Uncovered an interesting bit of @ptua.org.au lore today while looking for something else - apparently Yarra Trams threatened to sue them for defo in 2003, to which the PTUA said "Yeah, nah." austlii.edu.au/au/journals/…

This graph shows two things, 1) obviously that the cameras reduced speeding, but 2) that the improvement kept getting better over time. Speeders tend to get one or two tickets and then learn and change their behaviour. This isn't a cash grab, it's an extremely useful intervention.

Slightly increase a band: Radioactive Man

According to OpenRailwayMap, the Sydney-Canberra rail alignment is embarrassingly bad -- very very slow, sections as slow as 50 km/h, long sections below 85 km/h. It's also a long way, 321 km vs 287 km by road. www.openrailwaymap.org

The federal, ACT and NSW governments will spend $100 million upgrading the Canberra to Sydney rail link in a bid to reduce the train trip to under four hours.

When I lived in Korea ~15 years ago, the norm if you got delivery was for the food to be delivered on proper plates / bowls, which when you were done you would put outside your apartment to be picked up by the delivery driver. I recently found out that is no longer the case, very disappointing.

this graduation speech moment is notable, and her amazed shock at having failed to read the room feels instructive. when you're inside the bubble, you think everybody else is. but everybody isn't.

we worked very hard to get over a dozen Labor MPs to break ranks in the lead up to the 2023 budget, but since then have heard from MPs that they're not allowed to bring it up anymore

Joint media release on CBR-SYD rail upgrade: minister.infrastructure.gov.au/c-king/media... Key points: 5-year, $100m incremental upgrading plan to: investigate new express services, LX upgrades, Improved track alignment/turnouts, Station/stabling improvements. First focus on Goulburn-Canberra line

Good to see this getting some attention. Alarming that these giant utes bypass a lot of safety regulation.

A piece by A/Prof Philip Laird on how cancelling Inland Rail north of Parkes continues the ‘existing arrangements’ of Federal land transport policy in Australia (e.g. more/bigger trucks either powered by diesel or, increasingly, electricity: theconversation.com/after-dumpin...

This is a very strange article to publish in 2026. Not that I disagree with the prescription to reduce reliance on private cars or target EV subsidies - but their research is based on 2017-21 data, when EV sales were <1%. It tells us nothing about who's buying EVs now, when they're comfortably >10%.

A good cautionary tale for when someone claims that trusting data analysis done with an LLM is good because it’s “objective.” In this example, Copilot apparently decided to ignore the data it was given and just run with all the subconscious biases its (human-made) training data inevitably gave it.

Another Federal Budget teaser drop in today’s Telegraph. $50m from the Feds to (most likely) investigate speeding up the Canberra-Sydney rail service. The current 3 x daily service takes about 4h 10m for the 329km journey. Increasing speed &/or frequency should be a prime target for any upgrades.

Just the most incredible thing that governments have allowed the rezoning of private housing at the click of a button because it ... happens on the internet. The social cost of Airbnb across the country is profound and it could be stopped tomorrow. All these hollow places restored.

AOC on possibly running for the Senate or President: They assume my ambition is a title or a seat. My ambition is way bigger than that. My ambition is to change this country. Presidents come and go, elected officials come and go, single payer healthcare is forever.

This was unexpectedly fascinating.

Australia is accelerating their BEV transition measurably. One of the first countries to re-enter acceleration.

🇦🇺 Australia - April 26 - BEV Trajectory 17.0% BEV 10.6% PHEV 72.5% ICE (of which 19.9%p were HEV) Trailing 12 months are: 10.8% BEV 5.5% PHEV 83.7% ICE (of which 17.0%p were HEV) Graphs are available in the Gallery: leraffl.github.io/LeRaffl-Gall...

Love how some of the tram lines in Den Haag Centraal Station cross above perpendicular to the train lines below

A bunch of extremely beautiful pictures of wind farms in China - all photographs by Weimin Chu e360.yale.edu/digest/china...

Can’t underestimate the significance of this. First EVER Green mayor in England, taking a Labor stronghold. Running unashamedly as an advocate for Palestinian rights (nb the full colour scheme here)

Industry says it will do well if everyone is forced to buy its product. Cool business model.

