The current theme for the site is not a permanent one, more changes will be forthcoming this evening.
Cheers
Phin

UPDATE

I’ve changed the theme again to one which is much more simple, but there are further options for post layout on the main page. They are listed below:

There are a few issues to iron out – namely getting the menus and images to work properly and installing a few more plugins, but hopefully these will be resolved in the next day or two.

cheers
Phin

Operation Phoenix

As a historian by training, I was inspired by this thread at the Other Place to think about some counter-factual transport history scenarios in Australia. 

In general, the counterfactual history is interested in the incident or event that is being negated by the counterfactual, and seeks to evaluate the importance of that incident or event by refracting it through the lens of the counterfactual. The counterfactual historian attempts to provide reasoned arguments for each divergence from the factual, with changes outlined usually in broad terms, since the results of the counterfactual are effects rather than causes. The counter-factual historian’s narrative is also limited to exploring a single effect or set of effects from a particular incident or event occurring differently, as to regress or extrapolate further from the original incident enters the realms of alternate history.

On the other hand, alternate history writers are interested precisely in the hypothetical scenarios or narrative that flows from the divergent incident or event. Alternate history writers are therefore free to invent very specific events and characters in the imagined history, much as fiction writers do.

Of course, like all things in life there are good and bad counter-factual histories. Among the best are volumes such as this, this and this which promote different ways of thinking about a given historical problem or paradigm. However, there needs to be some intellectual rigour applied to the historical counter-factual, lest it (using the example from the Other Place about Operation Phoenix) degenerate into a foamy festival about how many more steam locomotives could the VR have ordered or how much better the L class would have looked with a rounded nose.

This rivet counting counter-factual ‘history’ is perhaps (as eminent British historian E. H. Carr would have it) more of a “parlour game” than historical analysis and as such more correctly consigned to the bargain bin of ‘alternate history’. This is the home of the modern equivalent of the ‘penny dreadful’ mystery or ‘pulp’ sci-fi novel, typified by the alternate history/war porn of the prolific Harry Turtledove and John Birmingham.  These works tend to stress the operational and tactical level of history with emphasis on hardware, battles and character-driven scenarios, rather than the unseen, hidden actors of history and the storylines behind what the French <i>Annales</i> school of historians called ‘the <i>longue duree</i>’ of history that stresses the evolution of structures of institutions and governance over time rather than individual men and machines.

Therefore my point (and I do have one!) is that counter-factual histories allow us to examine a particular event and the implications of that event having ‘gone the other way’.

Thus, in some research I’m doing at the moment, I’m looking at how the push to bring give the federal parliament strong powers to control the national railway network, to undertake gauge standardisation and build ’national’ railway lines (by representatives from South Australia in particular) at the Australian Federal Conventions of 1891 and 1897-8 were voted down by delegates focused on preserving states’ rights, giving a federal government strong powers to make interstate trade ‘totally free’ (thus solving the predatory ’rate wars’ on the colonial railways – especially between NSW and Victoria). The end result was the weak powers in S. 51 of the Constitution giving federal governments control of railways for military purposes and to only acquire and build railways with the consent of the states. In this context, I am interested in how the enacting of a different form of federalism by the founders of Australia would have had different results on the following century of Australian railways.

Some other rail transport ‘what ifs’ worth pondering:

• What if Labor had won the 1949 Federal election? Would some of the US$250 million loan from the World Bank that was approved the following year (sponsored by the Truman Administration for Australia’s support of US foreign policy) have been spent by the Commonwealth on (among other things) the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme (the historical result) or alternatively on furthering Harold Clapp’s gauge standardisation scheme, or something else altogether? 
• What if the Federal Cabinet in 1991 had decided to grant tax concessions on infrastructure investment? Would this have enabled the construction of a Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne high speed rail link to go ahead? Would this hole in the Federal Budget (estimated at the time to be up to $1.4 billion) have effectively killed off the Building Better Cities and One Nation infrastructure investment programs ($816 million and $454 million respectively)?
• What if the Railway Agreement (Queensland) Act, 1961 had a clause on gauge standardisation included as a condition of Commonwealth funding of an upgrade of the Collinsville-Townsville-Mt Isa line? What would this have meant to the ’splendid isolation’ of the Queensland rail system on narrow gauge into the 1970s and beyond as the haulage of export coal became big business? Would it have led to a Pilbara-style heavy-haul standard gauge railway built to US standards?
• What if the Victorian Railways’ Operation Phoenix had have been overseen by an American railway executive (such as the ones who’d been out here in US military uniform during the war) than the Chief Executive of British Railways? Would the Americans have advocated a rehabilitation solution involving diesel-electric locomotives, steel-bodied bogie rolling stock and infrastructure upgrades on key rail corridors instead of locking into a technological dead-end of steam power and 4-wheel wagons that would be obsolete when they were delivered?

