the decade, with Bacchus Marsh and Melton trains to reach 110 per cent capacity before 2036.
Infrastructure Victoria called for the construction of Melbourne Metro 2, an upgrade to the City Loop and extensions to the Melton and Wallan corridors from Sunshine to Rockbank, from Craigieburn to Beveridge, and on the Wyndham Vale corridor, by 2031 – a project set to cost between $5.5 billion and $8.5 billion.
Before the 2018 election, the state government unveiled a project called the Western Rail Plan, which would separate V/Line and Metro train tracks and build new electrified lines, enabling larger, faster trains to run from the city to Wyndham Vale and Melton.
Councils, academics and the state opposition have called for reassurances this project would be delivered, with a timeline yet to be set for its delivery.
A spokeswoman said the government was focused on developing “major employment precincts outside of the CBD”, making it possible to meet projected demand in coming decades.
The Suburban Rail Loop was key to achieving that outcome, she said, while a host of other rail upgrades would make it easier for people to get in and out of the city.
“We’re delivering an integrated transport plan for Melbourne’s growth areas – whether it’s the Metro Tunnel, Cranbourne and Hurstbridge line duplication, Geelong Fast Rail or providing better services and bigger trains for growth areas.”
RELATED ARTICLE The west has Melbourne's worst commutes - four hours a day across town The west has Melbourne's worst commutes - four hours a day across town
RELATED ARTICLE A near empty train at Southern Cross station during lockdown.  Blowout in city travel times predicted as lockdown eases
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/flight-from-the-city-set-to-strain-train-services-in-fast-growing-fringes-20210828-p58mq6.html>
[That's why double-deck trains were invented, but PTV's management imported from UK hated them.
That's why the two extra express tracks to Sunshine should have been electrified as built: express trains on the express tracks; stopping trains on the stopping tracks.
Instead, we have the artificial split of VLine and Metro, the result of Liberal privatisation dogma.  The two managements spend their time blaming each other for their own shortcomings.
PTV has wasted every opportunity to build for the future.
All it can do is bleat for more.]

Jeroen Weimar: From ‘trainspotter’ to Victoria’s COVID-19 commander Bianca Hall August 29, 2021
...Dutch-born and UK-raised, 52-year-old Weimar’s professional life has been built on understanding and managing the movement of people and resolving logistical roadblocks.
Having spent years as a leading transport planner in Britain – most recently as chief operating officer (policing and enforcement) at Transport for London and chief operating officer for the First Group bus services across the UK – Weimar was headhunted in 2015 to take up an executive role within Public Transport Victoria (PTV), quickly rising to become its chief executive.
With degrees in economics and urban planning from the London School of Economics, Weimar has also served as Head of Transport Services at the Department of Transport and chief executive of VicRoads.
...Weimar is clearly an effective communicator, but broadcaster and Sunday Age columnist Jon Faine – who regularly brought Weimar onto his ABC morning show to discuss public transport for Melburnians until he retired in 2019, and counts himself a fan – says it wasn’t always this way.
“When he started out, he was a bit of a trainspotter,” Faine recalls. “You know, he was a bit nerdy. They call them ‘anoraks’ in England.
“Jeroen when he started was nothing like what he eventually learned to become. He acquired the skills pretty much by doing it.”
...Not everyone is a fan. Opposition transport spokesman David Davis has been an outspoken critic, saying Weimar “failed at PTV and he failed at V/Line”.
“Weimar couldn’t get the trains to run on time, so they put him in charge of the pandemic – God help us!” he said. “Weimar is a spin merchant for the Andrews Labor government rather than a credible public servant.”
However Rail Projects Victoria chief executive Evan Tattersall, who worked closely with Weimar during his time at PTV, says he is “very disciplined”.
“He doesn’t muck around,” Tattersall says. “He’s a very clear thinker, and quite decisive ... He won’t sit around and wait for others to tell him what to do, he’ll get on the front foot and make a call, which are probably attributes that have served him well in this current role.”
The team around Weimar reflects his approach, which is based on logistics and execution. When he moved from transport into health, Weimar brought 10 people with him.
One deputy secretary of the COVID-19 response, Kate Matson, was director of regional rail and Southern Cross Station at the Department of Transport until July 2020 (the same month Weimar moved across to Health).
Another deputy secretary, Naomi Bromley, worked as an associate director of accounting giant KPMG for almost four years before joining the COVID-19 response team, although she also has extensive experience in health planning and strategy and as a paramedic...
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/jeroen-weimar-from-trainspotter-to-victoria-s-covid-19-commander-20210827-p58mdg.html>