Category Archives: Transport

MH17 Final Report Released

The Dutch Safety board has released its final report into the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in July of 2014. Here is the summary video of their findings: Investigations into aircraft accidents are not only important with respect to providing closure for all affected people, they also provide an opportunity to use the collected […]

Sunday Nerding: New York City Subway

With recent news that Melbourne is to receive a new underground rail line – (the Melbourne Metro) – to start moving the city towards having a true metro-style train system, I thought it might be interesting to look at what kind of work it takes to build something like that under a living city. This […]

Getting Melbourne Moving – Properly

The recent cancellation of the controversial EastWest Link by the Victorian state government, combined with the reinstatement of the previous Melbourne Metro rail project – (cancelled by the previous state government) – and today’s announcement that the so-called “Western Distributor” project is moving to the next stage, has created heated debate across the community about […]

Open Up Public Transport Performance Data

Anyone who expects a public transport system to always run on time and without faults or other problems is almost certainly kidding themselves. Like any man-made system, things just go wrong sometimes. The sign of a good public transport system is how well the situation is handled when things do go wrong. Good public transport […]

Sunday Nerding: Overhauling A Boeing 747

Ever boarded an aircraft and thought “hey, this thing looks pretty old, is it still safe?” Many planes in the global fleet have ages beyond 20 years – for example, the Qantas fleet of 747-400 aircraft which has just been retired, was in service for around 25 years. Their remaining fleet of 747-400ER are about […]

Sunday Nerding: History Of The London Underground

Back onto a train theme today, with an interesting – (albeit slightly older) – documentary of the London Underground. Amazing how things come about!

A Stupid Train Of Thought

The new version of Melbourne’s Metro Rail Tunnel, as announced yesterday as part of the 2014 State Budget is a massive slap in the face for commuters. It is Premier Napthine’s great big nasty pre-election surprise. The original plan – (put forward by the previous Bracks/Brumby government) – was for the tunnel to run from […]

The EastWest Non-Link?

The proposed EastWest Link, a partially underground toll road through the inner north and inner west of Melbourne has been controversial to say the very least. Countless protests against the proposal have ended in scuffles with police, and even attempts by the Victorian government to subvert otherwise legal protest activities. I – (like many other […]

What The MH370 Black Boxes Might Not Reveal

As the search for Malaysia Airlines 370 continues, the distinct possibility that it will never be found remains in play. The similarities to the initial phases of the disappearance of Air France 447 in 2009 are striking. Though search and rescue personnel had some idea where AF447 went down, it took five days before any […]

Avalon Rail Link: Priorities Out Of Order?

The question of whether or not Victoria’s rail network should be extended into Geelong’s Avalon Airport has been a point of debate for a number of years. With news today that the proposed heavy rail link be submitted for environmental assessment, proponents of the plan are hailing a ‘milestone’ in the project. Avalon Rail Link […]