Wondering why CAHSR is taking so long? The City of Shafter (near Bakersfield) wants to build a new sprawl neighborhood on currently vacant land that high speed rail is supposed to be built on within the next 5 years. CAHSR needs enhanced land acquisition authority. www.kget.com/news/local-n...

Sean Duffy reveals he spent 7 months making a reality TV show while serving as Transportation Secretary

Rule of thumb for Melbourne stations

☔ It's that time of year when you discover how effective the shelter at your station/stop really is. How's yours?

"Public transport in a suburban city like Sydney doesn’t usually work. But it’s a global leader at suburban public transport, because this is a city where everyone takes public transport seriously and expects good public transport, even out in the suburbs.” Sharath Mahendran

Meet the fully electric D-class tram

Interesting from Sir John Curtice, the UKs top polling expert on Englands council election and the Reform surge

Articles comparing SRL with EWL always fail to mention that SRL has been to two elections; EWL failed to get through one. Was it naive of Labor to believe (or sneaky to claim) there'd be no compo to cancel EWL? Maybe, but the "side letter" booby trap was secret at the time. danielbowen.com/2015...

WE WON. Amnesty named me People’s Human Rights Champion for exposing a scandal in British healthcare. My team and I found abuse, neglect, conversion therapy, and deaths, all ignored by NHS managers. See the story: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S5w... Support our work: www.patreon.com/c/Philosophy...

Invest in the US. Make sure in something Trump approves of, or your money gets stolen. Don't be too successful, or Trump will demand a share or even equity. Don't send skilled workers, ICE might grab them. Don't have a good product, it will be stolen. The legal system is corrupt, so no help there.

The announcement of $ to plan for Melton electrification is a big win for people in Melbourne's west and further along the Ballarat line. The community has been crying out for this for years - it's on the government to make sure it's actually built when the planning's done.

HA!

It's in the council meeting minutes.

How can it be legal to steal poor people's stuff & force them to go kms away to get back their bedclothes, in winter? Family photos? Sanitary products? But not on weekends? Which Port Phillip councillors voted for this? Can't tell on the website. Not sure how to find out but I will. And I vote here.

Editor's note: we updated the article to MAKE THE SAME FACTUAL ERROR

Aussies pay more tax on beer than gas giants pay on the gas they export overseas. Head to the pub this Friday May 8 (Mate Day), raise a glass for a 25% gas export tax, snap a pic, and post publicly tagging @AlboMP #TaxGasNotBeer

The great Australian gas tax rip off continues. Today’s announcement isn’t just for the gas industry, it’s by the gas industry.

Very cool set of visualizations here of station passenger flows in Great Britain. github.com/anisotropi4/...

🚨 NEW: A majority of Australians think Donald Trump is the greatest threat to world peace, according to a YouGov poll commissioned for The Australia Institute released today Last year, a Dynata poll (also for The Australia Institute) saw 31% rate Trump as the greatest threat

You know what would make this more efficient? Have the robots take the containers to a central location, using steel wheels on steel rails to drop the friction 85%, and move 100 containers at a time in a single consist, with just one or two engines.

This is pretty fucked as is the government statement the kids will be put in counter terrorism programs using these as a threat basically rather than a genuine needs based intervention - this whole thing shows the worst of Australia

Standard right wing press operating procedure: - Crazy inflammatory claim - Ten paragraphs of the most insane interpretation of event, action or data - Two paragraphs saying “although actually, it’s not really like that” - Quote from subject of article saying “This is bollocks, have you no shame”

Public transport passengers in Victoria's north-west say a rise in "ghost bookings" has led to half-empty bus services during the state's free transport period.

We hope there's an encore, because this isn't a real plan. True energy security means unshackling ourselves from price hikes and supply shocks that foreign oil drives.

If the govt targets discretionary family trusts there will be a lot of guff about how they will hit middle Australians just trying to get by. Don't believe it www.theguardian.com/business/gro...

Rumours that the govt are about to to target family discretionary trusts in the Budget is a very good thing. My column www.theguardian.com/business/gro...