Fw: Wed.16.2.22 daily digest
  Roderick Smith

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Subject: Wed.16.2.22 daily digest

Roderick

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Wed.16.2.22 Metro Twitter
Aircraft: No ramp access to platforms until late 2021 (pedestrian-underpass works), delayed to March 2022.
Flinders St: still with a lane closed for tunnel works?
Buses replace trains Ringwood - Lilydale from 20.30 until the last train of Wed 16 Feb (works).
12.20 Pakenham line: Major delays (an 'operational incident' near Dandenong). Trains may run direct to Flinders Street.
- 14.47 Minor delays and clearing.
17.05 Lilydale/Belgrave/Alamein lines: Major delays (police attending to trespassers near Hawthorn and Glenferrie). Trains in the immediate area will remain at platforms, where available.
- 17.27 Clearing.  Trains may terminate/originate at intermediate stations; stopping patterns may change.
17.59  Frankston line: Outbound delays after a train fault at Hawksburn. Trains may terminate/originate at intermediate stations; stopping patterns may change.
- 18.11 clearing.
Buses replace trains Mordialloc - Frankston from 20.40 until the last train (maintenance works).
Sunbury line: Buses replace trains North Melbourne - Sunshine from 20.45 until the last train (works).
23.30  Sandringham line: Major delays (fire brigade near Prahran). Consider alternatives for local trips South Yarra -Elsternwick.
- 23.48 A limited train shuttle will operate Elsternwick - Sandringham.
- 23.56 Buses replace trains South Yarra - Sandringham.  Buses ordered, ETA 60min. Consider alternatives.
- 0.05 Passengers at Flinders St take the 0.16 Mordialloc train to South Yarra to connect with buses.
- 0.25 Buses in operation, adding 30 min.
- 0.45  Buses will operate until the last train.


COVID-19 rules to be eased this week, vouchers to revive CBD. Paul Sakkal February 16, 2022. 45 comments
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/significant-easing-of-restrictions-this-week-with-vouchers-to-spur-spending-20220216-p59wvs.html>

Sydney train strikes planned for next week. Phoebe Loomes February 16 2022
Commuters can expect more disruptions on Sydney trains next week as rail workers again go on strike.
Commuters can expect more disruptions on Sydney trains next week as rail workers once again go on strike, but the union says their gripe is with the government, not the public.
Industrial action planned for Monday by workers at Sydney and NSW Trains comes amid a long-running dispute between the government and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union over safety provisions.
"We've given our transport officials plenty of notice of our actions and plenty of opportunities to deliver on our very basic asks," Alex Claassens, RTBUNSW Secretary said Wednesday.
"The ball is in their court."
Mr Claassens said the union was disappointed to take another round of industrial action, after strikes began in 2021 and continued into the new year.
But he added the action was successful in forcing Sydney Trains to return services to regular weekday timetables, previously running on a reduced schedule.
"We've been concerned about the reduction in services and overcrowding for some time," he said.
"This is a great outcome for commuters who will have more services and more space to socially distance on trains.
"Our dispute is with the government, not the public, and all our industrial actions are planned to impact transport management rather than commuters.
"It's disappointing that it's come to this again."
Mr Claassens said there would be commuter delays as rail workers refused to accept changes to a master roster as part of the industrial action.
The industrial action will include continuing bans on overtime, foreign depots, altered work, and workers signing on and off outside their home depot.
Union members from Sydney and NSW Trains are negotiating a new enterprise agreement, the main sticking points of which are around safety guarantees, hygiene and privatisation concerns.
Transport for NSW and Sydney Trains have been contacted for a comment.
<www.examiner.com.au/story/7623935/sydney-train-strikes-planned-for-next-week>


Wed.16.2.22 Melbourne Herald Sun.  Sunshine station.  MITCH CLARKE
SUNSHINE Station will be expanded to add a new regional platform by 2029, as part of its transformation into a transport super-hub and the key connection point for the regions, Melbourne CBD and the airport.
The new platform will allow more regional services to stop, in a move that’s been touted as paving the way for the Western Rail Plan.
Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan confirmed up to seven commercial properties would have to be compulsorily acquired.
The project adds to previously announced upgrades to the station, including extending existing regional platforms to accommodate longer nine-car Vlocity trains and a new, second concourse to make transfers easier between metropolitan, regional and airport services.
It forms part of the broader Melbourne Airport Rail Link, with construction just months away.
Ms Allan said the new platform was an “investment in developing Sunshine as the centre of Melbourne’s booming west”.
“With most people travelling directly between the airport and their home, Melbourne Airport Rail Link route, via Sunshine, provides a solution that benefits most Victorians through good connectivity to the existing metropolitan and regional rail network,” she said.
Once complete, trains will run every two to three minutes at peak times, including airport services running every 10 minutes.


Wed.16.2.22 Melbourne Herald Sun.  Letters:
* Transport is one of greater Melbourne's perpetual problems.
* EXTREME congestion on roads is by far the biggest issue.
* PEOPLE in the outer suburbs don't have the same access to public transport as those in inner suburbs, yet every year we have clueless politicians proposing a congestion tax for those who drive to the city.
* THE second rail loop being built about 15km out from the CBD will not service “outer suburbs”. Closing down heavily used lanes so a couple of hundred cyclists can use valuable road space is madness.
* I THINK we win the graffiti No 1 spot.
* GREAT to have access to a sporting/cultural precinct within a short walk of the CBD. But let’s not reduce any more capacity on CBD roads.
* People just one factor. GETTING people back into the office is not the only thing to get the city moving again. City of Melbourne should get rid of the bike lanes and provide more parking and consign e-scooters to the scrap heap where they belong.
* Is City of Melbourne going to clean up its act before the international tourists start arriving? At the moment it's very unappealing.


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