I also like wilful’s suggestions. We used to live backing onto the Banyule Flats which I assume is where the link between the ring rd and the eastern would go. If the government is set on building tunnels I hope they would tunnel under the green wedges in the northeast instead of laying roads over the top of them.

In other parts of the world, they could fit 50 – 100% more trains around the loop safely. This is one of the easy gets of a better transport system, one of the several black marks against DoI’s bureaucrats.

I am also somewhat wary/sceptical of Paul Mees actual expertise, however he is out there promoting something good so I wont knock him too hard, but I do wonder at his credibility sometimes.

Also, North Melbourne Station is for some reason (don’t know why) a bottle neck, and the current renos to the station are apparently going to alleviate this a bit.

One urban planning/liveability issue I would like to see, that probably wouldn’t really help PT, would be to totally underground Richmond Station and the train lines between there and Flinders St. Create new open space the whole way down. The Richmond overpass of Hoddle Street is one of the biggest eyesores in Melbourne. If it was mostly roofing and included commercial precincts it wouldn’t be too expensive.

But then again I’m not sure the current operators are either…

My only anecdotal comment is that it’s not uncommon for trains to be delayed around Flinders Street to wait for platforms to be emptied.

Huh. Connex only cares about its damn shareholders, for them to complain about the attitude of the State government is pretty damn rich, even though I agree with them, but Connex is no better. It should never have been allowed to take over the running of public transport in Melbourne.

Seems to me one problem with Alex Parade is the single block b/w Canning and Lygon St where after 10am you’re allowed to park your car – thus one car sitting in that lane can hold up all the traffic trying to squeeze into the two lanes next to it. I should know, I lived right behind the Dan O’Connell for the past year. A tunnel would only be good if, as previous commenters suggested, it acted like a bypass of the whole inner north. Can’t see that happening. Meanwhile, the number of cyclists crossing alex. parade at canning st continues to increase. It’s a beautiful sight to sit in the little park across from the Dan and watch them all ride by. Might need an overpass there eventually

Can you tell me whether the supposed overcrowding of the loop is actually real or not. The government keeps saying they can’t run more trains because the loop can’t take them (at least at peak hour), so they have to build this tunnel which will cost a motza (although not as much as the road tunnel). However, the PTUA point out that they ran more trains in the 1940s and 50s, and the loop should increase capacity as the trains don’t have to turn around.

So how is it that we can now run fewer trains than 50 years ago?

It seems a pretty key question, since if there were more trains on the current lines the congestion would drop a lot. If they added extra lines to Doncaster and Rowville it would drop a whole lot more.

Fine @ 35 – it was actually Yarra Trams that was building the tram stop – Connex are only involved because the tunnel in question leads to the Flinders Street train station.

Sam @ 37 – Connex actually get more bad press than they deserve (but don’t get me wrong, they deserve a lot of bad press). Their job is merely to run the trains and stations – it’s still the Government that owns the trains and tracks. The bike ban was actually a government decision. They are happy with Connex getting blamed for everything, and Connex are happy because the way the contracts work they merely have to provide a minimal ’service’ and get a massive funding adustment in their favour most years.

I happen to know where I could find a lazy $1 billion to fix public transport.

Sam Clifford, Connex are pretty bad, but they haven’t actually axed any lines.

The funniest/saddest recent tale I’ve heard recently is that of Connex attempting to build a new tram stop in Flinders St over Easter. It resulted in them somehow drilling through to the subway underneath Flinders St. causing great lumps of rock and flooding making the subway currently unusable. A large insurance pay-out awaits the shopkeeers in the subway.

Melbourne seems to have it better though I’ve heard horror stories of Connex’s management of Melbourne’s trains. Lines getting axed, etc.

More bus routes, with buses that run more frequently for the outer suburbs would help. It’s pointless having services that are barely there and don’t run on weekends and evenings. Link them properly to major train stations, as well as extending a couple of key train lines, would also be very useful.

What is important, is that any airport rail form part of an integrated transport plan so it connects up to adjacent services, and (more than any other aspect) is usable for the tens of thousands of workers who travel from nearby suburbs to that area each day. In that respect, it should be no different to any other railway line in this city, under the control of the public transport authority and whatever private operator (if any) has the contract.

wilful, on what they have been doing, who knows? The DoI has released two transport plans in the past four years, the first of which was more or less, a road congestion reduction plan, and the second a grab bag of nice sounding platitudes, a (very) small handful of public transport projects, and the promise of more studies into cross-town connections. They’d actually already done those, but they didn’t come back with building a tunnel so they’ve tried again (that’s what the East-West Link Needs Assessment is). With the exception of VicRoads, who are very efficiently doing what they were told to do in 1968, the last time there was a coherent plan, no-one anywhere in government seems to know what sort of transport system they want, nor does anyone seem to know how to achieve what they don’t know they want. Though Treasury knows they don’t want to pay for anything, and therefore treat seriously any proposal that matches that criteria, regardless of its strategic merits. Not that Melbourne is substantially worse than any other city of comparable size mind you. Others just have different financing arrangements.

Can you actually believe it, Southern Cross Station has designed in the extra capacity at the far south end for an airport link. How incredibly farsighted for this government. And due to the noise paths, the land is already basically reserved. They could snap their fingers and get that one done.

The copenhagen style bike lane down swanston street is nice.

I love those bike paths that are great, and then they just end, typically before some horror intersection. Dynon road is a great one like that, lovely bike path, then they got to the Spencer street rail bridge and thought, “bugger that, that’s too hard, we’ll stop now”.

The trouble is I don’t think bikes are the answer, not for Melbourne, not for Melburnians. The culture change needed is unrealistic, and it’s too spread out now to change it.