Eurovison 2009

Yes it is Eurovison time again. The final is taking place on the 16th of May in Moscow as Russia won last year. The semi finals are on SBS on Friday the 15th and Saturday 16th, and the final will be broadcast on Sunday the 19th. I don't think I have ever really watched the whole thing, only flicked it on and off during the ads of another show. I probably won't watch the whole thing this year either. Better get to the reason for this post though.

Last night I was watching a video on YouTube (if you are really interested it was a video demonstrating games on the new mac mini part 3 of 3, also parts 1 and 2) that had a really catchy song over the credits. After googling the lyrics I found out that it is actually Germany's entry into this years Eurovision song contest. The song is Miss Kiss Kiss Bang by Alex swings Oscar sings. Alex is a German DJ and was a member of the 90's techno group U96, while Oscar is a "mexican broadway musical theatre performer" (quote from wikipedia entry) who lives in Munich. The song itself is like a cross between something out of the blues brothers and a Latino pop star (ie ricky martin/enrique iglasias etc). the song is mega catchy as a Eurovision song should be, usually they are bloody awful. Not that I've heard any of the other entries, but usually they are pretty awful.

In the video Oscar is the singer, while Alex is the guy in the sunglasses or behind the piano. I can't get it out of my head now and so I hope to pass it on to others.

MYKI, Trams, Fares and Ticketing etc

1. MYKI

So it appears that MYKIi is full steam ahead, with the system rolling out across buses in regional cities. One revelation that had not occurred to me, but was revealed over at Melbourne on Melbourne on Transit (and here), is that short term disposable tickets will be smartcards. There is no printing on the ticket issued by the bus driver to tell you what it is or how long it will be valid, it just comes of a pile of identical blank tickets (much like they do today with metcards on buses). I had imagined that the system would be similar to Perth and S.E. Queensland where short term tickets(ranging from 2 hour / single trip and dailys etc) are printed on thermal paper by the ticket machine or bus driver. The reason I thought this was that I noticed that the ticket machines at Perth rail stations are the same as those seen in the MYKI discovery centre at Southern Cross.

Examples of short term cash tickets.
From L to R, Brisbane from vending machine,
Perth from Bus driver and Perth from vending machine.

Thinking about it though retail tickets will probably be pre encoded, and therefore will probably have some sort of text denoting what they are. Vending machine tickets could also have printing applied as they are issued. This leaves just the fact that there is no way to tell how long the ticket is valid without pringing, although tram issues probably could as they would be tagged on as they are issued from the machine. This leaves only the bus issues with no physical indication at all. Doesn't seem very consistent or user friendly to me.

2. Tram Fares and Ticketing

On Sunday I took a tram ride along Bourke St, having driven to the city (I know I'm evil but I had a car and I had to go somewhere else on the way) I didn't have a ticket and so attempted to buy a city saver. As it turned out the machine was just spitting out all coins fed in, so I got a free ride. As I was pondering the fare structure on the sticker above the machine it occurred to me that having trams in both zone 1 and 2 is too complicated when considering that by and large the tram network is in zone 1. I'm not saying that the 3 tram lines (or is it 4?) that extend into zone 2 territory should should be curtailed at the zone boundary, but that tram ticketing would be greatly simplified it if they were treated as a zone 1 service no matter where they are.

I think I just like the simplified idea of having a single fare system for trams. Either buy a daily or a 2 hour, adult or concession, no need to worry about zones. I don't think it would or could happen with the current zone system as it would be unfair on people connecting too/from a bus or train in zone 2 .

3. Sunday Saver

On a related issue, I still can't believe they couldn't find a work around for dispensing Sunday savers from ticket machines. Actually IIRC it was never intended if a certain poster to some of the public transport forums is to be believed . On the tram I noticed some people using Sunday Savers and I couldn't help but feel that those buying tickets on the tram (this was on my return along Bourke St on tram that had a working ticket machine) were getting ripped off. The seniors daily button is useless on a Sunday as all seniors can apply and use a free Sunday ticket. Why not program the tram ticket machines to dispense a sunday saver when that button is pressed on a sunday?

