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Roderick

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Thurs.14.7.22 Metro Twitter
Flinders St: still with a lane closed for tunnel works? [reopened by July?  Closed again by Nov.]
Campbell Arcade (Flinders St station) is closed until 2024. The exit from the Myki gates within the subway will  also be closed. No pedestrian access between the arcade & Flinders St. Use Elizabeth & Swanston St entry/exits. Platform  interchange via that subway will be available until mid 2022.
Mernda line: Trains will run to an altered timetable until Sep 2022 (works).  Trains operate on a single track Thornbury - Regent, and trains will not stop at Bell or Preston.  Shuttle buses operate Thornbury - Bell - Preston - Regent - Reservoir. No access to station facilities during this time.
Buses replace trains on sections of the Lilydale & Belgrave lines until the last train of Sun 24 Jul (works).
Frankston line: Trains will run to an altered timetable until late Aug 2022 while project works take place. Trains will stop all stations Caulfield - Cheltenham in both directions, all day.
7.00 Sandringham line: Rail services SUSPENDED between Elsternwick and Flinders St (an overhead power fault at Flinders St.  Passengers between Prahran and Flinders St are advised to travel by tram.  Replacement buses will run between Elsternwick and Caulfield
- 7.46 Trains resuming.  First trains: 7.05  ex Sandringham and 7.48 ex Flinders St.
17.27 Pakenham/Cranbourne/Frankston/Sandringham lines: Major delays (trespasser near Flinders St). Trains will be held/altered.
- 17.32 No announcements. Why can’t the train that’s on platform 1 at Richmond turn around and take us home to Sandringham?
- 17.35 Trains are resuming, with delays.
- 17.37 Trains can't be turned around at Richmond, as there is no set of points available.
19.13 Major delays Dandenong - Pakenham (police).
- 19.16 Just move the train! I want to get home.
- 19.45 clearing.
20.10 Lilydale/Belgrave/Alamein lines: Major delays (police near Hawthorn).
- 20.27 Major delays, clearing.  Trains will depart from altered platforms between Camberwell and Burnley.
Pakenham/Cranbourne lines: Buses replace trains Caulfield - Westall from 20.30 until the last train (works).  From the city, take a Frankston train to Caulfield.

Unlocking Sydney’s history, one frame at a time.  Julie Power July 11, 2022
The title of a 100-year-old glass negative gives few clues that it records in perfect detail an important event in Australian aviation history.
It was one of many riddles that experts faced trying to identify people, places and events in 200,000 historic glass negatives dating from 1870 to 1940s. Made to record and advertise the NSW Government’s programs and works, many had no title at all. Some were lumped together as miscellaneous, or by the name of the nearest road.
Crowd around the aeroplane: This image shows the Smith brothers arriving at Mascot airport after their record breaking flight in 1920.CREDIT:GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, SYDNEY LIVING MUSEUMS
Other than the title of the image, “Crowd around the aeroplane, Mascot, 14 February 1920,” there was little else to tip off Sydney Living Museums’ curator Kim Tao to the importance of the event that dominated the news 100 years ago.
Under the headline, The Grand Flight, The Sun newspaper stopped the presses to report on page one that “Captain Ross Smith landed safety at the Mascot aerodrome at 12 minutes past 11”.
It was only when Tao looked closer that she realised: “This is the Great Air Race, the first flight from England to Australia. And these were the Smith Brothers, who were well-known pilots.”
The image is from a collection of more than 45,000 of the 200,000 that have been digitised, and included at the NSW State Archives and Records, after extensive sleuthing by staff using historic records and newspaper clippings.
Curator Kim Tao at the Museum of Sydney’s exhibition Sydney Snapshots.CREDIT:ANNA KUCERA
Of those, 28 images, have been printed – some three metres high – for a small exhibition called Sydney Snapshots at the Museum of Sydney.
It is a taste of the vast collection known as NRS-4488 by the NSW Government Printing Office (GPO) Photographic Branch.
Tao said the job of the GPO photographers had been to document the work of the NSW government, very often for annual reports or government publicity. They captured important public campaigns and events, ranging from how to handle drinking glasses for a public health campaign to school children marching under banners encouraging them to eat fruit and vegetables. They took photos of bridges, roads, schools, fruit, vegetables and fish and soup kitchens.
In the process they generated a “treasure trove of images” illustrating the social history of NSW.
