It’s easy to complain about what’s wrong with Melbourne public transport, so how would you improve the current system?
Perhaps you’ve got ideas for new lines, staffing, operating hours, changes to ticketing – maybe you’ve got some good reasons why the entire system should be free!
Here’s your chance to let State Government know how you’d do a better job.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Just re-brand the trains, it’s the ugly paintwork that’s slowing the system down.
1) sack the minister. 2) make a single authority responsible for coordinating everything. See http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/transports-big-problem-no-ones-in-charge-20090906-fcq1.html
Running transport 24 hours would bring us into line with the rest of the world and move us at least into the 80s!
We have the worlds best casino (debatable) but the worlds best sports and entertainment areas. To think that everyone goes home like the people of the 60′s is wrong. Taxis are not to standard, horribly unreliable; Trains and trams go to where most of us live. Run them 24/7 and violence in town will dramatically stop. It is the least expensive fix to hammering publicans whose fault it is that people get drunk and paying for coppers to work extra each and every week to stop the violence.
Trams and trains in the 70s and 80s. We never fell off, they ran rain hail or shine and we all paid fares. WHAT HAPPENED?
Toykyo style. Push em inside and get em moving.
>Here’s your chance to let State Government know how you’d do a better job.
Really? The State Government will read these comments?
In that case – agree with previous comments on putting on extra train services after midnight, 7 days a week! We have the infrastructure, so what’s wrong?
Another suggestion is to create a ‘ring’ train line similar to other countries, which connect radiating train lines, laterally! Eg., so to go from Footscray to Brunswick for example, wouldn’t require one to go all the way into the city to change trains!!
They’ll read it in a roundabout way – a mate of mine works for the Dept of Transport ;)
With 100% (no exaggeration) of my trains home on the Upfield line having been late this month…
1. Level crossings: they MUST go. It’s only a matter of time. Increased train frequencies will only induce great road congestion (and emissions). We will look back in decades to come and wonder what the hell were we thinking, enabling trains and road traffic to constantly affect the safety & efficiency of one another? If our gov can pour hundreds of millions of $ into AAMI Stadium, Visy Park, the Icehouse and Melb Tennis Centre, it can do this – and it will benefit vastly more people.
2. Rail junction bottlenecks: the greatest infrastructure limitation. Does every train need to go through the loop? Is it not possible to exit the city direct from Flinders St out to your destination? Does our entire system need to revolve around going in and out of the CBD? Increasingly, no. Bring back an inner and outer circle, as per the ring road.
3. More trains? How about halving their lengths and doubling their frequency? I’d rather 3 carriage trains running every 10mins. And yes – 24/7 (given points addressed, above).
4. If extra services can be made to happen for major sporting events, how about similar consideration for major arts events/concerts? Do it.
5. For crying out loud, it’s 2011… train running only every half an hour in the evening on some lines (eg Upfield) is ridiculous. Fix it.
6. Should you really pay for a service you’re not getting, under common law? Would this not trump the Transport Act? If you order a sandwich but instead are given a sausage roll, what would you do?
So, if you pay for the 7.01 train/tram/bus but receive something else…? Stop putting up with it, commuters! Complain whenever you’re getting something other than what you paid for! Ph the feedback line: 131 638.
Make public transport free. It’s never going to make a profit, so instead of paying a fortune for ticket machines and administrators for the money and inspectors, have it free, and just put the money into it. The Govt will end up saving as much anyway when increased PT use leads to less congestion and wear on road. Put more trains on, (investigate how to make double-decker carriages).
1. Make sure trains don’t get delayed all the freakin’ time.
2. More frequent trains! 25-30 minute waits to catch the next one is quite ridiculous.
3. Cost of travelling can also prove to be quite expensive, especially for full fare patrons.
Concession for full time postgraduate students!
I think adam is right.
Frequency and late night reliable services. Simple.
Trail crossings, rolling stock, union issues- all these will need to be fixed to fix the main issue.
More frequent buses, a Rowville-Clayton line to link to Monash Uni
The Outer circle line idea is a great idea
Ensuring Transport Hubs are created around centres like Chadstone, Box Hill, etc with frequent services
In addition some non PT related things that would encourage and improve PT.