I am a twit

I have finally started adding the posts from my trip to Queensland, only 4 weeks late... So far I've added days 2-4 out of 8. All the posts are backdated to the day the actual day.

I have also added a couple of gadgets to the sidebar. The first one is a Geocaching summary, which has links to my Geocaching profile and my number of hides and finds. I've been Geocaching on and off for 7 years and have only ever found 74 caches in that time. Others who started at about the same time as I did have become addicted and logged thousands of cache finds. I feel like a bit of a failure as a Geocacher, but I still enjoy the occasional cache hunt.

For some reason I was bored at work today and signed up to Twitter. So far I haven't bothered looking for anyone to follow other than D0ctor Karl. I actually wouldn't have a clue if any of my friends are on twitter or not. I have until now avoided facebook, and although not the same I am attracted the anonymity and lack of complication of Twitter. I remember when I first heard of twitter I was going to sign up, but for some reason didn't. That was about 3 years ago or something, and now it seems the thing to do, so I did. Whether I have anything valuable to tweet remains to be seen. I have added a Twitter gadget to the sidebar.

Quaking

Well, earth tremor really. I actually felt this one, the last one I didn't even notice. I was sitting at my desk when I started bouncing up and down. This went on for a few seconds before it subsided. My immediate thought was that it was the train that happened to be going past at the time (trains pass my workplace just above window level of the floor we are on), but it was more than the normal train rattle that I sometimes notice. When I looked up everyone else was looking up too. Everyone was pretty sure it was an earthquake. It was pretty cool though.

Latter when I managed to get through to the Geoscience Australia website, I took the screen grab at the top of this post. It seems it was centred on a similar location and was the same magnitude, 4.6, as the last tremor 2 weeks ago. Is a gaping hole about to open up? Are we about to have "the big one"?

Winter

All photos taken at Mornington in July 2008.

As much as summer is a great season, there is something to be said for winter. I like winter as much if not more than summer.

Notepad Issues

I've slowly been typing up posts from my trip before I forget them. I've just been using notepad, but something really annoying has started to happen tonight. I've just done the last 3 only I lost the last one, when I went to save it, pressing ctrl s Notepad disappeared without a trace. This also happened to the second last one but I re-wrote it, actually it happened to that one twice. I've now given up for the night and the last one can wait for another day.

With any luck I should get some photos sorted and the first one or two posted this weekend. For me this blogging is a slow business. I routinely take over an hour to put together a single post. These trip report ones take me much longer for some reason.

Not lost and other situations.

Well I made it home the same day as my last post. I was surprised at the relative comfort of the Jetstar flight. At around 2 hours I had no discomfort, apart from the battle for the arm rest with the person next to me. They were sitting in my window seat when I boarded and I made them move, so I guess they were getting me back. No safety issues either. I Wouldn't hesitate to fly with Jetstar again in the future.

On Friday night Mum's TV blew up. Not really, but it stopped working and started making funny noises. Saturday was spent searching electrical shops for a good deal. Prices have gone up since before Christmas that's for sure. Stores kept trying to sell us a Samsung, ended up picking a Panasonic, that seemed like a good deal at Dick Smith. We went back on Sunday morning and walked out with a Sony Bravia for the same price (missed the really cheap Sony Bravia 37" run out model at K Mart by a few days. It's a 32" model and utterly briliant. Just fits the existing TV stand perfectly. Makes my 26" widescreen CRT look really bad.

At work we are getting new computers, the whole company is getting laptops for some reason. I will never take my work computer home so I can't see the point, but I guess it's all about consistency. At the same time the company is taking the leap to Vista, but not my department because much of the software we use is incompatible. So we are sticking with XP. I was going to get mine today, but the IT department loaded Vista by mistake. For some reason there is also a bug with the XP installation that they are going to try and iron out on my machine. I Should have it on my desk by Friday.