So as you can see from these fairly simple examples, counter-factual histories are not hard to think up, it’s marshalling the evidence to make them stand up to scrutiny that’s the hard bit without finding ‘correlations without causation’.

I am sure that other readers and contributors can think of some other ‘what ifs’ worthy of further study.

A very respectable load of passengers – in both senses.
****************************************************
I’m writing this from onboard the capital connection from Palmerston North to Wellington. The time is 6:25 and we have just cleared the end of the wire. The sun is not yet risen and only a dull twilight glows on the cloudy horizon. Most outside is silhouette.

The train is excellent. It still betrays its British feeling. The seats scream ‘business’ in their leather in somber colours, and the tables between the pairs of facing seats scream ‘professional’. And the pair of automatic doors to the vestibule, hissing quietly when they open and sealing perfectly tight, scream ‘European’ as do the plug doors outside. I still preferred the Masterton set, more welcoming colours and the same internal fit out.

The train has built up a fair bit of speed and the locomotive is managing the 8 cars well. Not that many on board, maybe this will change as we hit the other towns. Sheep everywhere! Some might say ‘of course’ The river bridges are longer than those in southern Australia are used to, more reminiscent of Queensland, except of course for the cold, even in mid February.

The crowd will hopefully build up, so this train can pay its way. It is understood that this is a full-cost-recovery train, not subsidised by the local councils the way the urban services are. At $21, I still feel it is reasonably priced, and the crowd betrays the sort of market the train would appeal to – professionals from Palmerston North needing a day in Wellington. We are yet to hit the genuine commuter area.

The bizarre thing is, Wellington Regional Council is funding the extension of the wires to Waikanae, a town that currently rates only one stop a day on this Palmerston North service. This full cost recovery service. Nothing intermediate, not like say, Pukekohe in Auckland which has gone from having one single run of the Silver Fern cars out from Auckland in peak time, to having a few such services (five or six each peak), a base from which to build. A leap of faith, I would suggest, in the Waikanae case. Build it and they will come.

Until those wires arrive, this train will be the sole stopping train at this and other locations between Palmerston North and the wire at Paraparaumu.

The daylight is now beginning to emerge. We are travelling fairly fast through small villages that don’t warrant the train stopping. One we just passed would have scored a Vline stop. Why can’t Vline be this professional? Charge the sort of fares that merit a better class of people. Run cars that these people deserve. And only stop to collect people at places that merit a stop – that merit delaying the passengers already on board.

Is it worth running only one train a day? To a city of nearly100,000 people? Well it isn’t the only form of public transport, with an interurban standard frequency between Wellington and Palmerston North via the intercity buses, also run to recover costs. And there is the Overlander train, running the daylight service, out of Wellington at 7:25 in the morning, and running from Palmerston North in the afternoon to reach Wellington in the early evening. This is ‘cost recovery’ transport, provided to a proven market. $22 each way from Palmerston North to Wellington. The bus is cheaper, but then, that’s the bus. Not the onboard comfort. That’s lesson 2: each improvement in comfort should be charged for. Not ridiculously so, but modestly.

Business-standard seating – beats Vline or the V-set

Daylight is well and truly up as we speed further south. Cows now alternate with sheep. Low cloud hangs above the hills to our left. We seem to be slowing, on the outskirts of a town. A passing loop emerges on the right-side window. Not much remains of the customary yard and sidings, long gone. Many New Zealand platforms are simple flat affairs accessing directly to the street, maybe with a simple building, Trafalgar/Yarragon style, right in the middle of town. This one is called Shannon. Not much stirring in the town this early and only a couple of passengers waiting.

