Archive for January, 2016

Photos from ten years ago: January 2006

Another instalment in my photos from ten years ago series – this time January 2006.

S302 awaiting departure from Geelong on the down Warrnambool

Bendigo trains and Sunshine station

Since the opening of Regional Rail Link in 2015, the importance of Sunshine as a railway junction has grown, with the four platforms at the rebuilt station being served by a mix of V/Line and suburban train services. However there is one notable exception – V/Line services to and from Bendigo.

A sorry history of Victorian level crossing failures

In the past week V/Line has been in the news due to their VLocity trains failing to activate level crossings. While a concerning revelation, it isn’t exactly a new issue in Victoria – let us step back in time a little.

Yarra Street level crossing, South Geelong

Level crossings removals and car parking

As the Level Crossing Removal Project ramps up across Melbourne, there is one interesting requirement that comes up at every site – “no net loss of car parking”.

New car park on the eastern side of Thomastown station

Contactless payment and myki machines

Contactless payment with credit and debit cards is a technology that scores of retailers across Australia have supported for a number of years – and in December 2015 Public Transport Victoria announced that they would play catch-up and upgrade myki ticket machines to support the same.

New EFTPOS payment terminal fitted to a myki machine, now featuring support for contactless transactions