QLD - Day 8 - Gold Coast to Home

Well I have been a bad blogger. I'm just wasting time in my appartment before checking out and heading to the airport this afternoon. I've been in Broadbeach on the Gold Coast since Tuesday in a nearly brand new apartment on the 18th floor. Although I am a block back from the beach, I still have a fantastic view. I have the door to the balcony open, and it would be quite nice if it weren't for all the noise from nearby construction sites (can't beat double time on a Saturday morning I guess), oh well.

I will try and write about everything that has happened between last Saturday and today in the next week or so.

Why is it that you are just getting into holiday mode when you need to go home again?

QLD Day 5 - Broadbeach

This was going to by my rest day. After a fantastic sleep in my king size bed, I went down to the shops to get some of the things I had forgotten to get the night before. After returning to the apartment I made breakfast and sat down to watch TV. I had the door open with the stiff sea breeze rushing in and the faint sound of the waves crashing on the beach, all this amid a cacophony of sounds from nearby construction sites. It actaully wasn't that bad, and I stayed there until late morning when I wandered down to the beach to get my feet wet. It was too rough for swimming, and even appeared too rough for the surfers who were no where to be seen, only walls of white water.

Earlier this summer I decided that I needed a new pair of board shorts, and so I conveniently had forgotten to bring my old ones. I found myself in a surf shop and outfitted with new board shorts and a rash vest. For lunch I ended up in the Coffee Club, a chain of coffee shops that make meals as well. They are slowly popping up in Victoria these days. After lunch I went back to the apartment and tried out my new board shorts in the pool.

Quickly getting board of the pool I decided to have a proper look at Pacific Fair shopping centre just for something to do. Really the only thing of note about it is that a large part is situated in the open air with no roof over the walkway areas.

Ahead was another relaxing evening with the door open, and another sound sleep in the king size bed.

QLD Day 4 - Brisbane to Gold Coast

I retrieved my luggage from the locker and rolled onward to the platform to wait for the Gold Coast train. They run every half hour. I was lucky to get one of the brand new trains that are based on the new Perth train sets for this journey (see photo in Day 3 post). The train ran express until Beenleigh, then stopped at all stations from there to Robina. The only problem was that it was a suburban train and lacked certain necessities for the longer journey (especially luggage racks). The quality of the track was outstanding and it was obvious that big money had been spent on providing substantial stations along the route.

On arrival I dragged my case up the stairs at Robina as the line at the lift was too long. Eventually I worked out which bus stop I needed to wait at to get to Pacific Fair, it was not all that obvious though. I would be staying at Broadbeach, and Pacific Fair shopping centre was around the corner, only 700 metres according to the trip planner. The bus I got seemed to take the scenic route and even got stuck in a traffic jam outside a school. It was timetabled to take 20 minutes but seemed to take much longer. It was an interesting ride none the less.

By the time I got off the bus I was quite hot and frustrated and had a rather angry 700 meter walk to my accommodation. The good thing about high rise accommodation is that it's easy to spot from a distance when you don't know where you are going. Eventually after what felt like a marathon distance I trundled into the lobby and checked in.

After getting into my apartment and opening the doors and seeing the view all my frustrations washed away momentarily. This was the life.

Seeing this made me feel good
(click to see larger size)

In need of supplies I made the journey back to Pacific Fair to find a supermarket. The walk back didn't seem nearly as far. Latter on when I had the basics, but realised I needed some alcoholic beverages, I discovered that the Broadbeach shopping centre was even closer.

Frustrations returned when the hotplates didn't work. I tried all switches and dials I could find but nothing would work. I even found the fuse box and flicked the circuit breakers off and on. After a call to reception I was pointed to a switch that was hiding behind the kettle. The only place I didn't look! While the food was cooking I took a quick shower, changed into some fresh clothes and opened a beer. I was finally able to relax.