The train moves off promptly. The signalling system looks suitably automatic and no hint of the last of the semaphore signalling that lingered too long in Australia. Concrete sleepers are in evidence, they look like they’ve been around longer but not the significant continuous blocks of them now found in Australia after mass upgrades. The cloud is lifting from the ranges. Mountain ridge lines are much more jagged than you see in Australia. The flats and plains look very green but the mountain sides still l look quite dry.

In many places it is easy to be tricked by the low embankments – they have the look of abandoned rail corridors, but actually line irrigation channels or serve as farm driveways. I don’t have my NZ rail map with me (actually the last one I had I through out) so I don’t know much of the history of this area. We are just running through another loop with a few sand-covered sidings, not slowing for it. No sign of a freight wagons. I think freight is the same deal as in Australia – containers and bulk only. Some categories we don’t do now, milk for example.

The ride from these cars is satisfactory, slightly rough track although this is providing the illusion of speed. We’ve slowed for a curve. Not much of this in evidence so far and we haven’t copped the reverse curvature that NSW and Queensland are famous for. The line is single track until after, on, Paraparaumu. The only block of significant double track is at the Auckland to Hamilton end. We are passing more villages that don’t merit a stop.

We are entering town called Levin, from the roadside signage, I know we have a stop here. We’ve passed a suburban platform but we will only make one stop, at the main station. Not like Masterton, a town with several ’suburban’ platforms that are stopped at. Levin yard looks empty. Many, many people t getting on, maybe 50 or so. Lucky we have 8 cars! The station building is lit and open, and looks inviting, unlike Palmerston North earlier today. Of course, no need to go into PN station building, as the train was open and lit when I arrived, 20 minutes before departure.

Off again after creeping past the station cafe, with its train paintings inside. For another time perhaps. Some unused private sidings off to the left. Back up to speed as we leave Levin. Bit of bounce from the bogies beneath me, sort of rapid ‘chopping’ action. Passengers move through the train, clearly looking for better seats than what they found where they boarded at Levin.

My ticket sits on the table in front of me. The conductor likes the tickets to be displayed on the tables so he doesn’t have to ask again. I like idea of conductors. Auckland and Wellington probably have too many per train, but with only one station, Papakura, actually staffed besides the main terminals, it is clear they can afford them. I suspect they need machines as well, so conductors can concentrate on checking. It’s good to see paper tickets again. None of the headlong rush into electronic systems that don’t work, as we’ve seen in Sydney and Melbourne.

The speed varies slightly from time to time but I haven’t seen any temporary speed restriction signs. We fly over bridges that have fast, clean water flowing beneath them. We travel alongside the main highway. A basic affair. The motorway section is very limited and near Wellington. We slow to go round a curve at some nameless town we are skipping. So far only two stops from Palmerston North. The speed does seem to slow for even the curve, and I can feel we are approaching a bridge, let’s see if it is the cause of the restriction. The Hutt River Bridge on the Masterton run suffers this – you get a close look at the bridge timber condition as the train slows to cross.

After several minutes of crawling through reverse curves and 50kms sign posts, we reach a substantial station at Otaki. Twenty or so wait to board. The station is closed up and covered in graffiti, a terrible shame after the earlier example at Levin. Maybe it is the townsfolk’s pride in Levin, and lack of same in Otaki. The train looks decently full now, and not a feral in site, men and women in suits. As long as one had a good job and an alternative way of getting home if the evening CC is missed, it looks like a great way to get to work.

We cross one of those long bridges across a wide, rocky but shallow river, like at Stratford on Avon, but which are otherwise rare in southern Australia. A result of NZ’s glaciation, and lack of that in Australia. Our speed has built back up well and we are overtaking traffic on the highway. Always a good sign and good marketing for rail. Hits motorists in their ‘I’m an individual’ nerve. Particularly as a few look like they are stuck behind trucks. They slow to enter Te Horo, we don’t, we continue at speed through this small town. If the traffic is doing 80km/h, their speed limit, we must be doing over 100. An achievement on conventional 1067mm track with conventional loco power up front. We’re giving a truck a run for its money, as it charges the hill.

