jeremy.id.au

Last night was the committee meeting for the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA), so it seems appropriate to talk about public transport. Although the meetings are held every month, I’ve only just started going regularly again, as well as occasionally dropping in at the office to clear the mail, answering machine, etc. There are some great people involved with the PTUA, working towards avoiding any further detriment to public transport.

Unfortunately these days, more energy is expended on campaigning against destruction than seeking improvements. Certainly the State Government is doing more damage than they are making things better. This is especially true with all the spin we get from Bracks & Co how public transport is their highest priority despite the fact that they are doing nothing for it, while continuing to spend millions on roads. The greatest example of damage they’ve done recently is Melbourne Central. Just try going through that place in peak hour. It is absolutely chaos getting from the concourse level to platforms 3&4 unless you want to take a long detour to the direct escalators. Of course, it wouldn’t be a detour at all if the old entrance arrangements still existed.

But it doesn’t stop there, the government now has plans to close three out of nine tram stops in Collins St and overall 20% of stops across Melbourne. This has been met with strong opposition from traders and the PTUA. Earlier this week a funeral was held to better facilitate mourning. You may have seen it on TV. Though of the current state of affairs continues, with more damage being done than improvement, we’re going to need many more funerals for all the mourning there is!

The other obstacle you encounter when pushing for better public transport is many many myths. Over the years this has accumulated to quite a sizeable number. Once again the PTUA has got to it, collected them in one great big list and debunked them all, one-by-one. You can see the results at:
http://www.ptua.org.au/myths/

Welcome to my new blog. I have long been blogging with jogger though it was overly simple so I’ve decided to replace it with something new. So now people can add comments to anything that I write. I’ve already managed to import all my old jogger posts.

So what’s been happening in my life lately? Have been attempting TAFE at RMIT doing Computer Systems. Don’t know how I’ll go, however, as I’ve been missing a few classes (whoops) and haven’t really kept track of what we’re meant to be doing.

In other news I turn 21 in a week. Yet unfortunately I don’t have a lot planned. I suspect it’ll just be just a family thing as I haven’t kept up with most of my friends since my teenage years.