“It’s the incidental background detail of people going about their daily lives – these are people who were never meant to be captured for posterity,” Tao said. “It isn’t only what was happening in the foreground that is interesting, but what is in the background or on the edges, the peripheries.”
Reviewing these negatives, it was case of hide and seek. To see what was really in the images, Tao and a team at State Archives first reviewed thumbnail images, and low resolution digital scans. She said when they reviewed the high-resolution scans, the differences were astounding.
When the images were digitised and printed from the glass plates negatives, a bit bigger than a newer iPhone, and blown up in the gallery, the details were stunning. “You can see the richness of the detail, read the street signs, and see the shopfront in the backgrounds.”
The process revealed workers at a wheat silo, standing high on a rock face without any safety equipment and fine details of the fashion of the day from trimmings on hats to children wearing ironed shirts but no shoes. When it was blown up, an image of Forest Road, Hurstville, in 1926 revealed a swastika used to promote a company’s Lucky black cat sale. It was a sign of good luck in the days before the Nazis came to power.
A photo blandly titled “Nurses leaving Blackfriars Depot in April 1919” showed nurses shrouded from head to toe – with a space across their eyes – to protect them from the deadly Spanish flu.
A few panorama shots are included. One showcased thousands of schoolchildren gathering at the Sydney Cricket Ground to form the shape of Harbour Bridge, on Thursday, March 31, 1932. The spectacle was described as amazing, given they had only one rehearsal.
Thousands of children formed the shape of the Harbour Bridge to mark the opening of the bridge. 
The image was a panorama requiring more than one negative. This is half.
Thousands of children formed the shape of the Harbour Bridge to mark the opening of the bridge. The image was a panorama requiring more than one negative. This is half.CREDIT:GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, SYDNEY LIVING MUSEUMS
Another called “Swearing in Ceremony, January 1, 1901, at Centennial Park” shows massive crowds that gathered for the inauguration of the Commonwealth, and the swearing of the first Australian Prime Minister Sir Edmund Barton and the first Governor-General Lord Hopetoun.
<www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/unlocking-sydney-s-history-one-frame-at-a-time-20220706-p5azgr.html>
* How is one able to view the 45,000 digitized photos?
* And Sydney was a much nicer city than it is today.
* Sydney was a much nicer city at 2.5 million - I can remember when parking was free at Bondi Beach - and if you didn't like the surf at the South end, fire up the HR Holden and drive to the North end and re-park.....
* In what way? I think you need to live those times before you can make that claim.
* nothing much has changed except all those cars used far more leaded petrol and maybe unleaded and therefore polluted more . aren't we lucky ?
* I wonder if other archives, such as those held by Fairfax will be digitised. And what happened to the photo archives of defunct newspapers such as the Melbourne Argus?
I found a box of photos and negatives of family photos dating from the 1930s to the 1960s and have been scanning them with a Heath-Robinson digital camera set up. The results are, nevertheless, incredible.
* Traffic volume on The Bridge 1947 is amazing. Morning rush hour? Have a similar one dated 1946, with a woman leaning out and waving. to the camera. Appears to be LHD, can dimly make out a white shirt and tie.. Going north, a horse and cart holding up 3 cars. Can't see any line markings.
* Notice the wide open pedestrianised boulevard that was Circular Quay; until they built a motorway across it!
* Bigger than man landing on the moon- the Smith brothers and the 1919 air race; https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/one-of-australias-forgotten-milestones-in-aviation-history-is-being-remembered/c92rs80xf

 ‘New normal’: Project Phoenix reveals future of Sydney public transport. Tom Rabe July 14, 2022
Patronage on Sydney’s public transport network is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels as travel patterns across the city reach a “new normal” in 2023, internal NSW government analysis reveals.
The analysis, prepared for senior transport agency figures in March, was undertaken as part of an operation named Project Phoenix, which was set up to provide the NSW government with long-term modelling to inform investment and infrastructure decisions.
The briefing papers revealed more than 400,000 people had abandoned public transport during the pandemic and instead opted to work from home or drive to the office. Another 800,000 road users opted to work from home during the same period.
A briefing to the NSW government predicts that public transport patronage will return to between 60 and 75 per cent by 2023.CREDIT:JAMES ALCOCK
The documents, made public under a NSW parliamentary order, reveal an expectation that patronage on Sydney’s transport network would return to about 60-75 per cent of pre-pandemic levels by 2023. That modelling assumed people would work from home between 1.7 and 1.9 days per week.