The shoe is now on the other foot, we slow while the traffic marches on. The nearby hills are unexpectedly steep and tall this close to the line. NZ certainly at is best ‘Lord of the Rings’ look. We’ve gained on that traffic again as we race through Peka Peka. There is something to be said for not stopping at every little town, as Vline does at Riddles Creek or Cityrail does north of Telerah. Although what Cityrail is actually doing north of Telarah is anyone’s guess.

No sign of Wellington’s suburbs yet. Wellington may be the capital but is still a small city. Newcastle sized, Hobart-styled with the prosperity of those on permanent incomes, like Canberra. The train service is better than Newcastle’s, and no-one is trying to toss rail out of the city centre to make money.

I’d like to imagine Newcastle had this type of rail service, to Sydney. Or even a similar arrangement for Singleton and Muswellbrook. No ferals. Decent train with paying pax. But would they want a day in Newcastle. What is there in Newcastle that is so compelling to do? Why not fly down to Sydney instead. This is Newcastle’s problem, not the train service, but the lack of reason for being. Newcastle has more in common with Palmerston North, the university city that feeds into Wellington, than it has with Wellington itself, though the sizes are similar.

We slow to a stop unexpectedly. A few people board at a small station in the middle of the town. This is Waikanae. It doesn’t look big enough for a suburban extension, though we are getting close to Wellington. Still very rural, and those high hills loom over the town. Plenty of cars in the station carpark, and about 30 people board. The 8 cars are still not challenged for seating room. Wellington Regional Council must have grand dreams for this town, as there doesn’t look like much demand yet for a full-time rail service. There must be some though; the suburban trains have been running to Paraparaumu for 25 years so they must know where the edge of the demand boundary is.

The gap in the electrification is perplexing. When Auckland goes 25kv, there will be 2 gaps. From Papakura to Hamilton, and from Palmerston North to Waikanae. All that engine changing, its a wonder the labour costs don’t pay for the wires in between, even if dual voltage would be required at the Wellington end.
In some ways I hope it doesn’t come. This diesel hauled service is miles better than the common suburban services here, and I wouldn’t wish the Sunbury problem on these people, who look like the train service is worth something to them.

We are clearly in suburbs now, and pass a 40km caution as we run behind suburban backyards. We’ve hit the end of the wire at Paraparaumu. It looks like a hundred or so wait to get on. Paying extra to board the comfortable train, while only a few board the suburban train in the dock platform opposite. The car I’m in looks pretty full. My count of the passengers having boarded so far doesn’t tally with how fully the train appears. We leave the suburban train waiting in the dock platform, maybe 10% full. That’s not bad for a terminus, but also tells me, if they keep running this train after the extension of the electrification, they may find the benefit of the wire diminished, as the ‘choice’ custom will opt for the better train.

I look at the other passengers’ tickets, displayed on the tables. Capital Connection – Wellington to Paraparaumu. You need to buy a special ticket for this train. You can’t just board with the local ticket. A sensible move. We’re barely keeping up with traffic beside the road. Cars are now slowing for roadworks, which I suspect are actually the embankment widening for the duplication of the rail track north of MacKays crossing, which is taking places with the extension of the wire. Track equipment and orange plastic are strewn along the track now, though no-one is at work. A second track has been inserted into a level crossing with no track yet joining it.

We are still in very rural surroundings, clearly NZ takes the Perth view, get the wire extensions out well before the housing arrives, not well after as in Melbourne. Stanchions are almost all made of wood, with a steel cross piece at the top. We pass a tourist locomotive depot and some car sidings as we slow through the substantial station, the former electric terminus at Paekakariki, the outside now very suburban and pressed up against the line. I can still see grass covered hills above the suburb, but not on the flat.

We are holding our speed as the train hits the coast. The characteristic sea cliffs falling to the sea, with the line tacked on precariously, emerges. A bit like the Illawarra, though lower down. It is pleasing to see the locomotive at the head of the train and hear its gurgle. Nothing beats loco-hauled trains for comfort. It’s the feeling of having no motors within the carriage, and of more even acceleration and deceleration than multiple units can achieve. And the cars look open and comfortable with no traction equipment on board.

