Comments on: A history of nine car long V/Line trains

By: Liam

Liam — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 10:27:57 +0000

In reply to indigohex3. We don't have that issue with road projects, which appear to follow a plan from 1969. That particular long term vision has been driving this city into a slow motion train wreck (or possibly an infinite traffic snake) ever since.

By: Liam

Liam — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 10:21:57 +0000

I don’t quite understand running 9 car trains infrequently vs, providing a slightly more frequent service which fits the platforms. It appears in budgeting between infrastructure expenses and quality of service the state government has it backwards.

A few more staff to run more trains, would provide more ammenity to passengers for the same quantity of rolling stock.

By: Marcus Wong

Marcus Wong — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 00:56:37 +0000

In reply to indigohex3.

As for CityLink the leaks in the tunnel were a construction fault:

https://www.theage.com.au/national/plagued-by-leaks-from-the-start-20050514-ge05v2.html

And the push to open the tunnel early is because it was a privately owned road, and Transurban wanted to start charging tolls on it as soon as they could.

By: Marcus Wong

Marcus Wong — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 00:49:06 +0000

In reply to indigohex3.

I’m still surprised Regional Rail Link got built:

https://wongm.com/2014/01/regional-rail-link-precursor-plans/

Construction started in 2009, then Labor lost of the liberals in the 2010 State Election, with construction finished in 2014 for a 2015 opening.

By: Marcus Wong

Marcus Wong — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 00:44:41 +0000

In reply to Damian Zito. The creation of a "Public Transport Development Authority" in 2012 was also supposed to do that, and look at where we are.

By: Marcus Wong

Marcus Wong — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 00:43:00 +0000

In reply to Markie Linhart. Thanks for the kind words.

By: indigohex3

indigohex3 — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 02:03:48 +0000

And unfortunately Markie, we in Australia has this short-termism, in which if anything is set to go beyond four years (which is a term for the State Government here in Victoria), then it is a waste of taxpayers’ money. I believe, and this will not be politically popular, is we need more long-term thinking here in Victoria, and work on projects that may take more than one term to finish rather than trying to finish it within four years for political reasons. Several projects like Airport Rail and Suburban Rail Loop will take more than one term, but are necessary to take cars off the road, but unfortunately these projects will suffer because of this short-termism that exists within governments now. We need to start thinking long-term (i.e. more than one term of government) than trying to get everything done in one term for political reasons.

I think these examples that Marcus has given are good examples of trying to rush things to finish in four-years instead of having it take longer than a term but done right. I would be happy for delays as long as these delays means that it is done right rather than finished on time but is defective (the CityLink tunnels anyone, which was finished on time for political reasons, but was leaking water when it opened, meaning closures to fix the leakage in the tunnels)

By: Damian Zito

Damian Zito — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 00:42:03 +0000

I thought getting rid of the old Vicroads and the creation of the new department of transport and planning would end all these issues

By: Markie Linhart

Markie Linhart — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 23:11:02 +0000

Another brilliant post Marcus. As an irregular user of the Ballarat line (to Ballan) and as a once was Londoner who is a great believer in public transport, I can see where you’re coming from. What an absolute shambles. Seems like whoever admins all this at head office hasn’t a clue or any foresight