QLD Day 4 - Brisbane/Mt Coot-tha

Being my last day in Brisbane I decided to get up early and do a few things before checking out of the hostel. After battling with the crappy WiFi in the hostel and having seen an Officeworks store the night before on my wanderings, I thought I'd go down and investigate the prepaid WiFi that I thought they might sell there. The opening time of Officeworks was 8 AM so I timed it to get to the McDonald's next door for breakfast (I don't know why, but I like McDonald's breakfasts) just before then. As it turned out Officeworks didn't have any prepaid WiFi so I walked back empty handed. On the way I stopped at a supermarket to buy a bottle of water and a nectarine, which I consumed on the spot outside.

After packing up and checking out of the hostel I trundled down to Roma Street station and left my luggage in a locker for a few hours. Still on the hunt for prepaid broadband I ended up buying a Telstra prepaid kit from Target in the city. After buying a few more supplies I decided it would be a good idea to fit in a bit of sight seeing before moving on to the Gold Coast.

On the bus to Mt Coot-tha

I had seen a bus heading to Mt coot-Tha earlier and decided to go. I happened across an electronic public transport information booth and obtained a timetable for the route, the only problem was I didn't know exactly where to catch it. I went back to near where I saw the bus the first time and ended up on a free city circle bus (is there a city in Australia which doesn't have one of these?). Keeping my eyes peeled I worked out where I needed to get the Mt Coot-tha bus from and waited.

The view from the summit. Not sure what
the TNT courier truck was doing up there...

It was an interesting ride, as the bus went past the back of the hostel and through a whole area that I had been only a few hundred metres from the night before and that morning. After a windy trip up the hill, and the bus backtracking at least once we reached the summit. On reading the timetable I assumed the bus stayed at the top for a few minutes before heading back down. The plan was to jump off take a few photos and get back on. Upon asking the driver about this I was informed that he was going off duty, and the we had just passed the return bus (I remember seeing it too, but it didn't twig at the time). Looking at the timetable, it would be an hour until the next bus. So to make the most of it I decided to have lunch at the cafe at the top. This is one of the few places I remember visiting in Brisbane when I was 12, so it was a bit nostalgic I guess. I took some of photos of the view, and I reckon that I could almost see the hostel where I stayed. I sat down and had a nice lunch, Malaysian stir fry noodles. It was all very pleasant really.

The view again, this time my hosetel is right at
the centre of the photo

The view inland to the Great Dividing Range
west of Brisbane

Back on the bus down the hill and into the city. I alighted and decided to catch one of the underground buses to Roma Street station. Yes Brisbane has underground busways in the CBD, it's all pretty cool actually. These connect to above ground busways the go out into the suburbs. Something inside me wishes these were at least light rail if not a heavy rail metro system.

QLD Day 3 - Ipswich Workshops

Citytrain set 262, These trains almost identical to Perth's
new trains. They were built by the same factory, EDI
Walker in Maryborough QLD

One of the Electric Tilt Train sets before departure to
Rockhampton at Roma Street station.

Today I ventured all the way out to Ipswich to go to the Workshops Railway Museum. It was about and hour train ride from the city and it was interesting to see the landscape change from lush to more scrubby type vegetation on the way. I thought Ipswich was an outer suburb of Brisbane, but it is really it's own city, as there is actually quite a gap between the two. From Ipswich station it was a short 5 minute bus ride to the museum, and the bus connected with the train perfectly (harmonised headways). Overall I spent about 4 hours at the workshops, partly due to the Bus Schedule and partly due to the timing of the various tours you can take.

Loco 1262, to the left can by seen loco 1710 which
now contains a train driving simulator

Inside the cab of 1710

The museum itself is rather small with a few examples of locomotives and rolling stock, plus many interactive displays including a train cab simulator.

