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Subject: Sun.11.9.22 daily digest

Roderick

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Sun.11.9.22 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.
Buses replace trains North Melbourne - Craigieburn until the last train (maintenance works).
Mernda/Hurstbridge lines: All trains direct to/from Flinders St all day (works). From loop stations, take a train from pfm 3 to Flinders St.
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. 
Pakenham/Cranbourne lines: All trains direct to/from Flinders St all day (works).  From loop stations, take a train from pfm 4 to Richmond.
Buses replace trains on sections of the Sandringham line until the last train of Sun 11 Sep (works).
7.20 Major delays (police in the Frankston area).
- 7.27 clearing
17.31 Werribee/Williamstown/Sunbury/Craigieburn/Upfield/Lilydale/Belgrave/Alamein/Glen Waverley lines: Delays (police).  Trains may be held at platforms.Trains may be altered to run direct to/from Flinders St.
- 17.39 minor and clearing.
- 20.06 Delays again (or still).
- 20.29 Minor and clearing.
Pakenham/Cranbourne lines: Buses replace trains Caulfield - Westall from 20.30 until the last train (works).
Frankston line: All trains terminate/originate at Caulfield from 21.00 until the last train (works).  Change at Caulfield to/from s Pakenham/Cranbourne train.  Passengers for Hawksburn, Armadale, Toorak or Malvern change at South Yarra or Caulfield for a shuttle bus [our new reduced layout can't cope].
Buses replace trains Flinders St - Hurstbridge from 21.30 until the last train (urgent works).  Passengers from the city for stations beyond Macleod, change buses at Macleod.
Mernda line: Buses replace trains Flinders St - Reservoir from 21.30 until the last train (urgent works), adding travel time.  Last through trains: 21.19 ex Mernda; 21.58 ex Flinders St.

Tarneit, Truganina commuters call on Victorian government to 'urgently' invest in train stations.  ABC Radio Melbourne, Matilda Marozzi Tue 1 Mar 2022.
Two men stand in front of a building selling land with the sign 'a life of convenience'
Naga Kilaru and Mohit Tyagi say they feel "cheated" by their suburb's lack of infrastructure.(ABC Radio Melbourne: Matilda Marozzi)
When Mohit Tyagi and his wife bought land in Tarneit in 2016 they were told a train station would be built a few hundred metres from their new home.
Key points:
The Victorian Planning Authority proposed a total of six stations along the Wyndham Vale line, so far two have been built
Locals say proposed train stations at Sayers Rd and Davis Rd are needed immediately
At this stage the state government and opposition have not committed to building any new stations along the Wyndham Vale corridor
Six years later, not only is construction yet to begin, there is no funding committed or concrete plans to build the train station.
When the Victorian government built the Regional Rail Link it made provisions to easily build train stations at sites including Davis Road and Sayers Road in Tarneit in the future.
Planning documents labelled them "opportunity for future rail station" and "potential future station".
Now that tens of thousands of people such as Mr Tyagi have moved into the area believing they would have good access to rail transport they have found the train stations — proposed by a state authority — have yet to be committed to.
"I feel cheated, very dissatisfied," he said.
"The future train station, the only place you can find that is on the flyers of developers, that is it."
Mr Tyagi chose to live in Melbourne's western growth corridor over south-eastern suburbs because it was closer to the CBD.
If he could access the train it would only take about half an hour to get to the city for work.
But the car park at Tarneit Station is often full shortly after 7am, and bus services are patchy.
"If you have to get to the city, even if you're starting at 10am, you have to be at the Tarneit station at 7am," Mr Tyagi said.
"Then you finish work and you come home your whole day is just gone — you have no family time, nothing."
Along with the council and other residents, Mr Tyagi is calling on the state government to build additional train stations along the Wyndham Vale rail corridor as soon as possible.
"I understand that planning and execution do take time … nothing of all that has happened," he said.
"So for the next five to 10 years there is no hope."
'New station now'
Community advocate Preet Singh has lived in neighbouring Truganina for 15 years, and says residents desperately need better public transport.
A man sits on a bench seat in front of a sign that says "land now selling"
Preet Singh says public infrastructure isn't keeping up with all the development in his area.(ABC Radio Melbourne: Matilda Marozzi)
"When people bought all these properties, they bought it on the pretext that there was going to be a train station coming in Tarneit West," he said.
"Now all these people have no option but to go to Tarneit Station which can no longer cope with demand."
In a petition that has attracted 461 signatures, Mr Singh called on the state government to "deliver the Tarneit West station project as soon as possible".
"This critical infrastructure is required now, with project completion within the next two years," he said.
"We want some sort of solid commitment that the state government will build the second train station and increase the number of peak hour services on the line."
No timetable to build new stations
At this stage neither the Andrews government nor the opposition have committed to building new train stations on the Wyndham Vale corridor.
As part of the Regional Rail Link project, train tracks were aligned in a way that will make it easy to build train stations at certain locations along the corridor, including two in Tarneit.
A map of Melbourne's western suburbs showing public transport plans
In 2012 the Victorian Planning Authority published this map with several 'opportunities' for future rail stations as part of 'The West Growth Corridor Plan'.(Victorian Planning Authority)
The Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allen said her government is continuing to "explore future investments to best serve these growth areas".
"We're investing more than $20 billion in road and rail infrastructure in Melbourne's west and north west as part of Victoria's Big Build to connect these growing communities with increased rail capacity and improved roads and transport services," she said.
"This includes introducing new, longer trains to Wyndham Vale to increase passenger comfort and capacity, planning for Geelong Fast Rail, commuter car parking, and level crossing removals."
The state opposition said they were not able to comment at this stage.
Demand for new stations already there
The population in Wyndham City has expanded rapidly in the past two decades, and there is no sign of growth slowing.
Council estimates more than 98,000 people currently live in Tarneit and Truganina. By 2040 the population is expected to almost double to more than 180,000 residents.
With the population "growing at a rate of knots", Mayor Peter Maynard said better transport infrastructure is one of their top priorities.
"You can see the Davis train station certainly needs to be built now because there's a population here to use it," he said.
"Council's position is that we need the Sayers Road train station in Tarneit West as a matter of priority."
An older man stands in front of a train track in the distance
If a train station were built on this site at Davis Rd, Tarneit, Peter Maynard says it would be full almost immediately. (ABC Radio Melbourne: Matilda Marozzi)
A generation left without services
Associate Professor at RMIT's Centre for Urban Research, Andrew Butt, said growth suburbs such as Tarneit, Truganina, Wyndham Vale, and Melton, which are currently served by V/Line, need a "genuinely metropolitan train system".
"There has got to be some urgency and prioritisation of the west," he said.
"The population growth has been absolutely huge and the service delivery model has often lagged behind, whether it be in transport, healthcare, or schooling.
"We can see this as a long game, but for a generation of people living in these growth suburbs today it means they are not able to access the services promised."
While many of the solutions are known, Dr Butt said it is not as simple as building new train stations.
Before stations such as Tarneit West are built he said the whole train line will need to be electrified, and the management of any Geelong rail improvements needs to be addressed.
"The Tarneit corridor was the first genuinely new rail corridor in Melbourne since the 1930s, since the Glen Waverley line," he said.
"To turn it from being a VLine bypass to a genuine suburban rail service is something that needs to happen soon, and it will involve a lot of thinking about the whole rail system and the needs of growing communities in the west."
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Australia's infrastructure body wants to see 'cycling superhighways' in Melbourne A cyclist makes his way to work.
Melbourne's latest train station may reach capacity on second day Caroline Springs station.  The strain on infrastructure in Melbourne's booming outer west is in the spotlight once again, amid concerns its newest train station may reach capacity within 24 hours of opening.
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<www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-01/tarneit-truganina-residents-call-urgently-need-train-stations/100859996>

Free public transport across NSW for King Charles’ proclamation ceremony.  Georgina Mitchell September 11, 2022
Public transport will be free across NSW on Sunday to mark an official ceremony naming King Charles III as Australia’s sovereign.
Travel on buses, trains, ferries and light rail will be free in all metropolitan and regional areas of the state on September 11, with passengers not required to tap on or off until midnight.
video NSW proclamation ceremony NSW governor Margaret Beazley is joined by other dignitaries to proclaim King Charles the sovereign.
An official ceremony will be held at NSW Parliament at 12.30pm, where NSW governor Margaret Beazley will be joined by other dignitaries to proclaim King Charles the sovereign following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth.
Macquarie Street will be closed to allow members of the public to witness the ceremony, which will include the NSW Police band playing the British national anthem, God Save The King, followed by the Australian national anthem and a royal salute.
The event will follow a ceremony in Canberra where a similar proclamation will be made by the Governor-General David Hurley.
A portrait of Queen Elizabeth at Government House in Sydney.CREDIT:TOBY ZERNA
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to lead a meeting of ministers at Government House in Canberra at 11am to formally recommend the governor-general to issue the proclamation in Australia.
Hurley will then travel to Parliament House where a 21-gun salute will ring out as the proclamation is made.
Since the Queen’s death, tributes across NSW have included flags flying at half-mast, which will continue for 10 days, the laying of flowers at Government House in Sydney, and the tolling of bells in the city. The bells rang out 96 times, one for each year of the Queen’s life.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet lays flowers at Government House in Sydney on Friday.CREDIT:DOMINIC LORRIMER
After King Charles is proclaimed, flags currently flying at half-mast will temporarily be raised to full mast. They will return to half-mast at sunset.
In a statement on Friday, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet noted that Queen Elizabeth was the first reigning monarch to visit Australia.
“Queen Elizabeth set foot for the first time on Australian soil in 1954 at Farm Cove in Sydney Harbour where an unprecedented crowd of more than one million people greeted her,” he said.
“The public’s overwhelming jubilation and enthusiasm at seeing the young monarch was the beginning of the state’s long-held joy in her frequent visits.
“Her Late Majesty will forever be connected to pivotal moments in our state’s history.”
King Charles III speaks during his proclamation ceremony at the Accession Council in London.CREDIT:GETTY
This included officially opening the NSW Parliament in 1954, the Sydney Opera House in 1973, Parramatta Stadium in 1986 and Darling Harbour in 1988.
The Queen also visited a number of regional areas, including Newcastle, Lismore, Orange, Dubbo, Armidale, Tamworth and Wagga Wagga.
King Charles has also visited Australia frequently, most recently in 2018.
<www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/free-public-transport-across-nsw-for-king-charles-proclamation-ceremony-20220911-p5bh3p.html>
* The benefits of being a colony...
* Lets hope there's no "due to trackwork buses will replace trains between ......" Sure, maintenance is necessary, whilst it seems to impact operation so often it leaves industrial action looking benign.
* I've only just heard about this and the day's nearly over. ...
* Good luck anyone planning on a train trip to and from Blue Mountains or on the Newcastle line. Or to and from North coast, northern inland, or out west. The dreaded trackwork is on yet again this weekend; and the transport website makes clear that replacement buses may or may not be available due to bus driver staffing issues.
* Trackwork in the mountains. Can I have a do over on Tuesday?
* That may well be of some material assistance; provided the trains busses and trams are working anyway. Which is most unlikely.
* What a wonderful offer. Where I live that gives me a choice of two long distance "rail buses". Should I go to Coonabarabran or Lithgow this afternoon?
* Midnight on the 11th has already passed? Do they mean midnight on the 12th? They are all over the place with the timings - so confusing? Do they really mean today or yesterday?
* Lets make public transport free for the 364 other days of the year.
* Lovely gesture. Though unions have provided free transport for weeks. Maybe good idea for future society well being....divert spending into much much lower public transport fees, then people may get out of their cars, reduce cost of living, reduce fossil fuel consumption....
* Well that has not gone well at all, opal gates open for weeks still saying to tap on then we hear after boarding that it’s free. Just wondering who is actually in charge, it appears that with new rtbu uniforms that there has been a change in management
* It’s not free. If you tap on and off, the cost of the ticket is deducted from your card. The fares are not been monitored so they are open but there is a warning that states you may still be fined for riding without having paid a fare if your card is checked.
* A bit of cake for the Hoi Polloi
* How many people take public transport on Sunday?
* How many people can take public transport in the country?
* A lot of people. There's quite a lot of cars parked at Kellyville Metro station on the weekends, showing the number people who park and ride.
* I thought we have a budget deficit and we've wasted enough tax payer money on stadiums already.
* I've already tapped on, now what.
* Write to the Minister and ask for a refund.
* Of course parliament is suspended for two weeks but the plebs must work Monday. The old “ do as I say not as I do rule”. New government but same old same old.
* You think MP's aren't doing work when not sitting in a room together? The actual work gets done when they are free to do it and not forced to sit in a room having a gab fest.
* You realise Parliament is a small part of the job, don't you?
* That headline looks like something out of the 1950's newspaper archives! Do the kiddies get a free bag of boiled lollies too?

Calls for stabbing video to be taken down after 4 million views.  Cloe Read September 11, 2022
It’s been two months since Lauie Michael Tagaloa was stabbed to death in one of Brisbane’s busiest stations.
The fight between two groups had turned violent quickly, one man producing a knife and allegedly slashing at Tagaloa’s neck.
video Murder charge after man dies at Brisbane's Fortitude Valley train station A man aged 20 has been charged with murder after a man was stabbed to death in Brisbane.
It ended with blood on the ground of Fortitude Valley station, the final moments of the 24-year-old’s life slipping away as his alleged attackers fled.
But a graphic video of Tagaloa’s last minutes, in which he stumbles clutching his throat as he loses blood, trying to comprehend what has happened to him, has clocked more than 4 million views on multiple online platforms.
Police used the footage and other CCTV videos in the area to track and identify those involved.
While many of the videos have been removed, some footage continues to circulate despite advocacy groups contacting police and social media outlets to take it down.
