Remember that time two days ago when they sent up a helicopter to track the first train into the #Melbourne Metro Tunnel for the TV news?

Fun fact: TSP (Transit Signal Priority) in Italian is sometimes called "asservimento semaforico," which literally means "traffic light subjugation/enslavement".

Perhaps the smartest #ClimateAction investment in cities is in public transit. While others make excuses, Paris is building a WHOLE NEW METRO NETWORK CONNECTING SUBURBS. “…the Grand Paris Express, a new 200km system with 4 new lines & 68 new stations.” #ActionStartsHere @mayors4climate.bsky.social

Welp, turned out this was the case.

Great to see the #Melbourne Metro Tunnel open - can't wait for the full timetable!

Yep. Metro Tunnel good. But the rail network (and the broader public transport network) can't reach its full potential while the buses, which in many areas is the only PT service, are so poor.

The good news just keeps on coming

#Melbourne Metro Tunnel first day! Huge numbers of people despite the weather. Some delays but looking great - just a shame they only ran trains every 20 minutes - some long waits and very crowded trains. But great to see this opened. Bring on the full timetable!

Happy Metro Tunnel Opening Day for all those who celebrate! 🚇🥳 Better, reliable, accessible, fast, frequent, connected public transport opens up access to opportunity, and gets more people off the roads and out of the traffic. #Melbourne #MetroTunnel

I went to London just to film this* *Not really

#Melbourne #MetroTunnel opening publicly tomorrow. City Square and the new stations looking good. I’m told lots more test runs over the next few months before they ramp up to the full service.

Don't believe the narrative that the #Melbourne Metro Tunnel was first proposed by Eddington in the 2008 transport plan. The idea was floated publicly as early as 2005 by Prof Graham Currie. I hope he's pleased that it's finally opening this Sunday. web.archive.org/web/...

There's only one thing worse than messing up the usual Myki card 15 minute walk through/Change Of Mind feature, and that's the knee-jerk reaction to say they'll leave fare gates open for the benefit of a vanishingly tiny number of people. www.hepburnadvocate.... #MetroTunnel

Today is World Sustainable Transport Day! Public transport can help reduce emissions, noise pollution, air pollution, and more. And the more the service is upgraded, the more people will use it.🚉🚌🚋🚆

hmm, that #Twitter account location stuff is not accurate. I rarely look at it these days, but I may have done so once or twice from France last month. (The icon to the right links to info admitting it may not be right.)

In my Europe trip blog, I'm up to the day we went to the Louvre (a few days before it was robbed) and climbed the Arc de Triomphe danielbowen.com/2025/10/15/a... #Paris

Seems like everyone discovered the internal railway abbreviation for Frankston today. (It's not new) #Melbourne

New Comeng layout just dropped. #MelbourneTrains #ai

Anybody else remember this ad? Back when governments at least pretended to prioritise young people. www.youtube.com/watc... #Australia

From our recent Annual General Meeting: Covering the windows with ads is prioritising advertisers over passengers. Elsewhere they have ads but leave the windows clear, improving visibility and security.

In the race to get bank card fare payments on public transport (aka Contactless aka Tap And Pay), Perth is about to cross the finish line. Looks like Victoria may be lucky last. Blog:

Just noticed this: you can no longer search for residential info on whitepages.com.au In recent years I've occasionally used this to track down the correct address for misdirected mail, though fewer and fewer people are in it due to landlines dying out. #australia

Melbourne and Sydney have similar populations - but their trains are a lot more frequent than ours, especially on weekends. Frequent services make it so much easier to use public transport - especially when heading to events or appointments, or interchanging from other lines.

Slowly writing up my European holiday in the blog. I'm up to the day we caught the train from London to Paris... me in Seat 61 🙂 danielbowen.com/2025...

We all like freebies, but with little or no extra capacity expected to be added to V/Line trains over summer, services are likely to be packed.

See Betteridge's law of headlines

At this rate, Melbourne won’t have a fully accessible tram network until the year 2160. Read our statement calling for more State Government action on tram accessibility. www.ptua.org.au/2025...

Who wants to tell them? (From "The Source" in the HS) #Melbourne #Munnel

The Auditor General has published their update on tram service accessibility... the progress by the State Government in the past five years has been minimal. Read more: www.audit.vic.gov.au...

We agree with Albo - public transport is the best way to move people around big cities. We hope to see more State and Federal investment to make public transport faster, more frequent, more accessible, and easier to use. #auspol

A brain dump of things we know about the #Melbourne Metro Tunnel opening

Car Size xkcd.com/3167/

I've steadily removed sources of #emissions from my house, but I still have a petrol car (below average KMs/year, but not zero), and take flights for holidays etc. Anybody know of good reputable offset schemes (preferably in Australia) that can help me get to net zero?

There's a certain irony that for the West Gate Tunnel "Discovery Day" they discouraged people from driving to the event, and boosted public transport frequency. If only this type of thinking was in place when they consider building these big motorway projects in the first place. #Melbourne

A long wait, then a train so packed you can't get a seat? This is a regular occurrence on Melbourne's rail network every weekend (V/Line too!), despite plenty of spare track capacity and many trains sitting idle. More services needed.

My latest blog post looks on the bright side of public transport innovations in South Australia’s capital. open.substack.com/pub/adventur...

The #Melbourne Metro Tunnel will open on Sunday 30th November, with the temporary summer timetable (services every 20 minutes). I'm told the summer free weekend travel, previously announced for December to January, will include that day.

With more people using V/Line, extending short platforms is a no-brainer. In most locations it would be a cheap easy fix to help ensure more 6 carriage trains can run safely.

I feel like the word "network" is doing some heavy lifting here. The service uplift is good, but it's basically one line through the tunnel, with branches on the eastern end. #Melbourne #MetroTunnelVic

The struggle is real. Fortunately it’s pretty easy to find the railway station.

Australia’s dwelling stock used to grow much faster than the adult population. What happened? Restrictive planning controls happened.

Dropping net zero - seems their strategy is to chase the aging conservative boomer vote... who mostly vote for them anyway. (Maybe this is what they mean by base load!) #auspol

The latest iteration of the Metro web site includes this clickable map... I like the concept though this looks a little wonky to me. Seems to be adapted from an internal graphic that had more info on it. Straightening things out would look much tidier IMHO. www.metrotrains.com.... #Melbourne

Beautiful day in the city with the brown river. So why on earth did I bring my coat?! #Melbourne #TacticalError

Thanks to all those members who attended our Annual General Meeting last night, and congratulations to the Mt Atkinson Advocacy Forum, winner of this year's Paul Mees Award!

Coming to the @ptua.org.au Annual General Meeting? We had a great guest lined up who unfortunately couldn't make it - so it's me instead, talking about good and bad PT from my trip, and what we can learn from it. Slides including this from Lyon! See you Wednesday night! ptua.wildapricot.org...

🎂🚉 Happy 140th birthday to Pascoe Vale station, opened 10th Nov 1885 A birthday present is coming soon - State Government has funded more trains on weekends and evenings, cutting waiting times from 30-40 minutes to 20 and reducing crowding. A welcome upgrade! More please!👍

Presumably a committee at Atlassian debated long into the night before they decided to rename the Confluence page command from "Copy" to "Duplicate" 😐

The Amazing World Of Tomorrow

Friends of the Earth Australia (a national federation of regional/ local environment-justice groups across Australia and part of the broader international network; community-based, grassroots, working for an environmentally and socially just world) leaves X (17.460 followers) Bluesky: @foe.org.au