Here's some thoughts on riding the Metro Tunnel, the new $14 billion train under Melbourne 🚇

I'm confident this project will change getting around Melbourne forever. Here's why

Thread (1/13) 🧵 I was fortunate enough to be invited to ride a Metro Tunnel test train, a huge thanks to @metrotunnelvic for the privilege

It certainly felt once in a lifetime to ride the train under test. It's made me very excited for when the tunnel does open up next year!

X'Trapolis 2.0 | MY IMPRESSION AND YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

25 of these new trains will be built in Victoria, and enter service from 2025/6. They're gonna be great - I'm so grateful I got to speak to the project team and ask every annoying question under the sun

Thread🧵(1/13) Firstly - I was invited along by DTP, they wanted to engage with rail enthusiasts, and I am on a list (allegedly)

The team expressed a willingness this train mockup may go on display in future, but not for extended public comment, they're wrapping that up now

So because that "Bulimba Barracks" development that Max Chandler-Mather hates so much is back in the news, I actually bothered to check it out and like: It is so so inoffensive

Mostly detached homes and townhouses with low-rise apartments. Good community space and street grid I had kind of assumed this was like offensive towers or something to get such a strong negative reaction, it's not, it's a few hundred homes that won't generate much traffic and will contribute to the community

It's not at risk of floods either, as the hydrology report shows

I have thought about this quite a lot in the context of Melbourne. A new tram current costs $18,000,000 a piece

At 2025-8 prices this would be at least $5.6 Billion spent on new trams to fully replace the high floors, and that doesn't even include the cost for low floor stops

https://twitter.com/danielbowen/status/1657859623674859520

In the context of Melbourne, this is a cost other cities simply don't face. $5.6 billion could buy over 5000 new electric buses and associated infrastructure, instead this city gets 313 new trams

It's a cost differential hard to comprehend and dare I say hard to justify

It was an unfortunately fairly miserable Saturday morning in Adelaide. However, that wasn't going to stop me getting pictures of the Gawler Line electrics under test 🚄📸

What I found was a lot of fast electric trains and updated stations (1/13) I travelled between Kilburn and North Adelaide, with a car for it was too wet for the bicycle. Islington station in particular has received some good sized shelters replacing the previous 'bus stops'

Only one railway line exists north out of Adelaide today, it goes to Crystal Brook.

But there used to be many more, built in the sprawling system of the SAR, let's go have a look and see how they've been preserved and what it teaches us.

A thread 🧵(1/25) To start with Kapunda and Freeling are both stations on the Morgan railway line, and both remained open long enough to pass onto what is now known as One Rail Australia, however to my knowledge has never been used since AN

NR 21 does the honours on a reasonably well patronised Overland to Melbourne this morning I will be live tweeting my journey where I can get coverage (my carrier is Vodafone so don’t expect much)

I have found the report that recommended the closure of Australian National's Passenger operations, prepared by a predecessor to BITRE

I had never heard of it, never heard it discussed, but the insights it offers are both intriguing and insane. A thread 🧵(1/21) First of all I found this by accident, searching through @SLSA's collections it showed up and a Google search revealed it on BITRE's website
It was prepared by the "Bureau of Transport and Communications Economics" (BTCE) and well looks like every other 1991 report

In years of passively searching I have finally come across the information for how the South Australian regional township buses were funded - in a 2005 wayback machine link. It has changed since, the State Government now funds the whole cost. web.archive.org/web/2006083021… This 2005 ABC article raises this, I believe the Mount Gambier Council just gave up on funding the bus services so the state gov went fineeee and picked up the tab
abc.net.au/news/2005-04-2…