Traffic on the parallel two land coast road has ground to a crawl, and we are overtaking them very well even on our own curvature. The line is rising above the coast, into the hills. I don’t envy the road commuters. We head into a tight bore, single-track tunnel, only to emerge to the same scenery. And again. And again. And one more time for good measure. I can see why the line was electrified. For freight, of course, but the grades and the tunnels would have tested the steam loco crews. We reemerge to the double track, and crawl around the curves past a 40km board to Muri, a simple and very rustic station, built of wood. Reminiscent of the likes of Dora Creek or Point Clare in the old days.

School children start to appear on the platforms we pass. They are always a good market for rail, and will appear on trains in the fringe urban areas well ahead of many commuters. It’s slow going through this part of Wellington. The rural hillsides have started appearing again, not much in the way of development. We pass the Overlander, heading north, only a few cars long and big contrast with this train. The Overlander was nearly canned, and was saved with an original deal to run it 3 days a week, now reinstated to 7 days a week. Perhaps demand is off the boil again. As Countrylink in Australia finds, it is one thing to get people on the train for 2 hour journeys, another to get them on the train for 12. And while the train from Palmerston North to Wellington is a good deal compared with flying, from Auckland it isn’t. Not only do flights take only 1 hour on this main route, tourist fares are excellent and often undercut the rail fare.

You can see with such sparse settlement along this line that the passenger service was built up from having an electrified section for freight. I doubt even in the 1940s much consideration would have been given to electrifying for passengers, even without the burden competition from road traffic, you would have had in those days. We creep along the sea again at Plimmerton, with a feeling very like Bombo. Too cold for swimming though! Plenty of yachts and cruisers in the harbour here. We are making good progress through the suburbs and though the speed isn’t high, the pace is consistent.

Suburbs extend across the bay from here and they look remote from rail, a bit like in Gosford. I wonder if they drive to these stations, or just keep going. We are passing Porirua, a major stop on this line. There are several places they start the suburban services from, Porirua, Plimmerton as well as Paraparaumu. A predilection for P’s! It ain’t Gosford though, or maybe what Gosford looked like 20 years ago. A few multistory apartments blocks, but not like Gosford yet. The platforms and the bus interchanges are very full. We are in the full thick of peak hour I’d say.

Public transport has strong support here, unlike Newcastle. I guess it has to do with the sense of economic security. Newcastle’s working class have lifted themselves a long way from the mining and steelworks days, and the car is the symbol of that. Wellingtonians on the other hand, are supported by government jobs in the CBD, and can live well remote from that in these remote valleys and coastlines, and travel to work by electric train. So population is a key determinant of public transport demand, but so is culture. We need to work on culture more.

We pass Tawa station, very quiet compared with the earlier ones, maybe a train ahs just gone. I’m guessing so as our train slams on its breaks, we may be close behind. AS we prepare to enter the long tunnels that mark our entry to Wellington proper, we won’t have to worry about stations, so we should find the train in front speeding up. We pass Takapu Road, the last of the stations, still pleasingly rural this close to Wellington, we slow round a curve. Many of these stations look substantial, but run down. Shame.

I can see why the Paraparaumu-ites pay the extra for the service. It really surpasses Vline standards, yet for a simple Pakenham style service. Which supports my views on Pakenham. A premium service really should be offered, using the Vline model, and charged accordingly. Those who wish to use the Connex service would also be catered for, albeit at a lower standard and cheaper price. This would accommodate demand for services for many years to come (and deal with the politics of the area).

My ear pressure builds as we speed into the long tunnels. NZ tunnels always amaze me. It is our dereliction that we have not built them too. Too many places need this sort of tunnel – Mt Kuring-Gai to Brooklyn, Waterfall to Thirroul, even north from Dora Creek would be my picks. Ardglen may finally be getting one. Toowoomba is on the plans, although how many decades into the future? We seem to be keeping speed up in here. Probably the fastest place on the line, although the noise and loss of visual sense might be playing tricks. We emerge over the motorway and quickly reenter the next one.

These tunnels cut into ranges that divide Wellington into discrete urban areas. