Fw: Wed.28.9.22 daily digest archive
Roderick Smith
Saturday, August 31, 2024 1:56 AM
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Subject: Wed.28.9.22 daily digest archive part 1, text.
Tues.27.9.22 was posted misdated. Thurs.7.9.22.
Roderick
"220927Tu-Melbourne'HeraldSun'-Sunshine-Somerton.pipeline-foratn-s.jpg" with atn & v-n
"220928W-Melbourne'Age'-trams-foratn-ss.jpg"
"220928W-Stock&Land-MurrayBasinRail-foratn-ss.jpg" with atn & v-n
Wed.28.9.22 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.
Heading to Royal Melbourne Show? We’re running more trains to the showgrounds to get you there and back.
7.13 Major delays (a track fault at Glen Waverley).
- 7.19 Minor and clearing.
10.47 Belgrave line: Major delays (a track fault near Upper Ferntree Gully). Trains may terminate/originate at intermediate locations.
- 13.02 Minor and clearing.
16.16 Werribee/Williamstown/Sunbury lines: Major delays as police attend to a trespasser in the Footscray area. Trains may be held at platforms.
- 16.26 Delays clearing. Trains may terminate/originate at intermediate stations. Stopping patterns may be changed.
17.17 Craigieburn line: Major delays (police attending to trespassers near Pascoe Vale). Trains may terminate/originate at intermediate stations. Stopping patterns may be changed.
- 17.28 Delays clearing.
17.32 Pakenham/Cranbourne line: Major delays after an earlier disruption affected positioning train crews. Trains may terminate/originate at intermediate stations. Stopping patterns may be changed.
- 18.16: Delays clearing.
Buses replace trains Clifton Hill - Mernda from 20.10 until the last train (maintenance works).
CBD workers spend just 16 hours in city as work-from-home sticks. Cara Waters August 25, 2022. 98 comments
Key points
A survey by RMIT of more than 2,000 Melbourne residents found 49.5 per cent reported their primary workplace as the CBD.
However, just 12.5 per cent of Melbourne residents said they worked full-time in the CBD in a typical week.
Of those surveyed 91.3 per cent said increased productivity was important when working from home.
Melbourne’s CBD workers are spending less than 17 hours a week in the city, and only one in eight is going into the office every day of the working week.
An RMIT study – Are people ready for a Digital CBD? – has found that, on average, people with a job spent just over three days a week in their primary workplace, a finding which suggests the city will need to evolve from a place of business to a place of experience.
Dr Alexia Maddox from RMIT authored the report which found just 12.5 per cent of Melbourne residents worked full time in the CBD in a typical week. Credit:Jason South
The report was based on a survey of more than 2000 residents across greater Melbourne in April, and of those surveyed 45.9 per cent reported their primary workplace as the CBD but just 12.5 per cent said they worked full-time in the CBD in a typical week.
Report author Dr Alexia Maddox said the work-from-home trend and hybrid work arrangements from the pandemic looked set to continue.
“People moved to suburban and regional areas because they could work remotely,” she said.
“Our homes are now the site of production, we are not just going home to relax from work, we are doing work. It raises the question of what is city infrastructure and how does the city support the extension of digital infrastructure into the regions.”
Of those surveyed, 91.3 per cent said increased productivity was important when working from home and was a driver for them.
Maddox said the research showed Melbourne residents had a preference for being able to choose whether to work from home or the office and the purpose of the city had to evolve.
“People definitely see their local suburb as the centre of what they would previously go to the city for,” she said.
“It is changing what the role of the city is – it is a political seat, a place where businesses are visible and for people to come and mix. We have to think of the city as an experiential space.”
Those surveyed indicated that work was still the most prominent driver for engaging with the city, with an average of 9.8 hours being spent in the CBD working on a typical week for employed people.
This increased to 16.8 hours a week for the 45.9 per cent who indicated that the CBD was their primary workplace.
The most recent foot traffic data from the City of Melbourne recorded a week-day average of pedestrian activity near the Town Hall sensor at 77.2 per cent of the pre-COVID benchmark.
But a Property Council of Australia survey for July found Melbourne’s office occupancy continued to go backwards, dropping from 49 per cent to 38 per cent.
video Creative proposal to rejuvenate Melbourne CBD
These urban designers want to convert one segment of the CBD into a creative hub.
The council’s acting Victorian executive director, Adina Cirson, said digital technology became ubiquitous in everyone’s lives during the pandemic and the trend was most obvious in the way it changed how people work.
“While flexible working is here to stay, the collaborative synergy generated by teams being in the office a few days a week is undeniable,” she said. “Property owners are looking to leverage the very technology that makes remote work possible as a drawcard for the office space they’re offering the market.”
The RMIT report calls for all Victorians to be provided with affordable and reliable access to digital infrastructure to reflect the changing role of the CBD.
Maddox said she personally spent around nine hours a week at work in the city but as a “knowledge worker” her work had always been very mobile.
Credit: Matt Golding
“The city for me is a place I go for professional practice and to experience creative inspiration,” she said.
“I love going to connect with people and as a central hub but my practice of health, wellbeing and place of work is all in the suburbs.”
Related Article The office building at 136 Exhibition is one such building that has had a makeover to attract new tenants and keep older ones. Workers want luxury: Rising office vacancies lead to ‘arms race’
Related Article People walk through Melbourne CBD last week. Office workers keep commuting to Melbourne CBD despite Omicron wave
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/working-from-home-means-cbd-will-need-to-evolve-rmit-study-finds-20220825-p5bcqg.html>
Tues.27.9.22 Melbourne 'Herald Sun'. Somerton pipeline at Sunshine.
APPLICATION TO ALTER AUTHORISED ROUTE OF PIPELINE LICENCE 118
Notice under Section 68 of the Pipelines Act 2005.
Somerton Pipeline Joint Venture as holder of Pipeline Licence 118 lodged an application on 8 September 2022 to alter the authorised route of the pipeline.
Somerton Pipeline Joint Venture is proposing to alter the pipeline route by relocating a 1.9 km section of the 35ONB pipeline running from the north side of Sunshine Rd to Albion station.
The proposed route will relocate this section of pipeline to the east within the rail corridor and is required to facilitate works associated with future rail development in the vicinity of Sunshine station.
The alteration will be completed as part of works to build the new regional platform at the station, and will be delivered by Rail Projects Victoria and its delivery partners.
Further information regarding the proposed alteration to the authorised route of the pipeline may be obtained from the Somerton Pipeline Joint Venture Manager John Kellaway at:
Somerton Pipeline JV Manager, Box 1095, Tullamarine 3043.
Tues.27.9.22 Melbourne 'Herald Sun'. Time zones.
HISTORY professor and a train expert have come to the rescue to provide our readers with an explanation as to why there was a 25-minute time difference between Melbourne and Sydney in the mid 1800s.
This bizarre fact was brought to our attention two weeks ago by a reader who spotted the tidbit in a book about trains.
According to the book, passengers arriving at Albury were greeted by this message: “Examination of hand luggage by Victorian customs. Put watches back 25 minutes. Lavatory at this station.”
Victoria University professor Robert Pascoe says until the adoption of time zones in 1880, every city had its own time.
“Melbourne and Geelong were nine minutes apart,” Robert explains.
“Railway collisions in New England were caused by each timekeeper having their own time, so time zones were introduced and in 1884, London won the battle from Paris to be the prime meridian (Greenwich Mean Time).
“The French stuck to the Paris Meridian until the Great War!”
Bruce Cumming added that across the Atlantic in USA, times were similarly “all over the place”.
But according to him, the introduction of time zones did more than just keep passengers safe.
“When trains started connecting cities and towns, they had to start standardising times so that people could catch trains reliably,” Bruce says.
“I don’t know how they sorted it out. Imagine the squabbling!”
Tues.27.9.22 Melbourne 'Herald Sun'. Diamond Creek level crossing. Shannon Deery.
A MAJOR level crossing in Melbourne’s northeast would be removed under a new commitment by the state opposition.
Liberal Party sources said that they believed that the pledge could help them win back the seat of Eltham, which they held from 1992 to 2002. It has been held by Labor since then.
Shadow transport infrastructure minister Matt Bach on Monday announced the level crossing at Main Hurstbridge Road in Diamond Creek would be added to a growing list of planned removals.
It is understood it would cost about $250m and could be funded by reprioritising other planned crossing removals.
The seat is being contested by Jason McClintock, who has injected $110,000 of his own money into his campaign, according to the Victorian Electoral Commission’s donations register.
“I’m proud to be a part of a team that is listening to the local community and is getting on with the job of removing this level crossing.
“Not only will this help with growing congestion issues, but will secure the path in the event of a bushfire, unlike the Andrews Labor government,” Mr McClintock said.
The level crossing on Main Hurstbridge Rd has long been dubbed the “Berlin Wall” by locals, and has caused traffic chaos for years.
Despite plans to build a new pedestrian crossing and upgrade the platform at Diamond Creek station while duplicating the Hurstbridge line, the state government has not announced plans to remove the crossing.
Mr Bach said the removal of the crossing was critical, not just for Diamond Creek residents, but for commuters along the whole Hurstbridge line.
The Coalition has committed to removing high priority level crossings at High St in Glen Iris, Tooronga Rd in Malvern and Glenferrie Rd in Kooyong. The Highett Rd and Wickham Rd crossings in Highett would also go.
It has also promised reforming the Level Crossing Removal Authority’s processes to ensure greater community input into projects.
Although it has left Diamond Creek off its list, the Andrews government has promised to remove 85 dangerous crossings by 2025.
Labor made level crossings a key issue during the 2014 election after pledging $6bn to remove 50 by 2022.
Last week Daniel Andrews promised to remove eight more of them on the Upfield line, including the notorious boom gates on Brunswick Rd.
Some 71,000 vehicles travel over the crossings each weekday, with boom gates down for up to 30min every morning.
OPINION. PAGE 21
Calls for free public transport to Melbourne Royal Show after traffic ‘bedlam’. Rachael Dexter September 28, 2022. 19 comments
Key points
The Royal Show has seen multiple days of record 50,000-strong crowds.
Nearly 1000 parking tickets were doled out between Thursday and Sunday in the Ascot Vale area.
Moonee Valley residents and councillors fear a clash with a Flemington race day on Saturday will cause traffic havoc.
The council has called on the government to make public transport free for Melbourne Show ticket holders.
Moonee Valley City Council says residents near the Melbourne Showgrounds are facing traffic “bedlam” this week unless the state government offers free public transport for the last weekend of the Melbourne Royal Show.
After two years of hiatus, the Royal Show has attracted record crowd numbers but residents of nearby Ascot Vale have complained of unprecedented traffic and gridlock.
Stalled traffic on Langs Road on Sunday morning.Credit:Stephen Rowley
For the first time in more than a decade, the show will coincide with a 12,000-person-strong race meet at Flemington on Saturday, meaning no on-site parking will be available to an expected sell-out show crowd of 50,000.
Moonee Valley Council said nearly 1000 tickets were issued to drivers parking illegally in residential permit spots, on nature strips and across driveways last long weekend. Victoria Police was also called in to direct traffic to clear tram tracks.
Ascot Vale resident Richard Turnbull has lived on Charles Street, 50 metres from the showground boundary, for 20 years. He said he had never seen anything like the traffic that engulfed his suburb last weekend.
Turnbull said the first day of the show, which coincided with a Thursday public holiday for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, was the worst, as on-site parking at the showgrounds quickly filled and drivers began crawling suburban streets looking for rare permit-free parking.
Richard Turnbull has lived near the showgrounds for 20 years and said he’s never seen traffic as bad for the Royal Show as last weekend.Credit:Eddie Jim
“It was absolutely gridlocked,” he said. “I was trying to get home at 11.30am after being out in the morning and I got to one street away from home on Doncaster Street and no one was moving. You couldn’t even do a U-ey and get out of it.”
Turnbull said he ended up leaving his car a kilometre away, walking home to get his parking permit sticker, walking back to the car and then home again, in which time the traffic hardly moved at all.
He said some drivers heading to the show were getting so frustrated they were intentionally parking in illegal spots and walking on foot to the grounds.
“Somebody who parked outside my place copped a $110 ticket,” he said.
Congested residential streets around the showgrounds last weekend.Credit:Todd Monaghan
Moonee Valley council, which does not capture Flemington Racecourse or the showgrounds but does oversee Ascot Vale, rushed through an urgent motion at its Wednesday night council meeting to call on the state government for help.
“It’s the only way that we’re not going to have bedlam around Ascot Vale and that will potentially lead to some really unsafe outcomes,” said Independent councillor Rose Iser, who put forward the motion to request that public transport to the show be made free this weekend and more trains, trams and buses are put on to accommodate the crowds.
Iser suggested part of the problem could have been that people are using their cars more now than before the pandemic.
Wyndham Vale resident Goldy Kumar, 42, spent nearly two hours in traffic just outside the showgrounds last Thursday trying to get into the on-site parking at the racecourse.
“The line to get into the show from Ballarat Road was ridiculous,” he said.
“Only two people [were] traffic managing the area upon entry. This was after 100 minutes roughly, mind you. Once we entered the showground premises, we were in queues waiting to pay for parking. This ordeal was further 40 minutes, roughly.
“Whilst in the queue, we saw pedestrians were walking on the opposite road towards the show parking area with oncoming traffic. No one in the vicinity monitoring [or] patrolling the area.”
Kumar said his family would have used public transport if it was free for ticket holders and said show organisers needed to do more to communicate that driving was not recommended. He also said he thought show capacity needed to be reviewed.
Pedestrians walk around idle Melbourne Show traffic on Langs Road on the weekend.Credit:Pea Scout
Moonee Valley Mayor Samantha Byrne said she wanted to see the state government make public transport free for ticket holders in future years.
A spokesperson for the state government did not answer whether public transport would be made free for show-goers, saying only that “we encourage Victorians travelling to the Melbourne Royal Show to take public transport” and that extra train and tram services were already running throughout the school holiday period.
Between Thursday and Sunday, there were an average of just under 11,000 Myki touch-ons at Showgrounds station each day, according to figures from the Department of Transport. During that period, there were at least 50,000 patrons who attended the show daily, according to show organisers.
A spokeswoman for the Melbourne Royal Show said there would be signage around the showgrounds on Saturday telling drivers there was no parking available in the area and they should drive to Moonee Valley Racecourse instead.
“A free shuttle bus service [from Moonee Valley Racecourse] will shuttle patrons to and from the venue with the bus drop-off located on Langs Road,” she said.
“We are communicating directly with the purchasers of the tickets for the day to advise them that where possible, they should utilise public transport, in particular, Metro trains. Our website and ticketing platform advises people of the restricted parking.”
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/calls-for-free-public-transport-to-royal-show-after-traffic-bedlam-20220928-p5bllp.html>
* Why on earth someone would drive to the show when the train literally stops at the gate is beyond me.
Purely poor planning. Include public transport into the ticket price plain and simple . The cost of congestion surely would grossly outweigh the cost of providing free or subsidised tickets. Australia is so backwards sometimes and ruled by a car addiction.
I don't see why they should get free public transport. Surely the traffic chaos should be sufficient reason to leave their cars at home.
Train and tram folks, right to the track and the Show. Zero parking or breath test issues. PT rules.
Goldie, one less showbag/ride/meal will probably cover the cost of public transport for a whole family, let alone the cost of petrol.
If it's so busy you have to wait more than two hours just to get into a carparking area, why on earth would you want to go? It'd be so crowded I don't know how you could enjoy yourself. And expect massive queues for rides and attractions too.
How extraordinary that someone would pay $25 for parking, plus petrol plus wear and tear because public transport would cost too much. By the way, the shuttle tram between the showground and the city was free when I used it on Monday.
I can’t understand why anyone who is capable of getting public transport would drive to the show. There is a train station right next to it and the few dollars you spend pales in comparison to the money you spend at the show.
Simple. Only accept prepaid parking, booked when buying the Show tickets on the website.
I seriously doubt that people are driving because they find a myki ticket too expensive. Free public transport would not make any difference.
Why should public transport be free when they are quite prepared to pay for parking at the show grounds. There should be no races at Flemington during the show when they share a car park.
It’s been a while since I’ve been to the show but I do recall that if you had your show ticket - the ride from Flinders Street to the show grounds was free. Always seemed like a good deal and a lot easier than navigating both the roads in and car park.
Be great to see a small gesture for all those empty trains that ran during the lockdowns and cost taxpayer dollars whilst we were under home detention and couldn’t utilise them.
Why should the taxpayer foot the bill?
"A spokeswoman for the Melbourne Royal Show said there would be signage around the showgrounds on Saturday telling drivers there was no parking available in the area and they should drive to Moonee Valley Racecourse instead.:"
Oh that's brilliant, so you sit in a traffic jam and find out when you get to the venue that you then need to create and then sit in another traffic jam up through the permanently congested Moonee Ponds junction, turning another local area into a carpark.
I am also advised the number of bicycle facilities at the Showgrounds anywhere.
Genius.
if you can afford to take your family to the show, and go on rides, you can also pay for public transport...
You would think people would already see the benefit of spending a few dollars on public transport and saving the money, time and aggravation spent in long queues trying to get to these venues without needing public transport to be free.
Government agencies reduce office footprint as workers stay at home. Rachel Eddie September 28, 2022. 32 comments
Victoria’s Transport Department has scaled back its office footprint by one-third in the past two years as other government agencies reduce their presence in Melbourne’s CBD in response to flexible work arrangements.
In its annual report tabled in parliament, the department said it had cut back tenancies at 121 Exhibition Street and 567 Collins Street and reduced overall office space from 186,000 square metres to 121,000 in the two years to June 30.
The Transport Department has cut back tenancies at 121 Exhibition Street and 567 Collins Street in the past two years.Credit:Eddie Jim
The total number of offices held by the department increased, as did the number of full-time equivalent staff, after it merged with VicRoads and Public Transport Victoria.
The department could not immediately say why its office footprint was reduced, but in their annual reports, the Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office both reported consolidating tenancies because of flexible working conditions after COVID-19 lockdowns.
The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) said severing its office space last year helped the watchdog to record a surplus.
“Our hybrid working model has led to a reduction in the demand for our office premises, and on December 1, 2021, we exited our lease agreement for level 32, 35 Collins Street, Melbourne,” VAGO said in its annual report.
The Auditor-General’s Office, which retains a lease at level 31 of the same building, said decreasing office space saved $400,000 and a further $900,000 on operating costs, savings that were redirected to auditing.
The Department of Premier and Cabinet also said its offices had a “more efficient footprint” now that staff were commuting to the city less frequently.
Over the past 12 months, the department has “further consolidated our real estate portfolio in the Melbourne central business district” with most employees now working at 35 Collins Street.
A spokesman said the government “manages properties to maximise the efficient use of space”.
The Auditor-General has reduced its office space at 35 Collins Street.Credit:Getty
The public sector is the CBD’s biggest employer. Workers are generally expected to go to the office three days a week but have the option to negotiate, with similar arrangements in place at most private companies.
Mask mandates for public transport and taxis were lifted last week, leaving almost none of the COVID-19 restrictions that have deterred workers from returning to their offices in the past.
Some departments, including the Department of Health and the Suburban Rail Loop Authority, are looking to upsize, according to a commercial agent who did not want to be identified.
The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) has increased its office footprint in the past two years, with more than 55,000 square metres tenanted across Victoria, up from about 51,000.
video Creative proposal to rejuvenate Melbourne CBD
These urban designers want to convert one segment of the CBD into a creative hub.
Deputy Liberal leader David Southwick said the CBD’s recovery had stalled and accused Premier Daniel Andrews of “flying the white flag”.
“Instead of adding to already record ‘for lease’ signs across the CBD, we need innovative solutions to return workers, visitors and vibrancy to our city centre,” Southwick said.
Weekend foot traffic has recovered to about pre-pandemic levels in the CBD, while last Wednesday was the busiest workday for commuters in the month of September, and Lord Mayor Sally Cap said productivity was surging.
Cath Evans, Victorian executive director of the Property Council, said activity in the CBD was starting to bounce back and demand for office space had remained steady.
“Considering that the majority of commercial leases are longer term, organisations in both the public and private sectors typically take a longer view when reviewing their space requirements,” Evans said. “Flexible working arrangements don’t necessarily translate to a reduction in floor space, as economic growth must be factored into long-term space requirements.”
To encourage Victorians to dine out, attend events or visit galleries, the Andrews government has reintroduced its dining and entertainment stimulus package. Under the program, 25 per cent of a bill worth more than $40 can be claimed back as a refund.
“We have invested $300 million jointly with the City of Melbourne to boost the CBD through the Melbourne City Recovery Fund and the Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund,” the government spokesman said.
Related Article Melbourne skyline ‘Fast-forward obsolescence’: Fate of Melbourne’s old CBD office towers in the balance
Related Article Dr Alexia Maddox from RMIT authored the report which found just 12.5 per cent of Melbourne residents worked full time in the CBD in a typical week. CBD workers spend just 16 hours in city as work-from-home sticks
<www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/government-agencies-reduce-office-footprint-as-workers-stay-at-home-20220927-p5bl8u.html>
AGL expected to close Loy Yang power station a decade early Miki Perkins and Mike Foley September 28, 2022. 238 comments
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/agl-expected-to-close-loy-yang-power-station-a-decade-early-20220928-p5blog.html
https://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/agl-expected-to-close-loy-yang-power-station-a-decade-early-20220928-p5blog.html
Union head and Liberal minister agree umpire powerless to solve rail dispute. Angus Thompson and Tom Rabe September 28, 2022. 30 comments
The head of the union movement and the NSW Liberal minister overseeing the drawn-out trains dispute both say the federal workplace umpire lacks the teeth to resolve the industrial stand-off.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus found herself in unlikely agreement with Employee Relations Minister Damien Tudehope over the powerlessness of the Fair Work Commission in the face of the stalemate that has affected thousands of Sydney commuters.
Sally McManus, Secretary of the ACTU, wants a discussion about casuals receiving sick pay.Credit:Eddie Jim
“This dispute has gone on for so long because the umpire ... is mainly a bystander, only allowed to assist in very limited circumstances or to enact the nuclear option of cancelling agreements which only benefit one side,” McManus told the National Press Club on Wednesday.
Tudehope backed McManus, saying the commission had “no real powers” to settle the bargaining dispute through arbitration, adding it was all but redundant in the industrial battle. However, the solutions of the two differed.
McManus said the dispute between the NSW government and the powerful Rail, Tram and Bus Union was a “classic example” for giving the industrial umpire, the Fair Work Commission, greater powers to intervene in wage negotiations.
“I think the key thing that needs to change is we need to give the umpire their whistle back, the Fair Work Commission has had their whistle taken off them,” McManus said. Following the jobs summit, the government promised to give Fair Work the greater capacity to help workers and businesses reach agreements.
NSW Employee Relations Minister Damien Tudehope has found common ground with the head of the national union movement.Credit:Oscar Colman
Tudehope, however, said he wanted the Commonwealth to allow the return of Sydney Trains, NSW TrainLink and other government corporations to the jurisdiction of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission, which has the ability to arbitrate.
The state government has for months been at loggerheads with the combined rail unions over a new pay deal and the future of an intercity train fleet that workers refuse to staff due to safety concerns.
The long-running dispute has resulted in sporadic strikes and industrial action across Sydney’s rail network, prompting NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet earlier this month to warn he would tear up an existing enterprise agreement if any more action was taken.
McManus also backed the use of industrial action in helping workers negotiate multi-employer agreements, adding “if workers have no access to protected action, bargaining power is reduced to almost zero.”
Australian Industry Group chief executive said, “the demand today by the ACTU secretary Sally McManus that workers need the unfettered right to strike in support of new multi-employer pay claims would take Australia back to the industrial chaos of the past,” a claim McManus dismissed as a “scare campaign”.
On multi-employer bargaining, the ability for workers to negotiate across businesses, McManus said, “you want bargaining to be quick, you want it to be simple, you want it to be fair, and you want it to be accessible.”
She said parts of the better off overall test, the legal threshold to make sure workers don’t go backwards in negotiations, was in parts “too technical and time-consuming” and suggested the test was being applied too strictly.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry head Andrew McKellar said, “the message from Sally McManus and the ACTU today is clear. The trade union movement wants to run your business”.
“And if you don’t play by their rules, you will be hauled off to the Commission where it’s one-size-fits-all. This is not opt-in,” he said.
McManus also said she wanted a national discussion on casual workers receiving sick pay, although the movement’s priority was to ensure permanent workers mischaracterised as casuals were receiving their proper entitlements.
Isolation rules for COVID-affected Australians will be on the agenda at a national cabinet meeting on Friday after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last fortnight confirmed workers without leave entitlements would continue to receive government payments for as long as they were required to stay home.
“The question then about, well, there’s still going to be some people left without that. I think there is a bigger discussion that we absolutely would like to have with the community on whether our current settings are correct on that,” McManus said, adding there were other entitlements that should be discussed.
“I think there’s a bigger, longer discussion to be had about the issue of so many people not having sick leave.”
Related Article NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet walks through a Metro tunnel beneath Martin Place. ‘Highly unusual’: Perrottet questions federal foray into NSW rail dispute
Related Article Train strikes and the premier. ‘A pox on both houses’: voters turn on government and unions over train disruptions
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/union-head-and-liberal-minister-agree-umpire-powerless-to-solve-rail-dispute-20220928-p5blrd.html
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/union-head-and-liberal-minister-agree-umpire-powerless-to-solve-rail-dispute-20220928-p5blrd.html
* The FWC cannot resolve disputes where goodwill doesn't exist. To expect otherwise is lunacy
Albo will show if he resembles the ghosts of Labor past pretty quickly. Undoing 40 years of de-unionising would be a disaster.
It's bad enough that the states can't shut them down over this action.
One of the last journalists to ask a question after McManus' address to the Press Club yesterday pointed out that the Murdoch press were entirely unrepresented in the audience. The had apparently already made up their minds about what she would say and how it would be construed to their readers.
Nothing like unbiased reporting ... nothing like.
Fortunately enough real journalists attended to ask intelligent questions and receive intelligent answers in reply. It was a great speech, worth watching if you didn't catch it at the time.
Neither the Australian nor the Telegraph had McManus’s speech on their webpage when I looked this afternoon. Which article do you think was biased?
McManus dismisses employer concerns about multi-employer bargaining as a scare campaign. Maybe. But what if fear is valid? This is a big and divisive change, that has obviously been in development for a while - before the election. But was not disclosed. And it looks like the ACTU and ALP are hand in glove on this. Why would we now accept any reassurance by the ALP or ACTU?
Long on talk short on details - McManus wants it all and expects someone else to pay.
That someone will be the average Joe who will pay more or lose hours and or a job. Business is more than CEO and ASX200 companies . When is McMnaus going to drill down into the COGS of the SME sector every time she makes promises of a brand new day
Gman, profits have been rising for decades. Time to pay the piper
Why should anyone accept assurances from employers to bargain in good faith? They have had decades to demonstrate this.
The talk by McManus rang very true for me. In a nutshell, the results of the past thirty years of neoliberalist economics has resulted in a disastrous situation for many workers. Even in a permanent full-time job, but not in on the property investment pyramid scheme, I find it increasingly difficult to manage financially. As it looks more and more likely that there will be a global recession, I hate to think how many people will be affected if it spreads here. Fortunately our Labor government with some excellent economic talents puts us in a much better place to manage such events, as was the case with the GFC.
* The quoted comments by Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry head Andrew McKellar and the Australian Industry Group chief executive seem to be about a different address to the one I saw. McManus was very positive and talked about helping businesses and working constructively as is the case in other successful economies that have low rates of industrial disputes. She even spoke about how the economy and society has changed so much to how it was when unions had greater representation, so saying the unions will take things back to the chaos of the past is very much at odds with what McManus actually said. It looks as though it might be the Industry heads that are still in the past.
McManus helping Business ......... like paying for all the new costs she thinks are fair ?
Businesses are apparently making record profits, I'm sure they can afford it.
According to who ?
Because McManus says it out loud doesn't make it true. She is happy to talk about CEO pay packets - how about the Cafe owner who does a 60 hour week - has it ALL at risk and employs 5 people who are about to cost more for no gain ?
Reality is not CEO its SME who is going to get bent over and they employ the engine room of the economy
My local coffee shop owner has increased his $6.5 cake to $9.50 while I was away on holidays. I think that he will be able to pay the extra costs quite easily. Other coffee shop owners should increase their prices and if they price themselves out of the market than they are just not viable. Simple, why should the workers keep taking a cut while the owner laughs all the way to the bank.
I bought a $2 bag of salad leaves at a supermarket yesterday, but it now costs $3. That's a 50% increase. Just like many other prices. But where's my wage rise?
At least now we know who is eating cake .... ie not the Cafe owner
What happened to the owner’s costs, which are an input to the price? If you or I can’t cope with a price rise, we need to act, but if a business can’t cope they were just not viable? I just think the world is more complex than that.
Did you watch the address gman? She sounded very positive about helping small business owners. If you didn't see it, catch it in iview. It's well worth listening to.
I don't actually care how positive her her outlook is if her ideas are wrong.
Take the NSW train dispute. There is a central substantive argument whether the new trains are safe. The union argues they are not - but they have a vested interest in preserving their members' jobs. The governments says they are, but they have a vested interest having bought them. McManus wants an industrial relations commission to resolve this. What expertise do they have in transportation safety?
I don't trust unions to support small businesses, because they have usually not been in small business. Even when they are genuine, they don't understand things.
Yep I watched it . Lots of rainbows very little detail.
Facts are someone has to pay for it all.
It will be prices or jobs. Simple as that
Get real! Unions don't understand things! Who do you think was working in the system?
For the most part I agree with Sally Mc, but sick pay for casuals is problematic. I realise that it was / is difficult in situations like Covid but rather than pay sick leave for casuals why not put them on a temp or perm contract?
I think she did qualify the point about sick leave pay for casuals by saying that making them permanents was still the preferred option. That's also been Labor's policy for a long time.
An employer is not automatically rich. Put a casual on a contract, you are basically requiring the employer to pay them, whether they have the the cash or not.
An employer who isn't paying his staff properly is still getting belted by the building owner.
Who would have thunk that the ideological gutting of the powers of Federal FairWork commission by the Federal LNP over the last 10 years would have put businesses and State LNP government's in an untenable situation.
I find it quite ironic and karmic that this gutting was supported by the Australian Chamber of Commerce, who are now buggered at the result and cannot respond, at all except to resort to whataboutism and scream pattern bargaining.
Well a Federal FairWork Commission with teeth could address pattern bargaining, but as the, system has been designed, it cannot. The ACC has not served the businesses it represents very well at all.
I don't see why we need a NSW Employee Relations Minister as well as a NSW Industrial Relations Commission, we just need to pick 1 solution, but give them the power to resolve disputes. I still blame the Unions though, we simply do not need train guards in the modern era.
The train network wasn't built in the modern era, and the trains that are in use are designed to operate with a guard and driver. To change the infrastructure and buy suitable trains would take a long time and cost billions. That's what makes the government's position in the dispute about the new trains spurious, and it's why the union isn't likely to back down.
What if the new trains in dispute are suitable.
I live in the Blue Mountains. The platforms here curve. The idea that a guard can look along the entire train is simply not true.
That's only one of the things the guards are required for, but cameras alone are limited in their usefulness. They are affected by glare and rain and don't have the peripheral vision of a human. Guards are also responsible for helping passengers especially those with a physical disability, and in emergencies. But there are also other problems with the new trains that a guard told me about that we never see mentioned in the media.
Vision to revamp Mary Street in time for Albert St train station. Tony Moore September 28, 2022. 17 comments
One of Brisbane’s major streets will be transformed to connect South Bank’s new Neville Bonner Bridge and the new Kangaroo Point green bridge near the Botanic Gardens to a subtropical commuter and tourism link.
Brisbane City Council has released its Mary Street Vision, planned to reshape Gardens Point as 67,000 commuters begin to use the city’s newest train station at Albert Street by 2024.
Brisbane City Council’s Mary Street Vision. The council plans to create a pedestrian corridor through the heart of the city. Credit:Brisbane City Council
During the 2032 Olympic Games it will be a major link for tourists between Howard Smith Wharves, the Brisbane CBD, Queen’s Wharf casino and resort and South Bank Parklands, deputy mayor Krista Adams said.
“Mary Street will also be used by tens of thousands of visitors during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2032, so it’s important that it leaves a positive impression.”
The plan includes wider footpaths, extra street trees and small eateries to accommodate the increasing number of rail commuters who will be in the area.
Adams said Mary Street Vision showed the huge potential to create a central green intersection axis with Albert Street, newly streetscaped as part of the Cross River Rail project.
Mary Street needs wider footpaths and a more relaxed tropical feel because 67,000 commuters are going to use the adjacent Albert Street train station from 2024.Credit:Brisbane City Council
“It is important that improved pedestrian and transport connections occur at the same time, so people can seamlessly and safely move around our city.
“Mary Street will be the route many people will take when they move between Waterfront Brisbane - along the Eagle Street Pier - and Queen’s Wharf,” she said.
“In between these incredible projects will be the CBD’s first new train station in generations.”
Mary Street Vision recognises the street as a future commuter connector in the central business district.
The council plans to create a pedestrian corridor in Mary Street through the heart of the city. Credit:Brisbane City Council
The Neville Bonner Bridge will cross from South Bank to the Queen’s Wharf casino complex, while the Kangaroo Point green bridge will run from Edward Street over to Kangaroo Point.
“Under our Mary Street Vision, we’re proposing to introduce wider footpaths, more trees and greenery, better spaces for outdoor dining, more seating areas and improved lighting as well as shelters to protect people from the rain,” Adams said.
“Mary Street will need to cater for a higher number of people moving about, with 67,000 people expected to use the Albert Street Cross River Rail Station each weekday by late 2024.”
The Mary Street Vision urban planning strategy keeps Mary Street as a two-way street, but Adams said the report recognised its “significant untapped potential”.
Different zones will reflect the usage of the street.Credit:Brisbane City Council
“It’s important we start to look to Mary Street’s long-term future now and that’s exactly what this vision does.”
The vision breaks Mary Street into four zones to reflect its usage as either a transit zone (Albert Street), or a river crossing link between Edward and Eagle streets.
More than a century ago the Albert and Mary street region of Brisbane - then known as Frog’s Hollow - was the thriving small business and trading centre of Chinese businesses.
On Monday, South Brisbane councillor Jonathan Sriranganathan called for changes for South Brisbane’s Melbourne Street and that is considered as an extension of the Mary Street Vision across the river.
According to Mary Street Vision, the new developments at Queen’s Wharf and the new Eagle Street precinct meant it was time for a more contemporary plan for the street, Adams said.
“They also provide an opportunity to develop a contemporary space along Mary Street that reflects the subtropical identity of the city centre.
Related Article Changes around the Queensland Cultural Centre for the new Brisbane Metro should be extended in the opposite direction down South Brisbane’s Melbourne Street. Brisbane ‘dead zone’ needs rethink on road to Olympics, says councillor
<www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/vision-to-revamp-mary-street-in-time-for-albert-st-train-station-20220927-p5bled.html>
<www.theage.com.au/national/queensland/vision-to-revamp-mary-street-in-time-for-albert-st-train-station-20220927-p5bled.html>
* Street that reflects the subtropical identity of the city centre.”
* More useful than planting shrubs to encourage tourists would be getting the interstate train service back to useful times. There is no reason for Brisbane - Sydney not matching Melbourne - Sydney: a day train and an overnight train, and the times at Brisbane Roma St should be civilised. The uniform gauge line into Brisbane was built with Commonwealth money for interstate traffic, but has been taken over for commuter trains at the expense of its purpose.
The concept is half pregnant. It is neither a leafy pedestrian mall nor a major thoroughfare. Get rid of the cars and make a statement.
Great idea so far. The lanes do seem Very wide at 3.5m for cars. Could basically fit in a bike lane somewhere. Especially as the cars don’t have parking anywhere it’s mostly through traffic which is exactly what BCC is trying to avoid.
... and the bikes are sharing with cars again. Adding a bike lane would also get scooters off the footpath!
Making bikes share with cars? A terrible idea put forward by a non-cyclist I'm guessing. Cars kill cyclists. Cyclists don't kill pedestrians.
Pedestrianisation of Mary Street is an excellent initiative - but where are the cycle lanes?
If the traffic volume and speed is low (20-30kmh), it should be fine. Many European cities work that way.
20/30kmph streets in the city would be fabulous, it would feel much safer. Ann and Turbot St are super dangerous as it is right now.
Cycle lanes are two streets over, down Elizabeth Street.
There are cycling lanes all over the damn city and you barely use them already! You cyclists are never happy. Why can't you just walk with your legs and fight the urge to spray paint spandex all over your body???
@liffloff, if only there were cycle lanes all over the damn city, it would be much safer for everyone to use them. I honestly don't know why anyone needs to drive a car into the city these days (deliveries excepted).
So, get on your bike and start using the bikeways 'all over the damn city' (=CBD). Nobody is stopping you, unless of course you have Spandex figure envy???
If one can ride at 20-30km/hr, why would they walk at 3-4km/hr?
Aaaand they stick the bikes in with cars. Again. Well done Brisbane, another missed opportunity to get bikes out of traffic.
Mary Street is currently a dead zone of students and public servants.
Yes it is, but if you haven't noticed, there's soon going to be a train station and a casino, which will change the area significantly.
A zone of dead students and public servants? Can't say I've seen the bodies, but I'll look harder next time.
Looks good. We should have this on more inner city streets.
For those who can't imagine where the cars will go, where did they go after we closed of Queen Street? The answer: people find new ways of getting around that don't involve cars.
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday 30 August 2024 at 11:47:16 pm AEST
Subject: Wed.28.9.22 daily digest archive part 1, text.
Tues.27.9.22 was posted misdated. Thurs.7.9.22.
Roderick
"220927Tu-Melbourne'HeraldSun'-Sunshine-Somerton.pipeline-foratn-s.jpg" with atn & v-n
"220928W-Melbourne'Age'-trams-foratn-ss.jpg"
"220928W-Stock&Land-MurrayBasinRail-foratn-ss.jpg" with atn & v-n
Wed.28.9.22 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.
Heading to Royal Melbourne Show? We’re running more trains to the showgrounds to get you there and back.
7.13 Major delays (a track fault at Glen Waverley).
- 7.19 Minor and clearing.
10.47 Belgrave line: Major delays (a track fault near Upper Ferntree Gully). Trains may terminate/originate at intermediate locations.
- 13.02 Minor and clearing.
16.16 Werribee/Williamstown/Sunbury lines: Major delays as police attend to a trespasser in the Footscray area. Trains may be held at platforms.
- 16.26 Delays clearing. Trains may terminate/originate at intermediate stations. Stopping patterns may be changed.
17.17 Craigieburn line: Major delays (police attending to trespassers near Pascoe Vale). Trains may terminate/originate at intermediate stations. Stopping patterns may be changed.
- 17.28 Delays clearing.
17.32 Pakenham/Cranbourne line: Major delays after an earlier disruption affected positioning train crews. Trains may terminate/originate at intermediate stations. Stopping patterns may be changed.
- 18.16: Delays clearing.
Buses replace trains Clifton Hill - Mernda from 20.10 until the last train (maintenance works).
CBD workers spend just 16 hours in city as work-from-home sticks. Cara Waters August 25, 2022. 98 comments
Key points
A survey by RMIT of more than 2,000 Melbourne residents found 49.5 per cent reported their primary workplace as the CBD.
However, just 12.5 per cent of Melbourne residents said they worked full-time in the CBD in a typical week.
Of those surveyed 91.3 per cent said increased productivity was important when working from home.
Melbourne’s CBD workers are spending less than 17 hours a week in the city, and only one in eight is going into the office every day of the working week.
An RMIT study – Are people ready for a Digital CBD? – has found that, on average, people with a job spent just over three days a week in their primary workplace, a finding which suggests the city will need to evolve from a place of business to a place of experience.
Dr Alexia Maddox from RMIT authored the report which found just 12.5 per cent of Melbourne residents worked full time in the CBD in a typical week. Credit:Jason South
The report was based on a survey of more than 2000 residents across greater Melbourne in April, and of those surveyed 45.9 per cent reported their primary workplace as the CBD but just 12.5 per cent said they worked full-time in the CBD in a typical week.
Report author Dr Alexia Maddox said the work-from-home trend and hybrid work arrangements from the pandemic looked set to continue.
“People moved to suburban and regional areas because they could work remotely,” she said.
“Our homes are now the site of production, we are not just going home to relax from work, we are doing work. It raises the question of what is city infrastructure and how does the city support the extension of digital infrastructure into the regions.”
Of those surveyed, 91.3 per cent said increased productivity was important when working from home and was a driver for them.
Maddox said the research showed Melbourne residents had a preference for being able to choose whether to work from home or the office and the purpose of the city had to evolve.
“People definitely see their local suburb as the centre of what they would previously go to the city for,” she said.
“It is changing what the role of the city is – it is a political seat, a place where businesses are visible and for people to come and mix. We have to think of the city as an experiential space.”
Those surveyed indicated that work was still the most prominent driver for engaging with the city, with an average of 9.8 hours being spent in the CBD working on a typical week for employed people.
This increased to 16.8 hours a week for the 45.9 per cent who indicated that the CBD was their primary workplace.
The most recent foot traffic data from the City of Melbourne recorded a week-day average of pedestrian activity near the Town Hall sensor at 77.2 per cent of the pre-COVID benchmark.
But a Property Council of Australia survey for July found Melbourne’s office occupancy continued to go backwards, dropping from 49 per cent to 38 per cent.
video Creative proposal to rejuvenate Melbourne CBD
These urban designers want to convert one segment of the CBD into a creative hub.
The council’s acting Victorian executive director, Adina Cirson, said digital technology became ubiquitous in everyone’s lives during the pandemic and the trend was most obvious in the way it changed how people work.
“While flexible working is here to stay, the collaborative synergy generated by teams being in the office a few days a week is undeniable,” she said. “Property owners are looking to leverage the very technology that makes remote work possible as a drawcard for the office space they’re offering the market.”
The RMIT report calls for all Victorians to be provided with affordable and reliable access to digital infrastructure to reflect the changing role of the CBD.
Maddox said she personally spent around nine hours a week at work in the city but as a “knowledge worker” her work had always been very mobile.
Credit: Matt Golding
“The city for me is a place I go for professional practice and to experience creative inspiration,” she said.
“I love going to connect with people and as a central hub but my practice of health, wellbeing and place of work is all in the suburbs.”
Related Article The office building at 136 Exhibition is one such building that has had a makeover to attract new tenants and keep older ones. Workers want luxury: Rising office vacancies lead to ‘arms race’
Related Article People walk through Melbourne CBD last week. Office workers keep commuting to Melbourne CBD despite Omicron wave
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/working-from-home-means-cbd-will-need-to-evolve-rmit-study-finds-20220825-p5bcqg.html>
Tues.27.9.22 Melbourne 'Herald Sun'. Somerton pipeline at Sunshine.
APPLICATION TO ALTER AUTHORISED ROUTE OF PIPELINE LICENCE 118
Notice under Section 68 of the Pipelines Act 2005.
Somerton Pipeline Joint Venture as holder of Pipeline Licence 118 lodged an application on 8 September 2022 to alter the authorised route of the pipeline.
Somerton Pipeline Joint Venture is proposing to alter the pipeline route by relocating a 1.9 km section of the 35ONB pipeline running from the north side of Sunshine Rd to Albion station.
The proposed route will relocate this section of pipeline to the east within the rail corridor and is required to facilitate works associated with future rail development in the vicinity of Sunshine station.
The alteration will be completed as part of works to build the new regional platform at the station, and will be delivered by Rail Projects Victoria and its delivery partners.
Further information regarding the proposed alteration to the authorised route of the pipeline may be obtained from the Somerton Pipeline Joint Venture Manager John Kellaway at:
Somerton Pipeline JV Manager, Box 1095, Tullamarine 3043.
Tues.27.9.22 Melbourne 'Herald Sun'. Time zones.
HISTORY professor and a train expert have come to the rescue to provide our readers with an explanation as to why there was a 25-minute time difference between Melbourne and Sydney in the mid 1800s.
This bizarre fact was brought to our attention two weeks ago by a reader who spotted the tidbit in a book about trains.
According to the book, passengers arriving at Albury were greeted by this message: “Examination of hand luggage by Victorian customs. Put watches back 25 minutes. Lavatory at this station.”
Victoria University professor Robert Pascoe says until the adoption of time zones in 1880, every city had its own time.
“Melbourne and Geelong were nine minutes apart,” Robert explains.
“Railway collisions in New England were caused by each timekeeper having their own time, so time zones were introduced and in 1884, London won the battle from Paris to be the prime meridian (Greenwich Mean Time).
“The French stuck to the Paris Meridian until the Great War!”
Bruce Cumming added that across the Atlantic in USA, times were similarly “all over the place”.
But according to him, the introduction of time zones did more than just keep passengers safe.
“When trains started connecting cities and towns, they had to start standardising times so that people could catch trains reliably,” Bruce says.
“I don’t know how they sorted it out. Imagine the squabbling!”
Tues.27.9.22 Melbourne 'Herald Sun'. Diamond Creek level crossing. Shannon Deery.
A MAJOR level crossing in Melbourne’s northeast would be removed under a new commitment by the state opposition.
Liberal Party sources said that they believed that the pledge could help them win back the seat of Eltham, which they held from 1992 to 2002. It has been held by Labor since then.
Shadow transport infrastructure minister Matt Bach on Monday announced the level crossing at Main Hurstbridge Road in Diamond Creek would be added to a growing list of planned removals.
It is understood it would cost about $250m and could be funded by reprioritising other planned crossing removals.
The seat is being contested by Jason McClintock, who has injected $110,000 of his own money into his campaign, according to the Victorian Electoral Commission’s donations register.
“I’m proud to be a part of a team that is listening to the local community and is getting on with the job of removing this level crossing.
“Not only will this help with growing congestion issues, but will secure the path in the event of a bushfire, unlike the Andrews Labor government,” Mr McClintock said.
The level crossing on Main Hurstbridge Rd has long been dubbed the “Berlin Wall” by locals, and has caused traffic chaos for years.
Despite plans to build a new pedestrian crossing and upgrade the platform at Diamond Creek station while duplicating the Hurstbridge line, the state government has not announced plans to remove the crossing.
Mr Bach said the removal of the crossing was critical, not just for Diamond Creek residents, but for commuters along the whole Hurstbridge line.
The Coalition has committed to removing high priority level crossings at High St in Glen Iris, Tooronga Rd in Malvern and Glenferrie Rd in Kooyong. The Highett Rd and Wickham Rd crossings in Highett would also go.
It has also promised reforming the Level Crossing Removal Authority’s processes to ensure greater community input into projects.
Although it has left Diamond Creek off its list, the Andrews government has promised to remove 85 dangerous crossings by 2025.
Labor made level crossings a key issue during the 2014 election after pledging $6bn to remove 50 by 2022.
Last week Daniel Andrews promised to remove eight more of them on the Upfield line, including the notorious boom gates on Brunswick Rd.
Some 71,000 vehicles travel over the crossings each weekday, with boom gates down for up to 30min every morning.
OPINION. PAGE 21
Calls for free public transport to Melbourne Royal Show after traffic ‘bedlam’. Rachael Dexter September 28, 2022. 19 comments
Key points
The Royal Show has seen multiple days of record 50,000-strong crowds.
Nearly 1000 parking tickets were doled out between Thursday and Sunday in the Ascot Vale area.
Moonee Valley residents and councillors fear a clash with a Flemington race day on Saturday will cause traffic havoc.
The council has called on the government to make public transport free for Melbourne Show ticket holders.
Moonee Valley City Council says residents near the Melbourne Showgrounds are facing traffic “bedlam” this week unless the state government offers free public transport for the last weekend of the Melbourne Royal Show.
After two years of hiatus, the Royal Show has attracted record crowd numbers but residents of nearby Ascot Vale have complained of unprecedented traffic and gridlock.
Stalled traffic on Langs Road on Sunday morning.Credit:Stephen Rowley
For the first time in more than a decade, the show will coincide with a 12,000-person-strong race meet at Flemington on Saturday, meaning no on-site parking will be available to an expected sell-out show crowd of 50,000.
Moonee Valley Council said nearly 1000 tickets were issued to drivers parking illegally in residential permit spots, on nature strips and across driveways last long weekend. Victoria Police was also called in to direct traffic to clear tram tracks.
Ascot Vale resident Richard Turnbull has lived on Charles Street, 50 metres from the showground boundary, for 20 years. He said he had never seen anything like the traffic that engulfed his suburb last weekend.
Turnbull said the first day of the show, which coincided with a Thursday public holiday for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, was the worst, as on-site parking at the showgrounds quickly filled and drivers began crawling suburban streets looking for rare permit-free parking.
Richard Turnbull has lived near the showgrounds for 20 years and said he’s never seen traffic as bad for the Royal Show as last weekend.Credit:Eddie Jim
“It was absolutely gridlocked,” he said. “I was trying to get home at 11.30am after being out in the morning and I got to one street away from home on Doncaster Street and no one was moving. You couldn’t even do a U-ey and get out of it.”
Turnbull said he ended up leaving his car a kilometre away, walking home to get his parking permit sticker, walking back to the car and then home again, in which time the traffic hardly moved at all.
He said some drivers heading to the show were getting so frustrated they were intentionally parking in illegal spots and walking on foot to the grounds.
“Somebody who parked outside my place copped a $110 ticket,” he said.
Congested residential streets around the showgrounds last weekend.Credit:Todd Monaghan
Moonee Valley council, which does not capture Flemington Racecourse or the showgrounds but does oversee Ascot Vale, rushed through an urgent motion at its Wednesday night council meeting to call on the state government for help.
“It’s the only way that we’re not going to have bedlam around Ascot Vale and that will potentially lead to some really unsafe outcomes,” said Independent councillor Rose Iser, who put forward the motion to request that public transport to the show be made free this weekend and more trains, trams and buses are put on to accommodate the crowds.
Iser suggested part of the problem could have been that people are using their cars more now than before the pandemic.
Wyndham Vale resident Goldy Kumar, 42, spent nearly two hours in traffic just outside the showgrounds last Thursday trying to get into the on-site parking at the racecourse.
“The line to get into the show from Ballarat Road was ridiculous,” he said.
“Only two people [were] traffic managing the area upon entry. This was after 100 minutes roughly, mind you. Once we entered the showground premises, we were in queues waiting to pay for parking. This ordeal was further 40 minutes, roughly.
“Whilst in the queue, we saw pedestrians were walking on the opposite road towards the show parking area with oncoming traffic. No one in the vicinity monitoring [or] patrolling the area.”
Kumar said his family would have used public transport if it was free for ticket holders and said show organisers needed to do more to communicate that driving was not recommended. He also said he thought show capacity needed to be reviewed.
Pedestrians walk around idle Melbourne Show traffic on Langs Road on the weekend.Credit:Pea Scout
Moonee Valley Mayor Samantha Byrne said she wanted to see the state government make public transport free for ticket holders in future years.
A spokesperson for the state government did not answer whether public transport would be made free for show-goers, saying only that “we encourage Victorians travelling to the Melbourne Royal Show to take public transport” and that extra train and tram services were already running throughout the school holiday period.
Between Thursday and Sunday, there were an average of just under 11,000 Myki touch-ons at Showgrounds station each day, according to figures from the Department of Transport. During that period, there were at least 50,000 patrons who attended the show daily, according to show organisers.
A spokeswoman for the Melbourne Royal Show said there would be signage around the showgrounds on Saturday telling drivers there was no parking available in the area and they should drive to Moonee Valley Racecourse instead.
“A free shuttle bus service [from Moonee Valley Racecourse] will shuttle patrons to and from the venue with the bus drop-off located on Langs Road,” she said.
“We are communicating directly with the purchasers of the tickets for the day to advise them that where possible, they should utilise public transport, in particular, Metro trains. Our website and ticketing platform advises people of the restricted parking.”
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/calls-for-free-public-transport-to-royal-show-after-traffic-bedlam-20220928-p5bllp.html>
* Why on earth someone would drive to the show when the train literally stops at the gate is beyond me.
Purely poor planning. Include public transport into the ticket price plain and simple . The cost of congestion surely would grossly outweigh the cost of providing free or subsidised tickets. Australia is so backwards sometimes and ruled by a car addiction.
I don't see why they should get free public transport. Surely the traffic chaos should be sufficient reason to leave their cars at home.
Train and tram folks, right to the track and the Show. Zero parking or breath test issues. PT rules.
Goldie, one less showbag/ride/meal will probably cover the cost of public transport for a whole family, let alone the cost of petrol.
If it's so busy you have to wait more than two hours just to get into a carparking area, why on earth would you want to go? It'd be so crowded I don't know how you could enjoy yourself. And expect massive queues for rides and attractions too.
How extraordinary that someone would pay $25 for parking, plus petrol plus wear and tear because public transport would cost too much. By the way, the shuttle tram between the showground and the city was free when I used it on Monday.
I can’t understand why anyone who is capable of getting public transport would drive to the show. There is a train station right next to it and the few dollars you spend pales in comparison to the money you spend at the show.
Simple. Only accept prepaid parking, booked when buying the Show tickets on the website.
I seriously doubt that people are driving because they find a myki ticket too expensive. Free public transport would not make any difference.
Why should public transport be free when they are quite prepared to pay for parking at the show grounds. There should be no races at Flemington during the show when they share a car park.
It’s been a while since I’ve been to the show but I do recall that if you had your show ticket - the ride from Flinders Street to the show grounds was free. Always seemed like a good deal and a lot easier than navigating both the roads in and car park.
Be great to see a small gesture for all those empty trains that ran during the lockdowns and cost taxpayer dollars whilst we were under home detention and couldn’t utilise them.
Why should the taxpayer foot the bill?
"A spokeswoman for the Melbourne Royal Show said there would be signage around the showgrounds on Saturday telling drivers there was no parking available in the area and they should drive to Moonee Valley Racecourse instead.:"
Oh that's brilliant, so you sit in a traffic jam and find out when you get to the venue that you then need to create and then sit in another traffic jam up through the permanently congested Moonee Ponds junction, turning another local area into a carpark.
I am also advised the number of bicycle facilities at the Showgrounds anywhere.
Genius.
if you can afford to take your family to the show, and go on rides, you can also pay for public transport...
You would think people would already see the benefit of spending a few dollars on public transport and saving the money, time and aggravation spent in long queues trying to get to these venues without needing public transport to be free.
Government agencies reduce office footprint as workers stay at home. Rachel Eddie September 28, 2022. 32 comments
Victoria’s Transport Department has scaled back its office footprint by one-third in the past two years as other government agencies reduce their presence in Melbourne’s CBD in response to flexible work arrangements.
In its annual report tabled in parliament, the department said it had cut back tenancies at 121 Exhibition Street and 567 Collins Street and reduced overall office space from 186,000 square metres to 121,000 in the two years to June 30.
The Transport Department has cut back tenancies at 121 Exhibition Street and 567 Collins Street in the past two years.Credit:Eddie Jim
The total number of offices held by the department increased, as did the number of full-time equivalent staff, after it merged with VicRoads and Public Transport Victoria.
The department could not immediately say why its office footprint was reduced, but in their annual reports, the Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office both reported consolidating tenancies because of flexible working conditions after COVID-19 lockdowns.
The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) said severing its office space last year helped the watchdog to record a surplus.
“Our hybrid working model has led to a reduction in the demand for our office premises, and on December 1, 2021, we exited our lease agreement for level 32, 35 Collins Street, Melbourne,” VAGO said in its annual report.
The Auditor-General’s Office, which retains a lease at level 31 of the same building, said decreasing office space saved $400,000 and a further $900,000 on operating costs, savings that were redirected to auditing.
The Department of Premier and Cabinet also said its offices had a “more efficient footprint” now that staff were commuting to the city less frequently.
Over the past 12 months, the department has “further consolidated our real estate portfolio in the Melbourne central business district” with most employees now working at 35 Collins Street.
A spokesman said the government “manages properties to maximise the efficient use of space”.
The Auditor-General has reduced its office space at 35 Collins Street.Credit:Getty
The public sector is the CBD’s biggest employer. Workers are generally expected to go to the office three days a week but have the option to negotiate, with similar arrangements in place at most private companies.
Mask mandates for public transport and taxis were lifted last week, leaving almost none of the COVID-19 restrictions that have deterred workers from returning to their offices in the past.
Some departments, including the Department of Health and the Suburban Rail Loop Authority, are looking to upsize, according to a commercial agent who did not want to be identified.
The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) has increased its office footprint in the past two years, with more than 55,000 square metres tenanted across Victoria, up from about 51,000.
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Deputy Liberal leader David Southwick said the CBD’s recovery had stalled and accused Premier Daniel Andrews of “flying the white flag”.
“Instead of adding to already record ‘for lease’ signs across the CBD, we need innovative solutions to return workers, visitors and vibrancy to our city centre,” Southwick said.
Weekend foot traffic has recovered to about pre-pandemic levels in the CBD, while last Wednesday was the busiest workday for commuters in the month of September, and Lord Mayor Sally Cap said productivity was surging.
Cath Evans, Victorian executive director of the Property Council, said activity in the CBD was starting to bounce back and demand for office space had remained steady.
“Considering that the majority of commercial leases are longer term, organisations in both the public and private sectors typically take a longer view when reviewing their space requirements,” Evans said. “Flexible working arrangements don’t necessarily translate to a reduction in floor space, as economic growth must be factored into long-term space requirements.”
To encourage Victorians to dine out, attend events or visit galleries, the Andrews government has reintroduced its dining and entertainment stimulus package. Under the program, 25 per cent of a bill worth more than $40 can be claimed back as a refund.
“We have invested $300 million jointly with the City of Melbourne to boost the CBD through the Melbourne City Recovery Fund and the Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund,” the government spokesman said.
Related Article Melbourne skyline ‘Fast-forward obsolescence’: Fate of Melbourne’s old CBD office towers in the balance
Related Article Dr Alexia Maddox from RMIT authored the report which found just 12.5 per cent of Melbourne residents worked full time in the CBD in a typical week. CBD workers spend just 16 hours in city as work-from-home sticks
<www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/government-agencies-reduce-office-footprint-as-workers-stay-at-home-20220927-p5bl8u.html>
AGL expected to close Loy Yang power station a decade early Miki Perkins and Mike Foley September 28, 2022. 238 comments
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/agl-expected-to-close-loy-yang-power-station-a-decade-early-20220928-p5blog.html
https://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/agl-expected-to-close-loy-yang-power-station-a-decade-early-20220928-p5blog.html
Union head and Liberal minister agree umpire powerless to solve rail dispute. Angus Thompson and Tom Rabe September 28, 2022. 30 comments
The head of the union movement and the NSW Liberal minister overseeing the drawn-out trains dispute both say the federal workplace umpire lacks the teeth to resolve the industrial stand-off.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus found herself in unlikely agreement with Employee Relations Minister Damien Tudehope over the powerlessness of the Fair Work Commission in the face of the stalemate that has affected thousands of Sydney commuters.
Sally McManus, Secretary of the ACTU, wants a discussion about casuals receiving sick pay.Credit:Eddie Jim
“This dispute has gone on for so long because the umpire ... is mainly a bystander, only allowed to assist in very limited circumstances or to enact the nuclear option of cancelling agreements which only benefit one side,” McManus told the National Press Club on Wednesday.
Tudehope backed McManus, saying the commission had “no real powers” to settle the bargaining dispute through arbitration, adding it was all but redundant in the industrial battle. However, the solutions of the two differed.
McManus said the dispute between the NSW government and the powerful Rail, Tram and Bus Union was a “classic example” for giving the industrial umpire, the Fair Work Commission, greater powers to intervene in wage negotiations.
“I think the key thing that needs to change is we need to give the umpire their whistle back, the Fair Work Commission has had their whistle taken off them,” McManus said. Following the jobs summit, the government promised to give Fair Work the greater capacity to help workers and businesses reach agreements.
NSW Employee Relations Minister Damien Tudehope has found common ground with the head of the national union movement.Credit:Oscar Colman
Tudehope, however, said he wanted the Commonwealth to allow the return of Sydney Trains, NSW TrainLink and other government corporations to the jurisdiction of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission, which has the ability to arbitrate.
The state government has for months been at loggerheads with the combined rail unions over a new pay deal and the future of an intercity train fleet that workers refuse to staff due to safety concerns.
The long-running dispute has resulted in sporadic strikes and industrial action across Sydney’s rail network, prompting NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet earlier this month to warn he would tear up an existing enterprise agreement if any more action was taken.
McManus also backed the use of industrial action in helping workers negotiate multi-employer agreements, adding “if workers have no access to protected action, bargaining power is reduced to almost zero.”
Australian Industry Group chief executive said, “the demand today by the ACTU secretary Sally McManus that workers need the unfettered right to strike in support of new multi-employer pay claims would take Australia back to the industrial chaos of the past,” a claim McManus dismissed as a “scare campaign”.
On multi-employer bargaining, the ability for workers to negotiate across businesses, McManus said, “you want bargaining to be quick, you want it to be simple, you want it to be fair, and you want it to be accessible.”
She said parts of the better off overall test, the legal threshold to make sure workers don’t go backwards in negotiations, was in parts “too technical and time-consuming” and suggested the test was being applied too strictly.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry head Andrew McKellar said, “the message from Sally McManus and the ACTU today is clear. The trade union movement wants to run your business”.
“And if you don’t play by their rules, you will be hauled off to the Commission where it’s one-size-fits-all. This is not opt-in,” he said.
McManus also said she wanted a national discussion on casual workers receiving sick pay, although the movement’s priority was to ensure permanent workers mischaracterised as casuals were receiving their proper entitlements.
Isolation rules for COVID-affected Australians will be on the agenda at a national cabinet meeting on Friday after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last fortnight confirmed workers without leave entitlements would continue to receive government payments for as long as they were required to stay home.
“The question then about, well, there’s still going to be some people left without that. I think there is a bigger discussion that we absolutely would like to have with the community on whether our current settings are correct on that,” McManus said, adding there were other entitlements that should be discussed.
“I think there’s a bigger, longer discussion to be had about the issue of so many people not having sick leave.”
Related Article NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet walks through a Metro tunnel beneath Martin Place. ‘Highly unusual’: Perrottet questions federal foray into NSW rail dispute
Related Article Train strikes and the premier. ‘A pox on both houses’: voters turn on government and unions over train disruptions
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/union-head-and-liberal-minister-agree-umpire-powerless-to-solve-rail-dispute-20220928-p5blrd.html
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/union-head-and-liberal-minister-agree-umpire-powerless-to-solve-rail-dispute-20220928-p5blrd.html
* The FWC cannot resolve disputes where goodwill doesn't exist. To expect otherwise is lunacy
Albo will show if he resembles the ghosts of Labor past pretty quickly. Undoing 40 years of de-unionising would be a disaster.
It's bad enough that the states can't shut them down over this action.
One of the last journalists to ask a question after McManus' address to the Press Club yesterday pointed out that the Murdoch press were entirely unrepresented in the audience. The had apparently already made up their minds about what she would say and how it would be construed to their readers.
Nothing like unbiased reporting ... nothing like.
Fortunately enough real journalists attended to ask intelligent questions and receive intelligent answers in reply. It was a great speech, worth watching if you didn't catch it at the time.
Neither the Australian nor the Telegraph had McManus’s speech on their webpage when I looked this afternoon. Which article do you think was biased?
McManus dismisses employer concerns about multi-employer bargaining as a scare campaign. Maybe. But what if fear is valid? This is a big and divisive change, that has obviously been in development for a while - before the election. But was not disclosed. And it looks like the ACTU and ALP are hand in glove on this. Why would we now accept any reassurance by the ALP or ACTU?
Long on talk short on details - McManus wants it all and expects someone else to pay.
That someone will be the average Joe who will pay more or lose hours and or a job. Business is more than CEO and ASX200 companies . When is McMnaus going to drill down into the COGS of the SME sector every time she makes promises of a brand new day
Gman, profits have been rising for decades. Time to pay the piper
Why should anyone accept assurances from employers to bargain in good faith? They have had decades to demonstrate this.
The talk by McManus rang very true for me. In a nutshell, the results of the past thirty years of neoliberalist economics has resulted in a disastrous situation for many workers. Even in a permanent full-time job, but not in on the property investment pyramid scheme, I find it increasingly difficult to manage financially. As it looks more and more likely that there will be a global recession, I hate to think how many people will be affected if it spreads here. Fortunately our Labor government with some excellent economic talents puts us in a much better place to manage such events, as was the case with the GFC.
* The quoted comments by Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry head Andrew McKellar and the Australian Industry Group chief executive seem to be about a different address to the one I saw. McManus was very positive and talked about helping businesses and working constructively as is the case in other successful economies that have low rates of industrial disputes. She even spoke about how the economy and society has changed so much to how it was when unions had greater representation, so saying the unions will take things back to the chaos of the past is very much at odds with what McManus actually said. It looks as though it might be the Industry heads that are still in the past.
McManus helping Business ......... like paying for all the new costs she thinks are fair ?
Businesses are apparently making record profits, I'm sure they can afford it.
According to who ?
Because McManus says it out loud doesn't make it true. She is happy to talk about CEO pay packets - how about the Cafe owner who does a 60 hour week - has it ALL at risk and employs 5 people who are about to cost more for no gain ?
Reality is not CEO its SME who is going to get bent over and they employ the engine room of the economy
My local coffee shop owner has increased his $6.5 cake to $9.50 while I was away on holidays. I think that he will be able to pay the extra costs quite easily. Other coffee shop owners should increase their prices and if they price themselves out of the market than they are just not viable. Simple, why should the workers keep taking a cut while the owner laughs all the way to the bank.
I bought a $2 bag of salad leaves at a supermarket yesterday, but it now costs $3. That's a 50% increase. Just like many other prices. But where's my wage rise?
At least now we know who is eating cake .... ie not the Cafe owner
What happened to the owner’s costs, which are an input to the price? If you or I can’t cope with a price rise, we need to act, but if a business can’t cope they were just not viable? I just think the world is more complex than that.
Did you watch the address gman? She sounded very positive about helping small business owners. If you didn't see it, catch it in iview. It's well worth listening to.
I don't actually care how positive her her outlook is if her ideas are wrong.
Take the NSW train dispute. There is a central substantive argument whether the new trains are safe. The union argues they are not - but they have a vested interest in preserving their members' jobs. The governments says they are, but they have a vested interest having bought them. McManus wants an industrial relations commission to resolve this. What expertise do they have in transportation safety?
I don't trust unions to support small businesses, because they have usually not been in small business. Even when they are genuine, they don't understand things.
Yep I watched it . Lots of rainbows very little detail.
Facts are someone has to pay for it all.
It will be prices or jobs. Simple as that
Get real! Unions don't understand things! Who do you think was working in the system?
For the most part I agree with Sally Mc, but sick pay for casuals is problematic. I realise that it was / is difficult in situations like Covid but rather than pay sick leave for casuals why not put them on a temp or perm contract?
I think she did qualify the point about sick leave pay for casuals by saying that making them permanents was still the preferred option. That's also been Labor's policy for a long time.
An employer is not automatically rich. Put a casual on a contract, you are basically requiring the employer to pay them, whether they have the the cash or not.
An employer who isn't paying his staff properly is still getting belted by the building owner.
Who would have thunk that the ideological gutting of the powers of Federal FairWork commission by the Federal LNP over the last 10 years would have put businesses and State LNP government's in an untenable situation.
I find it quite ironic and karmic that this gutting was supported by the Australian Chamber of Commerce, who are now buggered at the result and cannot respond, at all except to resort to whataboutism and scream pattern bargaining.
Well a Federal FairWork Commission with teeth could address pattern bargaining, but as the, system has been designed, it cannot. The ACC has not served the businesses it represents very well at all.
I don't see why we need a NSW Employee Relations Minister as well as a NSW Industrial Relations Commission, we just need to pick 1 solution, but give them the power to resolve disputes. I still blame the Unions though, we simply do not need train guards in the modern era.
The train network wasn't built in the modern era, and the trains that are in use are designed to operate with a guard and driver. To change the infrastructure and buy suitable trains would take a long time and cost billions. That's what makes the government's position in the dispute about the new trains spurious, and it's why the union isn't likely to back down.
What if the new trains in dispute are suitable.
I live in the Blue Mountains. The platforms here curve. The idea that a guard can look along the entire train is simply not true.
That's only one of the things the guards are required for, but cameras alone are limited in their usefulness. They are affected by glare and rain and don't have the peripheral vision of a human. Guards are also responsible for helping passengers especially those with a physical disability, and in emergencies. But there are also other problems with the new trains that a guard told me about that we never see mentioned in the media.
Vision to revamp Mary Street in time for Albert St train station. Tony Moore September 28, 2022. 17 comments
One of Brisbane’s major streets will be transformed to connect South Bank’s new Neville Bonner Bridge and the new Kangaroo Point green bridge near the Botanic Gardens to a subtropical commuter and tourism link.
Brisbane City Council has released its Mary Street Vision, planned to reshape Gardens Point as 67,000 commuters begin to use the city’s newest train station at Albert Street by 2024.
Brisbane City Council’s Mary Street Vision. The council plans to create a pedestrian corridor through the heart of the city. Credit:Brisbane City Council
During the 2032 Olympic Games it will be a major link for tourists between Howard Smith Wharves, the Brisbane CBD, Queen’s Wharf casino and resort and South Bank Parklands, deputy mayor Krista Adams said.
“Mary Street will also be used by tens of thousands of visitors during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2032, so it’s important that it leaves a positive impression.”
The plan includes wider footpaths, extra street trees and small eateries to accommodate the increasing number of rail commuters who will be in the area.
Adams said Mary Street Vision showed the huge potential to create a central green intersection axis with Albert Street, newly streetscaped as part of the Cross River Rail project.
Mary Street needs wider footpaths and a more relaxed tropical feel because 67,000 commuters are going to use the adjacent Albert Street train station from 2024.Credit:Brisbane City Council
“It is important that improved pedestrian and transport connections occur at the same time, so people can seamlessly and safely move around our city.
“Mary Street will be the route many people will take when they move between Waterfront Brisbane - along the Eagle Street Pier - and Queen’s Wharf,” she said.
“In between these incredible projects will be the CBD’s first new train station in generations.”
Mary Street Vision recognises the street as a future commuter connector in the central business district.
The council plans to create a pedestrian corridor in Mary Street through the heart of the city. Credit:Brisbane City Council
The Neville Bonner Bridge will cross from South Bank to the Queen’s Wharf casino complex, while the Kangaroo Point green bridge will run from Edward Street over to Kangaroo Point.
“Under our Mary Street Vision, we’re proposing to introduce wider footpaths, more trees and greenery, better spaces for outdoor dining, more seating areas and improved lighting as well as shelters to protect people from the rain,” Adams said.
“Mary Street will need to cater for a higher number of people moving about, with 67,000 people expected to use the Albert Street Cross River Rail Station each weekday by late 2024.”
The Mary Street Vision urban planning strategy keeps Mary Street as a two-way street, but Adams said the report recognised its “significant untapped potential”.
Different zones will reflect the usage of the street.Credit:Brisbane City Council
“It’s important we start to look to Mary Street’s long-term future now and that’s exactly what this vision does.”
The vision breaks Mary Street into four zones to reflect its usage as either a transit zone (Albert Street), or a river crossing link between Edward and Eagle streets.
More than a century ago the Albert and Mary street region of Brisbane - then known as Frog’s Hollow - was the thriving small business and trading centre of Chinese businesses.
On Monday, South Brisbane councillor Jonathan Sriranganathan called for changes for South Brisbane’s Melbourne Street and that is considered as an extension of the Mary Street Vision across the river.
According to Mary Street Vision, the new developments at Queen’s Wharf and the new Eagle Street precinct meant it was time for a more contemporary plan for the street, Adams said.
“They also provide an opportunity to develop a contemporary space along Mary Street that reflects the subtropical identity of the city centre.
Related Article Changes around the Queensland Cultural Centre for the new Brisbane Metro should be extended in the opposite direction down South Brisbane’s Melbourne Street. Brisbane ‘dead zone’ needs rethink on road to Olympics, says councillor
<www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/vision-to-revamp-mary-street-in-time-for-albert-st-train-station-20220927-p5bled.html>
<www.theage.com.au/national/queensland/vision-to-revamp-mary-street-in-time-for-albert-st-train-station-20220927-p5bled.html>
* Street that reflects the subtropical identity of the city centre.”
* More useful than planting shrubs to encourage tourists would be getting the interstate train service back to useful times. There is no reason for Brisbane - Sydney not matching Melbourne - Sydney: a day train and an overnight train, and the times at Brisbane Roma St should be civilised. The uniform gauge line into Brisbane was built with Commonwealth money for interstate traffic, but has been taken over for commuter trains at the expense of its purpose.
The concept is half pregnant. It is neither a leafy pedestrian mall nor a major thoroughfare. Get rid of the cars and make a statement.
Great idea so far. The lanes do seem Very wide at 3.5m for cars. Could basically fit in a bike lane somewhere. Especially as the cars don’t have parking anywhere it’s mostly through traffic which is exactly what BCC is trying to avoid.
... and the bikes are sharing with cars again. Adding a bike lane would also get scooters off the footpath!
Making bikes share with cars? A terrible idea put forward by a non-cyclist I'm guessing. Cars kill cyclists. Cyclists don't kill pedestrians.
Pedestrianisation of Mary Street is an excellent initiative - but where are the cycle lanes?
If the traffic volume and speed is low (20-30kmh), it should be fine. Many European cities work that way.
20/30kmph streets in the city would be fabulous, it would feel much safer. Ann and Turbot St are super dangerous as it is right now.
Cycle lanes are two streets over, down Elizabeth Street.
There are cycling lanes all over the damn city and you barely use them already! You cyclists are never happy. Why can't you just walk with your legs and fight the urge to spray paint spandex all over your body???
@liffloff, if only there were cycle lanes all over the damn city, it would be much safer for everyone to use them. I honestly don't know why anyone needs to drive a car into the city these days (deliveries excepted).
So, get on your bike and start using the bikeways 'all over the damn city' (=CBD). Nobody is stopping you, unless of course you have Spandex figure envy???
If one can ride at 20-30km/hr, why would they walk at 3-4km/hr?
Aaaand they stick the bikes in with cars. Again. Well done Brisbane, another missed opportunity to get bikes out of traffic.
Mary Street is currently a dead zone of students and public servants.
Yes it is, but if you haven't noticed, there's soon going to be a train station and a casino, which will change the area significantly.
A zone of dead students and public servants? Can't say I've seen the bodies, but I'll look harder next time.
Looks good. We should have this on more inner city streets.
For those who can't imagine where the cars will go, where did they go after we closed of Queen Street? The answer: people find new ways of getting around that don't involve cars.