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Subject: Thurs.8.9.22 daily digest, part 1 text

I was phoned at 16.00 on 8.9: 45 min delays at Box Hill.

Roderick

Part 1.

220328-SmartCompany-emu-foratn-s.jpg

220907W-Melbourne'Age'-Vlocity-foratn-ss.jpg with atn & v-n

 "220908Th-Melbourne'Age'-Carnegie-station-ss.jpg" 
"220908Th-Melbourne'Age'-Footscray-station-ss.jpg"
 "220908Th-Melbourne'Age'-Jacana-station-ss.jpg"
 "220908Th-Melbourne'Age'-MelbourneSouthernCross-station-ss.jpg"
 "220908Th-Melbourne'Age'-MooneePonds-station-ss.jpg"
 "220908Th-Melbourne'Age'-Rosanna-station-ss.jpg"
 "220908Th-Melbourne'Age'-stations-best.five-ss.jpg"
 "220908Th-Melbourne'Age'-stations-worst.three-ss.jpg"

 "220908Th-Melbourne'HeraldSun'-FlindersSt-ss.jpg"

Thurs.8.9.22 Metro Twitter
Flinders St: still with a lane closed for tunnel works.
Because of tunnel works, Degraves St subway at Flinders St is closed until 2024. No platform transfer via Degraves St subway. Passengers should use Elizabeth & Swanston St entry/exits.  Campbell Arcade remains closed to 2024. Platform  interchange via that subway was available until mid 2022.
Bell: No lift access to platforms until Oct 2022, while works continue around the station precinct. A shuttle bus will run from Bell to Preston and Thornbury during this time.
Buses replace trains Macleod - Hurstbridge until the last train Mon 19 Sep 9 (works).
Lilydale/Belgrave lines: Union Rd and Mont Albert Rd closed until 6pm Friday 23 September, for removal work. Detour using Elgar, Canterbury, Whitehorse and Balwyn roads. 
- 15.48 Major delays (police attending to a trespasser near Box Hill).
- 16.01 Consider local alternative transport via the PTV journey planner.
- 16.02 Should commuters expect bus replacements?
- 16.05 clearing.
- 16.06 Why did you delay the trains for a trespasser?
Pakenham/Cranbourne lines: Buses replace trains Caulfield - Westall from 20.30 until the last train (works).

Labor promises $500m to start Sydney to Newcastle fast rail.  Australian Associated Press Sun 2 Jan 2022
<www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jan/02/labor-promises-500m-to-start-sydney-to-newcastle-fast-rail>

Decades-long dream of Sydney-Newcastle fast train to become reality.  EMMA ELSWORTHY MARCH 28, 2022
<www.smartcompany.com.au/industries/transport-logistics/sydney-newcastle-fast-train-to-become-reality>

When I’m on VLine I feel the need for speed.  Emily Day September 7, 2022.  294 comments [just a selection appended]
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/this-is-the-one-thing-we-need-to-speed-up-v-line-20220906-p5bfsh.html>