- Ensure car parking is charged on all public property at commercial rates (ie. not discounted by rate payers)
- Ensure Kms driven per Kilo is charged for all cars (ie. Roads charged based on Usage) Could be a smart phone app
ummm we need more buses, more frequently, more on time.
Have a ring line around Melbourne suburbs from south to west so you don’t have to go to Richmond, or flinders st all the time to anywhere else!
This has been mentioned before, but remove all level crossings. As part of this you could have more railways underground to try and avoid more possibilities on intruders on the railway tracks. Too many disruptions on train services occur because of interference on the the tracks.
Train line from Huntingdale (through Monash University) through to Rowville and then also linking up to the Belgrave line. Although the 601 shuttle service fixes some of the problem of better connecting Monash University to public transport, there is still a greater need for connection to the rail network for those out in Rowville/Knoxfield area. Linking to the Belgrave line would further improve public transport to Monash University.
I would highly recommend the inner/outer train loops which have already been mentioned. It is ridiculous that, almost always (and certainly in my case), the fastest way for people to get around greater Melbourne is to go right into the city and out again.
Get the 703 Smartbus up to scratch – as a Smartbus it is supposed to be a premium service with more reliable services. This route abysmally fails in comparison of other Smartbus routes that I have used.
Finally, more Smartbuses should be implemented. Despite being a bit harsh on the 703 route, I still believe that the Smartbus concept is a good idea. More services, higher road priority, and I particularly like the real-time information at the larger bus stops (at least if my bus is late I know by roughly how much!).
It’s simple:
(Warning, long post)
TIMETABLING AND TICKETING
- Upgrade bus frequencies, especially during non-peak times. Re-do the bus timetables so that buses leave 4-8 minutes after trains at most stations.
- Run trains 23/7 and increase frequencies during off-peak and weekends. This would be great to get rid of all the drunken louts who inhabit our CBD every Friday and Saturday night. Taxi drivers don’t want to go near them, so this is the next best way of moving them out of there.
- Don’t pulp the Short-Term Myki cards and actually phase out Metcard ASAP. It’s actually a drag on our public transport system due to the original Metcard contract (fixed number of machines).
RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE
- Remove level crossings on the Dandenong rail corridor especially, and get VicRoads to pay for 50%+ of it. Why? Because level crossings don’t actually increase train frequencies (they already have priority), but they vastly improve road (and train) safety.
- Replace the points at Clifton Hill where the Epping and Hurstbridge Lines meet with a flyover. Do the same for every other line that has this too, rebuilding stations where they have too. This would vastly improve train driver safety and allow for increases in train frequencies.
- Triplicate the Belgrave/Lilydale line from Box Hill to Blackburn to simplify train movements. There is space allocated for this already so it shouldn’t be hard.
- Replace all wooden sleepers with concrete ones and new ballast where needed. This is a really basic upgrade that isn’t very glamorous, but it allows trains to go faster and gives passengers a smoother ride.
- Purchase more trains, preferably more of the newer X’Trapolis units. This is an absolute no-brainer.
ORGANISATIONAL IMPROVEMENTS
- Consolidate all of our damned government public transport organisations.
- Bring back an independent public infrastructure planning commission. I’m sick and tired of Government’s past and present using vital upgrades for pork barrelling.
- Go in and smack Metro/MTM (and the unions to a lesser extent) around until they stop their squabbling.
PIE-IN-THE-SKY IDEAS
- Actually build the Eddington Report’s Metro-1 tunnel (the ‘Eddingtunnel’) and simultaneously quadruplicate the Dandenong/Frankston rail corridor.
- Abandon the current Rowville rail proposal and instead build a partially-underground extension of the Alamein line out to Monash University via Chadstone Shopping Centre and East Malvern Station (on the Glen Waverley Line). Run high-frequency shuttle buses from Stud Park to this station.
- Start planning to build a High-Speed Rail link from Melbourne Airport to North Melbourne or Southern Cross Station. This will have to be underground, so start planning now.
That’s all for the moment. There’s plenty more ideas out there I’m sure.
Big, brave, long term vision
Get rid of the Altona loop shuttle train and run services from Laverton to the city. Travel times have increased 50% since the new timetable. This is supposed to be progress? I don’t think so.
Introduce better bus contracts that give incentives to improve atronage, or even to overhaul the entire bus system and get operators innovating on routes and services which have lots of passengers.
Build an extensive monorail network system which bypasses the traffic.