Lego Coal train

Model coal train

Queensland loco 1281 in it's golden splendour

Diesel shunter DL1

Loco no.6

The Ipswich workshops are still active and is where the Queensland Rail heritage fleet is maintained and stored. In the sheds there are many steam locomotives and items of rolling stock in various states of repair.

A locomotive under repair at the workshops

Garratt 1009

Beyer-Garratt builders plate on 1009

The workshops are also home to a blacksmith's workshops which makes all kinds of objects for both the heritage arm of the railways, the day to day needs of QR as well as outside contracts. What seems amazing to a Victorian is that all of this is state funded, is based on full time employees, and some parts such as the blacksmith workshop make a profit.

Sparks fly in the blacksmith's workshop.

On both the workshops and blacksmiths tours we got to ride on the traverser which is used for moving rolling stock around the workshops.

The traverser

Due to timing and bus schedules I didn't leave the workshops until will after 3 pm. As such the bus was packed with school kids, I managed to find a seat at the back, but some of the kids at the front wouldn't stand for an old lady, and they were giving the bus driver a hard time by always pressing the stop request button whether or not anyone wanted to get off. Coincidentally a few days I heard a news story about a bus driver in Ipswich who ended up driving to the police station after a school kid threw something at his head while driving. I thought of my bus ride.

Once again it was a smooth train ride back into Brisbane.

That evening I went to the cinema near my hostel to see Gran Torino. When I was in the ticket line still wearing the grotty clothes I'd been in all day I realised everyone else was rather well dressed. Feeling a bit embarrassed I decided to dash back have a shower and get changed before the movie. Not having time for dinner I thought I'd get by on some popcorn and a drink, but somehow I ended up with the combo that also included a choc-top. The weird thing was that it was cheaper than just the drink and popcorn.


As it turns out, after the movie I was a bit peckish, and so went to a nearby take away and had the worst kebab of my life. It was really dry and didn't taste very good at all. The night still being relatively early I ended up going for a walk down to the XXXX brewery and back again, which was just down the road.

XXXX Milton Brewery - the view across the road
from my hostel.

QLD Day 2 - Brisbane/Southbank

Slept in late. After getting ready I walked into town via Roma Street train station to buy a Go Card and grab some breakfast. After breakfast at McDonald's (yeah I know, but it was there) I couldn't find anywhere to buy a Go Card and ended up catching a train to Central to see if I could get one there instead. I found a small newsagent and bought my Go Card there, and I was off through the city in the direction of the river.

Brisbane buildings from the river

I ended up at the Eagle Street wharf where I got a ferry down the river and back up stream to Southbank. From my seat on the top deck I got a view of the city and surrounding suburbs, plus a really good view of the Story Bridge.

Going under the Story Bridge, the Sydney Harbour Bridge's little brother

Luxury apartments at Kangaroo Point

Yachts moored on the river

My ferry "Mermaid" continuing on her way to North Quay

Once at Southbank I wondered along eventually passing the rather large artificial beach there. Probably one of the best things I've ever seen in a city. It has real sand, and a large pool of water that has both shallow and deep parts. It is patrolled by life guards and is surrounded by lush tropical vegetation. Being a Sunday it was quite busy too.

A bit further on I came across an auditorium where they were screening the national day of mourning ceremony from Melbourne, so stopped I and sat down in the shade and watched this until it finished. After donating some coins and putting a flower in the tribute wall I continued on through the parklands.

The only remnant of World Expo '88 is a pagoda from the Nepalese exhibit that was saved from demolition by the people of Brisbane.

Nepalese multifaith pagoda

Southbank is also home to Brisbanes wheel, a less ambitious, but more successful attempt at a Ferris Wheel than we have in Melbourne.

The big wheel

After wandering around a bit more I wandered back over the river and into the city where I bought some lunch and looked around the shops a bit. Later in the afternoon I ventured to Fortitude Valley. I thought this was the place to be in Brisbane, but the place seemed deserted, seems I was there at the wrong time of day.

Southbank

That night I hung around the hostel and watched some TV, before surfing the net to see what my transport options were for the next days activities.

QLD Day 1 - Brisbane

This edition of Ben's Adventures is coming to you live from down town Brisvegas.

The flight up was pretty uneventful, except for the fact we flew straight past the fire affected areas. I managed to make out Wandong and Kilmore East townships. The extent of the area affected was mind blowing. The whole Mount Disappointment/Kinglake/ Flowerdale area looked a sort of grey colour, quite depressing. Most of the smoke was coming from the Yea/Alexandra area.

We reached cruising altitude over Corowa, after that the only towns I managed to make out when I happened to glance out the window were Cootamundra and Tamworth. As you travel north the landscape gradually changes from browny-yellow in Victoria and Southern NSW to bright green near the Queensland border. The green may be just on the surface, because I happened to read on the weather page in a newspaper (last Wednesdays Courier Mail) I was reading while eating dinner tonight that the SE QLD water storages are only 50% full. The most shocking thing is that the average water usage figures accompanying this are that the average daily usage is 150 litres per day. i'm too tierd to work out how it can be acheived in QLD, but not in Melbourne, something to do with not needing to water gardens

From Brisbane airport I took the skytrain to Roma Street station. The trains run at 30 minute intervals, and having just missed one had to wait about 25 minutes. Luckily my train arrived just after the one I missed left so I was able to sit in the cool air conditioning. Once it got going the journey was relatively quick, although we seemed to wait a long time at one station where the drivers changed over, and then agian we sat in the platform for a few minutes at Central station.The one way trip was $14. Overall the service seems a bit half baked, with such large gaps between trains and the leisurely pace. I would rather pay about the same fare for the more frequent and faster Skybus service in Melbourne.

I'm staying in a backpacker hostel in Roma Street, of a well known international chain. I booked a private room, which is basic but all you really need. I'm currently using the wifi provided by the hostel which is not cheap, very slow, and occasionally drops out. I'm seriously considering going out and buying a prepaid wireless internet thingy.

Late this afternoon I took a walk down through the Brisbane CBD and found myself in Queen Street Mall. I don't know why I'm always impressed with other cities main shopping strips, in comparison this makes Bourke Street look rather sad. I think what impressed me the most was that instead of putting tram tracks down the middle, every 50 meters or so they have a small outdoor bar/cafe serving beer on the tap (not just XXXX), and what looked like good reasonably priced meals. Each one seemed to have a different theme, there was an irish one and one that served prawns.

The thing that doesn't impress me is that the place seems to die at exactly 5:00 pm, that's it everything closes. Near the hostel there is a Coles where I thought I would buy some supplies. No such luck, they closed at 6, and it was already 6:05. That is just ridiculous.

As I will be relying on public transport to get around, in the morning I intend on going and getting a Go card, which is the SE QLD public transport smart card. They are everywhere. I'm keen to use one to see what it may be like in Melbourne if they ever get Myki up and running. In the time it has taken Victoria to dither around with Myki, two Australian states have implimented whole systems.

February Updates

This year is going really quick, hardly had a chance to blog at all.

Personally not a lot is happening, I'm stuck in the daily grind of the endless treadmill. That's OK because in a few weeks I'm getting off and going to Queensland for a week of doing as little or as much as I choose. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I'm not so sure with all the rain they had today. I guess I'll have learn to love the humidity (as much as I hate it)...

Last Saturday, on the horrible 46 degree bushfire day, I went to see Alfred Hitchcock's 'The 39 Steps'. Having seen the original 1930's film, I was dubious about how it could become a comedy, but by gosh, you know, it actually works, what with all that, naff, early 20th century English dialogue and things like that. What makes it really funny is that it has only a 4 person cast playing about 30 or so roles between them. The lead stays as the same character but the others, 2 men and a woman play the rest. Often playing multiple characters at the same time. I think it is finishing up at the Playhouse (@ The Arts Centre in St Kilda Road) this weekend, but it is touring around a few smaller theatres in the coming weeks. I think it is on at Frankston next. It is seriously funny, I recomend that people go and see it.