The west claims victory in two-month Melbourne train station elimination game.  Sophie Aubrey September 8, 2022
Footscray station has been declared the winner of a two-month online “train station elimination game” that grabbed the attention of thousands of Melburnians – including some of Metro and the Department of Transport’s own staff.
Josh Watling, an 18-year-old mechanical engineering student, started the daily game on web forum Reddit in July after being inspired by versions in Sydney, Brisbane and London.
Josh Watling at his game’s winning Footscray station.CREDIT:WAYNE TAYLOR
Each day, the community voted to knock out five of Melbourne’s 222 Metro stations, gradually eliminating the perceived worst of what was left in the running until there was only one station standing.
Watling was bemused by the response from day one, which he said drew 400,000 views and continued to captivate the community for 52 days.
“I realised, wow, this is actually going to get very big,” he said. “I was surprised to see so many people emotionally invested in their station.”
Each post drew hundreds of upvotes (similar to likes) and comments, peaking at more than 880 upvotes and 500 comments for Wednesday’s finale. For context, recent posts with comparable engagement include ones about the rental crisis.
The Melbourne subreddit has 525,000 members who come to discuss local news, gossip, history and random observations, with public transport a common topic.
The game got so popular that some employees at Metro and the transport department started following it.
The game was by no means serious, but it showed that people love to discuss local transport, Watling said.
He enjoyed seeing so much passion – whether from people lambasting a station as a “depressing concrete jungle” (Macaulay) or defending their patch (“Footscray has soul but do not tell me Carnegie doesn’t,” declared one).
Carnegie came in second place.CREDIT:WAYNE TAYLOR
“Everyone’s got their own station, everyone’s got a say,” he said. “It’s been very competitive; there was a lot of tension between the east and west with people forming factions trying to keep their suburb’s station alive.”
The Sunbury-based teenager spends a lot of his life on Melbourne’s railways, commuting the two hours from his home to Clayton, where he studies at Monash University.
Footscray’s victory was a landslide, Watling said, with people praising the station’s design of merging heritage with modern infrastructure, its links to metro and regional trains, trams and buses, its frequency of trains, and its location in the heart of the suburb, close to restaurants, cafes and the market.
Footscray is Melbourne’s seventh-busiest station, servicing 20,000 passengers on an average pre-COVID weekday as the key gateway to the west, with trains running on the Werribee, Williamstown and Sunbury lines. V/Line services to Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo also pass through the station.
Rosanna station was voted fourth place.CREDIT:SCOTT MCNAUGHTON
The suburb’s young demographic may have helped secure its win: Footscray has a median age of 34, and about two-thirds of Reddit users are in their 20s and 30s.
The game saw many playful nods to Footscray’s furniture-selling cult figure, Franco Cozzo, and the station’s nearby Vietnamese eateries.
“Footscray services huge areas of the west, the V/line to rural Victoria, has heritage and modern infrastructure with the city skyline,” said one Footscray fan.
“Never a dull moment in Cozzo Country as the station is right in the heart of Footscray. And the banh-mis.”
Moonee Ponds station came in fifth place.CREDIT:EDDIE JIM
Another wrote: “Footscray is a hub for the inner west and regional trains and it’s a beautiful old station.”
“It’s got everything,” said another.
While plans to remove Melbourne level-crossings by elevating stations were initially controversial, skyrail stations proved popular with the Reddit community. Carnegie, Coburg and Rosanna came in second, third and fourth.
Moonee Ponds station, which remains in a heritage building, rounded out the top five.
Jacana station (pictured here in 2018) came last in the Reddit elimination game.CREDIT:PHILIP MALLIS
The game is certainly not a scientific, statistically representative survey – some smaller stations were killed off early because they didn’t have the population to defend it – but Watling said the outcome showed that a station’s practicality and location were most valuable for passengers.
The station voted as the worst was Jacana, described as “bleak” and “post-apocalyptic”.
“Every time I go to Jacana, I gain new appreciation for having access to a car,” wrote one commuter.
Southern Cross Station – Melbourne’s second busiest – came third last. Watling said people, himself included, weren’t a fan of the roof, fumes and platform layout, while some lamented the loss of its former Spencer Street Station moniker.
Is Southern Cross Station an eye-sore?CREDIT:THE AGE
“There’s not a single plant when you’re inside the station; it’s all grey,” Watling said.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder though: Architectural Digest named the station the 10th most beautiful in the world.
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/the-west-claims-victory-in-two-month-train-station-elimination-game-20220908-p5bgd4.html>
* Footscray property prices just went up 10%.
* You can't go past Maryborough.
* Richmond must be in the bad list surely! The transition to other platforms is a nightmare and entrances always being closed on weekends is annoying.
* Arrived at Southern Cross via Skybus in June to be met by an out of service escalator. Elderly folk lugging suitcases up several flights of stairs is a very poor welcome to Melbourne.
* I like Southern Cross station but wish it was still Spencer Street station.
