tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18909424.post8852100583540853499..comments2024-03-24T23:01:11.766+11:00Comments on Melbourne on Transit: Peter Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13413976934040474125noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18909424.post-12729696016839533592009-07-05T17:17:21.327+10:002009-07-05T17:17:21.327+10:00Ricc, I'm not sure why the solid 'blue col...Ricc, I'm not sure why the solid 'blue collar' Labor areas seem to have less Sunday trading (not just buses) than either the hip Green-leaning inner areas or the blue ribbon Liberal seats. <br /><br />In relation to the more marginal seats, my guess is the bayside areas probably have more Sunday trading than those inland.<br /><br />Whatever the cause, until just 3 years ago we had the perverse situation where Sunday trains served dead strip shopping centres three times an hour, while buses (which ran to packed car-based shopping malls) rarely ran. <br /> <br />I had this discussion with someone else - he was asking about the reasons for some forgotton bus route quirk. <br /><br />I replied that his question contained the presumption that there was a rational reason for bus routes running as they did. <br /><br />When one looks at such anachronisms as Route 479 departing the city for Sunbury on Saturdays and Sundays, the operations of some routes owe more to history and inertia than planning or logic. <br /><br />Subsidy has meant that such anachronisms have continued, only (hopefully) to be challenged by the current bus reviews. <br /><br />In relation to route numbers - now that frequent service corridors have been identified (OK, not all, but in most cases like 527 and 903 these routes make it into the top 50) it would seem the next step is to (i) document the areas of frquent service and then (ii) put them on a 'frequent service' schematic map (along with trains and trams).Peter Parkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13413976934040474125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18909424.post-74540838842691990432009-07-05T16:29:02.489+10:002009-07-05T16:29:02.489+10:00Peter, so you haven't explained why the North ...Peter, so you haven't explained why the North has less Sunday services. Is it the Mediterranean Basin effect? Are all the good little Catholics and Orthodox adherents busy adhering - then going home for their Nonnas to cook up a big feast and therefore not out and about doing the promenade?<br /><br />I'm not sure where you're research is leading...if you wanted evidence that off peak bus services were poor I think we had that already in abundance. Can you use this info to input into future bus route planning? <br /><br />As I said in my previous post, time has come to get rid of bus route numbers - they become an artefact when what is needed is service. <br /><br />I don't care which of 10 trams will take me from Flinders St to Domain interchange - not like they can overtake is it?? I'll catch the next one. The info doesn't even become useful until the junction - before that it is just a tram. And I don't know why the destinatons have everything useful except which of the St K Rd junctions the tram turns at.<br /><br />And same with buses - I could stand at Box Hill and bewildered with 273 and 301 and all these numbers coming at me and they mean nothing to me.<br /><br />And it's no good saying they are for the regulars - the regulars can survive with a lot less information than is provided but newcomers can't manage with what is provided.<br /><br />Does your research aim to address this situation?Vic Rail (Riccardo)https://www.blogger.com/profile/09359087365912480529noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18909424.post-25349648379196968742009-06-28T13:50:40.770+10:002009-06-28T13:50:40.770+10:00I'm going off route numbers - I think they enc...I'm going off route numbers - I think they encourage limited thinking.<br /><br />I'd go for the branded pulse connection eg Vermont to Knox, Lilydale to Healesville etc, or putting in a sophisticate electronic journey planning system<br /><br />In terms of legibility - you've got the rail network - fine. It gets worse from there.<br /><br />They really shouldn't have built the tram tracks the way they have in so many cases - Lygon St north having trams but Lygon St south (the retail bit) not. And with buses, just keep them to the grid pattern on major roads, and name the route after the road.<br /><br />If I'm standing in Dandenong and want to get to Chadstone and I know there is a simple bus shuttling back and forth from Oakeligh or Hughesdeale without fail, every time a train arrives, through ticketed and clearly labelled - it works for me. Anything else turns PT into a marginal proposition for losers.Vic Rail (Riccardo)https://www.blogger.com/profile/09359087365912480529noreply@blogger.com