“The model assumes stages of recovery for Omicron with a ‘new normal’ reached by the end of the slow recovery stage in January 2023,” the document says.
“The most significant input factor is expected ‘days at work’ in the new normal which dramatically alters the rate of return to public transport.”
The Project Phoenix papers said these medium-term forecasts were generated to help the transport agency model the impact of decisions relating to services.
While such a reduction on public transport will substantially reduce the amount of revenue the network generates, a Transport for NSW spokesman said that wouldn’t impact decisions about services.
“Public transport patronage levels currently sit at an average of 70 per cent each day,” the spokesman said.
“This is particularly encouraging given the lingering impacts of the pandemic, unprecedented weather events and the widespread industrial action continuing to affect people’s travel patterns.”
A higher return to the network, which is given “low likelihood,” would result in train patronage recovering to 97 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, the analysis says.
Sydney’s public transport network dropped to levels not seen since the 1800s during the Delta lockdown.CREDIT:RHETT WYMAN
“Recent medium-term forecasts indicate Transport for NSW is on track to record medium to high case returns on average across the modes,” the spokesman said.
The biggest influence over Sydney’s movement patterns will be the number of people who continue to work from home, the briefing said, while population growth, immigration and tourism were also cited.
The briefing suggested the continued use of masks, and regular deep cleaning of the network would help increase confidence in public transport.
Sydney’s new normal is expected to mirror how the city was moving in May 2021, before it was thrust into the long Delta lockdown.
During that period, people were working from home roughly 30 per cent of the time, while close to 90 per cent of school students and pensioners had returned to using public transport.
About 10 per cent of people were lost to public transport altogether as a result of the pandemic, the briefing said. Many of them moved to the regions, were overseas students or were now permanently “hybrid working”.
One key factor influencing the future of public transport uptake was the speed of the roads, the briefing said.
“The lower the road speeds, the more people will switch to public transport as it becomes more convenient and overwhelms the concerns around public transport confidence,” the document said.
Sydney’s public transport patronage fell to levels not seen since the 1800s and traffic was the lightest it had been in four decades during the Delta lockdown.
While more than half a million Sydneysiders have returned to public transport in the first two weeks after the Delta lockdown, the network has remained well below pre-pandemic levels through 2022.
Office occupancy rates in Sydney held steady through June at 55 per cent, with no growth since May, according to the Property Council.
The Property Council’s NSW executive director Luke Achterstraat said while there had been an encouraging increase since January, a series of factors in June could explain why people didn’t continue to return to offices in the CBD.
“Last month we have faced disruptions to our train network, strikes, inclement weather and waves of COVID-19 and the flu which have inevitably kept people at home,” Achterstraat said.
Industrial action on the NSW rail network saw Sydney commuters face severe disruptions on Wednesday and Friday last week as workers continue to battle with the state government over wages and workplace safety issues.
RELATED ARTICLE An artist impression of the multibillion- dollar Beaches Link motorway, which is likely to be put on ice amid soaring construction costs. NSW told to put high-profile road, transport projects on ice
<www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/new-normal-project-phoenix-reveals-future-of-sydney-public-transport-20220713-p5b1ac.html>
* Want more patronage? Make ALL passing trains stop at employment hub stations, like major hospitals, e.g. Kingswood and Westmead. Stop being so City-centric. There are people living and working in outer suburbs, who don't need or want to go through the City to commute. Stop pandering to developers and motorway operators.
* Unfortunately I agree with the comments that any fall in patronage will be used as an excuse to reduce services and increase prices. Unfortunately many senior bureaucrats in NSW struggle to see public transport policy beyond the dollars it costs.
Generations of questionable economic modelling (often later shown to be completely wrong) has created a mindset where if public transport doesn't pay for itself, its considered wrong. A vast number of benefits aren't included because they are difficult to measure.
The community deserves better.
* Meanwhile our metro mad government is going ahead duplicating existing rail services between Parramatta and the CBD. Extending the well-advanced Parramatta to Carlingford light rail to Epping and thence Macquarie Park makes more sense. But government land ideal for such an extension at Epping is up for sale.
* Public transport should be viewed as tax supported cheap infrastructure, costed at levels that ensure people can afford; and sufficient to move punters out of their cars and off roads.
An outrageous idea a far as the Coalition and their American Transurban mates are concerned. But an obvious future direction considering the carbon load driving one person around in two tonne of steel.