* I'm glad Southern Cross got 3rd last. SC might be spacious, but it's not a pleasant space. The diesel fumes ruin it. One day they'll get around to electrifying the regional lines. And change the name back to Spencer St. SC is pretty meaningless as a station name, it could be anywhere in the southern hemisphere!
* Southern Cross in the top 10! You’d have to be joking!
* Bottom! Not top.
* Is it just me? Every time I hear this announcement, it always sounds like 'Southern Crustacean'!
* Southern cross station is a disaster.
* It was looking its' best.  Under normal circumstances,there would be one or two burnt out cars on that beautiful lawn area.
* As noted, unscientific. The rebuilt Footscray is a nightmare for making connections. Twice I have missed my intended train after arriving on one side of the station before my train arrived, but the train came and went while I was still trying to get up across and down. That wouldn't be a problem if trains were 'turn up and go', but they aren't. Of course, Southern Cross is the worst: a station not as a transport facility. The roof is actually its best feature. Convoluted footways, missing elevators, the loss of the subway and the lack of toilets are all major fails. Chaning a name is a standard way of giving the illusion of progress without the substance.
* I hate Footscray; the interchange is terrible.
* Melbourne's public transport system is pretty pathetic when compared to other cities. So slow, so unreliable, so disjointed. Just the sight of Flinders St station makes me want to puke, given all the train-related problems experienced there. Makes me laugh to see tourists taking photos of it.
* At least they have a train station to write about....... Rowville residents have been waiting for over 50 years.
* So the drug drop off point came in first, who would have guessed?
* The new Preston Station opened this week and it's awesome. The city bound platform faces the sun in the morning, and the Mernda side has great views of the CBD skyline
* Footsgray! Wow how times have changed, once upon a time it was a station to be avoided at all costs. For what it's worth I can add that several regional stations are woeful with no staff, no shelter, no disabled access & unsafe- but we have accepted 8 years of completely Melbourne-centric government and Victoria stops at the Metro boundary!
* Southern Smog Station won an architectural award? Really? Which category? Putrid air, Passenger crush or Pathetic disability access? Just rename it Spencer Street Station and pretend we’re extras in 1984.
* Congratulations - Josh, fantastic use of "creative" brain power, that was embraced, by thousands of "others."
Interesting Footscray - 1950's on first used this station, its developement, "moving with the times" - reminds me of a Banhof - in Europe.
Footscray - much smaller than of course a Major Hauptbahnhof like say Zurich but similar in size to our Banhof Stadelhofen - in Zurich,Switzerland.
Footscray & Banhof Stadelhofen - public transportation - shops - the location, closeness to Southern Cross - Flinders StreetRailway Stations and Hauptbahnhof Zurich - there is a PLEASANT - "user Friendly" similarity.
Footscray - back to 1950's - its immediate and accessability to the shopping center, plus Public Transport - trams & buses, which - included a tram, that ran from outside Footscray Station up to West Footscray along Barkly Street, then from Footscray - immediately outside the station, to Williamstown Road, Yarraville - along Gannon Street, Seddon.
Interesting the "underneath: line configurations of the Footscray Railway Station, which you can easily view from the station complex.
The rail tunneling and line construction - at the time of its construction quite advanced for that type of rail develoment in somewhat suburban Melbourne.
We are Australian born, from Western Suburbs in Melbourne, "spoilt" by modes of Public transport we have - and we use it extensively, from our place of residency in Central Europe, but Footscray - does have that European "feel" associated with its location and Supply - Choice - of Public Transportation, and Shopping.
( Jacana and Macaulay are definitely eyesores… but many stations in Melbourne need a facelift to bring them into 2022 - more green and cleaner, modern facilities
* Great station. Great service. Always interesting stuff going on.
* Has anyone got off foot'scary' station and dared walk through the malls/strips day or night and survived to tell the tale?
* Regularly.
* It's a bit tired to dump on Footscray. It's but that daring to go get some food or, heaven forbid, go to school in Footscray.
* Please show us the full list in order of elimination.
* Yes Southern Cross should come third last. It's as grim as Jacanna in its own way! Dim interior. A structure that's never cleaned. Low rent asphalt platforms. Poor information systems. Confused layout. All access requires an at-grade street crossing (overhead walkways from Bourke and Collins Sts are so obvious). Of course the private superannuation owner doesn't care as long as guaranteed government payments keep coming in.
* The station is great but the connections are abysmal. I am always waiting 15 minutes for a tram which is longer than my trip to the city making a 9km trip = nearly 2 hours per day return. Work from home now. Bliss.

Sydney to Newcastle trains: Hunter to capital priority for high-speed rail authority Maeve Bannister September 8 2022 8 Comments
<www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/7894253/newcastle-first-stop-as-high-speed-rail-plans-get-on-track>

Thurs.8.9.22 Melbourne 'Herald Sun'.  Letters.
* MOST Victorians would prefer a reliable healthcare system rather than a taxpayer-funded rail link operating many years into the future. Matthew Guy has it right on this one.