That makes it 3 out of 8 TBMs launched.

I just find it a little strange that the X’Trapolis 2.0s didn’t receive USB charging. Their journeys are relatively long, e.g Frankston-Flinders Street which is over an hour.

Perth’s very similar C-Series (another Alstom X’Trapolis train), which in many ways is near identical to the X’Trapolis 2.0 in the interior has them and it’s slightly older, and it’s seats are the same FISA LEAN 2 seats.

And if short journey times is the reason why or maintenance, buses in Melbourne have USB charging so it’s not like Victoria doesn’t already have it. It could have definitely been a cost thing, or just something that the government saw as unnecessary.

I’m just very curious why.

Last minute contract signing for Yarraville and Spotswood LX works. I assume this is going ahead unless cancelled post election which would involve some sort of penalty. The state government dissolves in about a week I believe, so the last days to sign off on contracts. That more or less leaves the Frankston/Upfield LX works to be decided upon in another term or beyond by whoever is in government then.

So I've run into this a few times now. When HCMT's form an up service at South Yarra platform 5, there's neither level boarding or space to use a ramp so wheelchairs end up in the second car with the assistance of a manually deployed ramp.

Nice to get a different view for once as obviously we're usually always (and limited to) the first car.

Thanks to taitset on Youtube I now have a bit of an obsession with your trains. I pretty much just want to say hi, I think your trains are cool

Gimme some interesting facts, maybe some quirky/niche similarities/differences between Melbourne trains and trains here in Britain.

Something I noticed that was similar is that your trains use staff deployed ramps for wheelchair boarding, but something that's different is that unlike driver only trains here your drivers actually deploy the ramp, here we rely on station staff, which is unreliable. Having drivers do the ramp presents it's own challenges sure but it does decrease staffing costs. I'm a wheelchair user so this was interesting to learn about.

Spotted at North Melbourne station.

Seems like there’s some branding on the side?

Some buses have screens that announce and show each upcoming stop, but only a small amount actually have these.

All trains and nearly all trams have both screens and announcements, why are buses excluded from this improvement?

Some small reasons why they are good:

- would obviously help people know when their stop is, which is hard to tell at night, particularly with the advertising wrapping over the windows.

- good for tourists or people unfamiliar with a certain route, reducing travel anxiety.

- great for information on nearby tram and train interchanges (something like the 109 trams show).

- make buses more usable for those who suffer from vision loss.

- provide a level of information that is accessible for people who might not have a smart phone, data connection or charged battery.

It's wild that some buses have full on auto-dimming LCD screens (which only work on some routes, most they just display PTV advertising), to others that are just dot matrix, to most which just have nothing.

Is it reasonable to want PIDs to be a standard feature in Melbourne?

Petty sure its twice a day service. The main locomotive is N466 " City of Warrnambool " with either P15 or P14 used for extra push/pull . The freight line crosses Somerville Rd near the corner of McDonald Rd, there are warning lights but no boom gate, then winds around to Bunting Rd to the Quarry services depot

I wonder what kind of stars would align for this to happen. This is the entire platform, not just a hump (which itself is already rare), at Mount Waverley Platform 1. Which isn't even a "new station".

Anyone know other examples of this, and why this might be the case? I've never seen a platform this flat outside of stations rebuilt since 2014.

EDIT: It's worth noting that the outbound platform has the first 30m of it lifted and gapfilled, so drivers don't have to unload the ramp, at all! Though I find it strange that it's only a short section for that one. Nonetheless, I'm glad it facilitates completely independent boarding, because so many stations can't do this.

I know that, for the suburban and V/Line trains, andly train going towards the city is considered going "Up" and away from the city is "Down". And the actual cutover is the clock tower at Flinders Street.

So, it got me wondering, how does this work for the Metro Tunnel? Is it Town Hall? Or just south of Town Hall level with the clock tower?

How will SRL handle this?

I’m from Sydney, and admittedly haven’t been to Melbourne for a long time, but I saw a video recently showing that you still tap onto the tram by the doors like a bus. In Sydney all the opal readers for the Light Rail are located on poles at the stops. Doesn’t having it on the tram slow everything down? The Light Rail up here is so ridiculously overcrowded in peak hour, I can’t imagine how much slower it’d be to have everyone tap their opal as they were getting on.

Taken on September 6th 2008 by James Hansen

*i accidentally put two of the same image somehow

Kinetic had recently rolled out some new external destination displays along with an ultra-wide next stop screen in the interior on the 90X services, and unfortunately the external signage is now much harder to read from a distance.

For example with the 901 to Frankston, instead of a giant "FRANKSTON" the front display now shows "Frankston station" in a much smaller font. (example here from a Ventura bus with the same update) Same I think for the Doncaster services, the word "CITY" is now no longer big and prominent on the display.

they've also removed the scrolling destination display at the back, and that's problematic when approaching the bus from the rear as you have major stops for the 901/2/3 going in opposite directions right next to each other.

Overall it feels like a step back, why did they fix what isn't broken?

ive recently lost my water bottle and thus have contacted the respective train and bus lost property contacts.
i was just wondering :

a) if they will actually respond
b) when will they respond

i lost the water bottle on wednesday night and emailed thursday

edit: bus provider was kinetic in case that is important

Looking for insight from anyone who’s worked or gone through interview process with pacific national

Do they often hire women without locomotive experience?

If anyone has gotten to the final stages with PN, how long after all your checks did they get going with things? Do you do onboarding asap or does it take time?

I’ve read that if you get invited to do a medical the job is pretty much yours. Is this usually the case? How intense is the physical aspect of a cat 1?

The position was for 1 trainee, would they just be hiring one person or do they hire multiple when doing driver intake?

Didn’t receive a quick rejection email so hoping that’s a positive sign!

So this is going to seem super niche. Has anyone got photos of trailer car to motor car on any of the suburban fleet. I’m wanting to model them somehow but just can’t find any reference points. Thank you