Eagle Eye

I was walking past Sanity today and happened to see this DVD out the front as one of the new releases. This means it must have been out at the cinema 3 to 6 months ago. I didn't go and see it, but I know I've seen the movie, I'm sure I've seen it. it wasn't on a plane or in a hotel either I can't explain it...


No I just remembered, it was amongst those DVDs of questionable source that I borrowed off someone a few months ago.

From memory it was an OK film, typical Hollywood DVD fodder. OK for boring nights at home with nothing else to do. A good (ie stereotypical) techno-thriller with lots of explosions and stuff.

Hot

Outside where I am sitting at the moment it is a pleasant 30 degrees, inside the house it is in the mid 30s after being shut up all day. Everything is open to try and get it down a bit, but it's still hot. There was a nice pleasant breeze before but that seems to have died down.

Earlier this evening I was at Westfield Doncaster, where I noticed a large number of people carting around fans, portable air conditioners and evaporative coolers.

I am not looking forward to another 43 degree day tomorrow.

Building Bridges Completed

I took this video on the way to work this morning. The train I was on was a bit of a groaner, a good sound effect for the video. With the realignment, all the existing single track between Westgarth and the bridge was replaced. The train I am travelling on is on the new track and bridge. Very smooth, I must say.

The fact that on both of my trips through this section today we crossed another train going in the opposite direction tells me that the nay sayers are wrong. What were/are the nay sayers saying? That this would move the problem to Clifton Hill. However, being a flat junction there will always be delays at Clifton Hill, it's a fact of life, but I think it will be better than before. No more sitting at Westgarth for 5 minutes in the morning, and Epping trains will hopefully flow more freely as a result. We shall see how it goes over the next few weeks as normal loads resume.

Building Bridges Pt 2

Back in December I made a post about the Clifton Hill rail project and the progress to that date. Since then it has come along in leaps and bounds, and in fact if I didn't know better I would say that after this weekend it will be open to trains.

Throughout December finishing touches were made on the bridge, while so far in January all the new track, electrical overhead and signals have been put in place. Two weekends ago a new set of points was installed at Clifton Hill, which allow city bound trains from Westgarth to enter the platform from the new section of track. This weekend it appears that all is left to do is to re-align and connect everything up at the Westgarth end. As a regular traveller on this line I am very impressed with the lack of disruption to regular train services, the only bustitutions occuring over a few late nights and weekends.

As an interested observer of the development of public transport I am amazed at the apparent planning that went into this operation. My opinion is that big projects in this country are always half baked and never realise their full potential. This and the previous Middleboroough Road grade separation of 2007 have somewhat changed this, and give me hope that future improvements to the Victorian rail network (often much needed after years of no funding and little care or maintenance) will be done as professionally. I only hope that our transport planning beaurocrats are able to get more funding to remove the stupid bottlenecks like Clifton Hill as well as implimenting sensible extensions (ie not so much the Eddington tunnels or Tarneit lines).

One thing I will say is that the governments targets for completion (ie the end of 2009 as stated on signs and projects website) are complete rubbish. I beleive they artificially extend the time required so they can make make it look like the project is completed early, when in fact it is on time or only a little early. Judging by the pace of work on this job there was never any question that it would open within the first half of 2009. Then there is the fact that the figure includes landscaping of the public parks and crown land which have been occupied during the construction, which will probably go on for a few months after trains are running.

The River

Just a few photos I took on new years eve before the fireworks.

Setting Up the fireworks.

Tranquil River (the calm before the storm)

The Silo

Party boats (the storm)