Metropolitan Zone 3: Going, Going, G...

Map: Metlink

(with apologies to residents of Mornington, Stony Point, Frankston, Cranbourne and Dandenong)

Public transport as part of a city's culture

One of the measures of the degree to which public transport is enmeshed in a city's life is whether businesses use it in their advertising or naming.

An example is the Brand Smart ad that's currently in the Degraves Street subway (see below). The whole poster is based on a stylised version of the Melbourne rail system map, with the brands stocked labelled as stations.

As for names, is it a coincidence that the hairdresser opposite Edithvale Station is called Hairconnexions? Not to mention Transit bar in Federation Square.

And it's not just businesses either. Reflecting its historical development, Melbourne must have more 'Station' or 'Railway' Streets than almost any other city. The combined total is over two columns in the Melway, even beating 'Victoria' and 'Elizabeth', which are the other common street names in this city.

There are no doubt many more public transport-themed business names or advertisements around Melbourne. Feel free to add any in the comments below.

Self-indulgent site plug

Though Meltrip has never disseminated news of service changes (why re-invent the wheel when other sites do it better), its content is still shaped by recent events. For instance service disruptions.

During such events, official sites get over-burdened and may be unavailable at times. As spikes in visitor numbers show, people get searching and turn to Meltrip.

To cater for this traffic, I've included information on service disruptions. The first step was done a few months ago when it was realised that media outlets often reported problems before some transport sites. Hence they were well worth linking to. Ditto for the Bureau of Meteorology given the bearing extreme weather has on services.

In the last few days a new service disruption section has been added. This gives a few hints on managing around them and explains why they occur. It is a living document so will be expanded when the need arises. The new page can be read here.