We need smart government acting in the best interests of NSW taxpayers, not one that continually looks at decisions that ensure a politician's future corporate Board appointment.
* The new norm. Removing bus routes in the south eastern suburbs is one of the worst things to happen to public transport. No direct access to central railway, funnelling to the the light rail where there is no east transfer point at randwick nor other locations
* Wasted money on the duplication of th main lines with the metro, especially on the North Shore. Would have been better spent in the western suburbs. But that's not LNP territory 
* The quadruplication of the North Shore Line to Chatswood was considered as far back as 1926. Even today you can still see where extra land has been reserved to enable this beside the present line. There was no money then to do that, so the two extra tracks already laid on the Harbour Bridge were given to trams as an interim measure. When the tram-hating Cahill Labor government closed the North Shore trams in 1958, the RTA leapt at the chance to acquire the tracks for an extra two car lanes. They should again be given back to their original intention: a rail line to Manly Warringah terminating at Wynyard.
* I'm thinking the $14 billion plus Northern Beaches Toll road is off the cards then ? One would think this money would be better spent in Lismore or the South Coast, rural areas where they rely heavily on roads for day to day ? Could we get an article which looks beyond Sydney and how money is allocated on infrastructure ?
* It's for the better too. I work about two days at home every week - I am as productive as I would be in an office. I can organise meetings with other people for when we are both in the office/city. It is still important for people to interact with colleagues and stakeholders in person, necessitating some time in the office, so good bosses will facilitate a hybrid model. Working from home reduces the cost, stress and time of commuting - with significant savings during this cost of living crunch. It also lets me get more sleep!
* Odd that the article doesn't include comments on the actions of Transport Minister/s and nsw trains to discourage travel on trains.
* What a joke by a bunch of LNP politicians and their advisors. The private sector bosses are NOTORIOUSLY control freaks through and through. Already most business and industry leaders don't want their workers to stay home and demand them to work on site of business. This public transport discussion is. Code word for reducing service frequency and similar by the LNP who has stuffed up the Metro projects that are over run in costs. If the ALP takes up this, they are as bad.
* I wonder if the analysis includes people who work from home BECAUSE Public Transport is so inadequate. I would go to the office more if PT was reliable, connected better and value for money. I live 6km from my office in the inner west and it takes 1.25 hours to get home via 2 trains and a bus or 2 very slow and infrequent buses. Yes i can walk but not always practical carrying a heavy laptop and equipment plus clothes.
* Ride a bike.
* Would you consider using an electric scooter?
* That first picture is exactly what my train would look like every morning at a bare minimum. I do not miss the days when it was like sardines.
* Despite statements to the contrary, services will inevitably be impacted. Less patronage will force that. As a 30 year user of the bus network for work in the city I used to enjoy a seamless 2-bus journey to work. No longer. Recent service changes doubled the commute despite quieter roads. I would prefer to go to the office, but now work from home. It’s a vicious circle.
* A debacle. It’s ok cos pollies get a chauffeured car. At tax payer expense of course. Dirty, unsafe and expensive. Public Transport NSW.
* Public transport will always take a back seat to motor vehicle usage under the LNP. Their mismanagement and targeted projects have led to cost blow outs that are eye-watering. There’s always an ulterior motive and links to property development. Buying foreign infrastructure on the cheap and downgrading services is their forte. Buses in the city are a joke, and it’s always great standing in the rain waiting (bus shelters? What a joke, Dom…..tee hee, funny man). And the light rails…..so much wasted opportunity to get it in the right places to get the best results. Blew that too! Hopefully, a new ALP state government will change the culture. Fingers crossed there.
* NSW Department of Transport has rarely got things right so I would not count on a reduction in public transport numbers.
* and so the LNP government's numerous transport failures are suddenly predicted to go away? yeah, i'll believe it when i see it. it will be left up to future state governments to fix while the LNP opposition chants "coulda woulda shoulda"
* Pie in the sky modeling, nobody really knows and won’t till COVID stabilizes. The increasing cost of fuel will also play a part in returning people to public transport. But you can bet on reduced services as a result.
* Exactly, one wonders how the "consultants" have a crystal ball when the rest of the world is still trying to work it out.
* The huge numbers of people working from home just illustrated how many shiny bums we have in Australia. Is there anyone left who actually does anything ? It seems to me that a factory fifty years ago that had ten on the factory floor and three in the office now has five on the factory floor and twelve in the office.
* That could be due to all the red and green tape, plus reporting compliance imposed on business. You might be surprise on how much the government dictates to business. Some is good (safety), some is over the top (safety on steroids), some is pointless. One thing is for sure - our overseas competition does not impose all these regulations which makes them comparatively cheaper, even before wages are discussed. That is one reason we have so few "factory floors"
* Transport for NSW is a perfect example. Just on the railways alone, they made large amounts of station staff redundant( though they did then employ a few casual partimers), a lot of empty platforms across the network.
They now have a lot more managerial staff, managing fewer employees. There are managers on contracts with large pay packets doing the same work a staff clerk used too do for a lot less annual pay.
Just a scratch on the surface.
* 300K fewer road users. Transurban will be lining up with their hands out next.
* If the government wants the public to use its service it has to do better.
1. Make sure that bus stops are closer to where people live.
2.Provide bus shelters to provide shelter in times of rain and heat.
Who is planning for the public to have a good experience catching public transport?
* Let’s put a bus stop in every street in Sydney. That’ll be efficient…. not. But I do agree that every bus stop should have a good shelter.
* When I was a bus driver our depot manager had a company car. He was a nice approachable boss and i asked him why managers were provided cars when they were managing public transport. He told me public transport was too slow to get him to important meetings. It's all the cars on the roads that make buses slower than they need be (parking in bus stops , parking in clearways ,not letting buses out of stops for example.) So our managers in cars made even more obstructions to buses.
* If we can keep immigration low enough, we will have time to build the roads needed for the future, which is shared, driverless cars.
* We don't need more roads, except in in the regions. We need more Metro!
* Well all other international cities are planning for the demise of cars but you know, we are so often unnecessarily behind aren’t we…
* They mention masks.. well those wearing masks on the train are in the minority. How/when will they enforce this esp with the predicted surge of covid cases soon expected. Nsw police don’t have the resources to enforce this “ fines will apply” message we keep hearing
* It won’t be enforced…. just as it’s not being enforced now.
* Labor will be in power soon, and the sell-off will stop.
* The 'New Normal' based on mid pandemic studies. That wasn't normal, neither is now and nor will be the future.
* Another opportunity for an LNP government to underdeliver. One thing they are creative at.
* What about the impact of the increase in fuel costs?

Thurs.14.7.22 Melbourne 'Herald Sun'.  Major projects.  KIERAN ROONEY & MATT JOHNSTON
DOZENS of workers have lost their jobs — and others are in jeopardy — on government projects due to an explosive union dispute.
It is the latest development in an escalating feud on taxpayer-funded projects that has raised concerns of ongoing industrial coercion.
In the past week, job losses have been reported at a level crossing removal in Sunbury and the $10.8bn West Gate Tunnel, where the CFMEU and AWU are at war.
Senior figures in the construction industry say the demarcation battle has resulted in CFMEU targeting companies aligned to the AWU, as well as using a huge team of delegates to cause chaos until its demands to remove them are met.
Some of those affected, who spoke to the Herald Sun anonymously for fear of retribution, said companies were shedding employees or losing contracts due to historic or perceived relationships with the AWU.
Five employees on West Gate Tunnel were told they didn’t have roles any more, with sources saying “They just happened to be AWU members”.
Multiple sources said workers at the West Gate Tunnel were hired through Zoom Recruitment, but were long-term permanent employees of the project. One said there had been speculation they were going to be “sacked”, with CFMEU delegates warning workers had to be signed up to companies with which it had agreements.
The workers ranged from storeman to small-crane operators and a carpenter, and all had links to the AWU.
Another source said alleged coercion by the CFMEU had also ramped up at the Gap Rd level crossing removal site in Sunbury. Up to 12 workers linked to Zoom and 10 to a company called tgonnect were reportedly ejected from that site.
Both taxpayer-funded jobs involve John Holland which, the sources said, had “folded” to union demands rather than risk more delays.
“If all the principal contractors are going to get in bed with (the CFMEU) because it’s going to cost money from having jobs held up, then they are just getting into bed with the devil,” one said.
“If (Daniel) Andrews gets in again, which is highly likely, there’s no stopping them.”
Government officials are refusing to get involved publicly in the latest dispute.
A spokeswoman for John Holland, which is building the tunnel with CPB, declined to comment but said the company has said previously they used different labour hire firms and mobilise or demobilise resources at different times.
Zoom and Connect did not respond to the Herald Sun.