A video of Lauie Michael Tagaloa’s last moments has been viewed more than 4 million times.CREDIT:FACEBOOK
Youth Against Violence called for the video to be removed, saying it had a detrimental effect on the community.
“Many families and young people have reported feeling distressed and traumatised after the video of the Fortitude Valley stabbing circulated via social media platforms,” founder Ouwais Menzel said.
“Parents have contacted us concerned their children are accessing this graphic content.
“Families and loved ones who have victims of violence have also stressed the fact that this video is harmful for the healing of the affected family of this tragedy.”
Menzel said Youth Against Violence had filed a complaint with Twitter, but he had not received any feedback following the complaint.
The lack of correspondence from Twitter is really disheartening as this video continues to circulate the internet.
Ouwais Menzel, Youth Against Violence
“We have contacted the Queensland Police Service about the video still being available to the public, they are currently investigating with no further update received since the complaint was filed.”
Bond University criminologist Wayne Petherick said these types of videos would become more prominent as the media landscape changed with technology.
He said violent crime had become normalised, and many, particularly younger people, had become desensitised to it.
While gruesome homicides were often played out on crime television programs, Queenslanders were not typically exposed to this kind of violence in their streets.
But footage of shooters in the US have been frequent, and some high-profile deaths have been livestreamed, as was seen with the mosque shooting in New Zealand’s Christchurch in 2019.
“If you look back, you had the assassination of [former Japanese prime minister] Shinzo Abe that was actually broadcast [in July this year],” Petherick said.
“There was also, a little while ago, a gentleman who was the victim of a shark attack.
“So these things are becoming a bit more common and will continue while, one, people have mobile phones, and two, continue to film them and upload it to social media.
Lauie Michael Tagaloa seconds before he was allegedly stabbed.CREDIT:NINE NEWS
“Over time, what it’ll effectively do is have a numbing effect, we’ll become so familiar, so comfortable with the material, that it really won’t have an effect on people any more.”
Petherick said students in his classes were often unfazed by violent videos, claiming they had “seen worse on the news or Netflix”.
But what draws people to watch these videos?
“There are some ideas in the literature that tell us this,” Petherick said.
“For one, it has a bit of an excitatory effect, so when we see that, we get a bit of a rush of adrenaline and that can actually make us feel like our lives aren’t quite as dull as they may be.
“The other side of that is that people can be drawn towards violent media because it has a protective effect.
“So, if we don’t particularly know a lot about crime or how it’s perpetrated, but if we watch that sort of stuff, we can go ‘Right, OK, that’s what it looks like, that’s what the risk factors are, that’s who the offender was’.”
He said people would also watch those types of videos in a bid to learn about dangers they would otherwise not know about.
Youth Against Violence has advocated for tougher restrictions on social media platforms, saying violent posts were becoming more frequent and incited young people to commit crime or acts of violence.
“This content is ultimately causing significant mental harm to members of the community,” Menzel said.
RELATED ARTICLE Queensland police are searching for this man who might be able to assist in investigations into the murder of a 24-year-old man who died at Fortitude Valley train station on July 11, 2022. Photos: Supplied Qld police search for witness of Fortitude Valley station stabbing
<www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/calls-for-stabbing-video-to-be-taken-down-after-4-million-views-20220906-p5bfsk.html>

Sun.11.9.22 Melbourne 'Herald Sun'.  Buses to get air purifiers.  KIERAN ROONEY
VICTORIAN buses are being fitted with air purifiers to shield the public from Covid and other health issues.
A study showed the system cleared pollutants in just minutes.
Melbourne bus company CDC has fitted 50 vehicles with the devices to see if they reduce harm.
A Monash University study backed the move after scientists discovered buses filled with pollutants that usually took an hour to return to normal oxygen levels were purified within five minutes.
The research project was run by Delos, a global wellness company, and the university's Climate Air Quality Research unit.
Scientists set up a test site at CDC's Clayton bus depot and used high-quality equipment to monitor the effects of purifiers in getting rid of gases and other pollutants in a range of scenarios.
Delos Australia's managing director Anthony Scarff said the results showed a clear improvement.
"The air purifiers did in five minutes what a standard bus would take over an hour to do," he said.
"We now have that body of evidence to give us a platform (for wider use).
"We see air purifiers like this as standard issue in all sorts of public vehicles.
"It is going to be something like the airbag was a good while ago.
"It should be going into all types of public transport including trams, taxis and ride-share."
Mr Scarff said indoor air quality was vital, because one in nine Australians suffered from asthma and one in five suffered from other respiratory diseases.
"We were working with CDC to make offices and depots healthier for their employees." Mr Scarff said.
"Indoor air quality is up to five times worse than outdoor air quality."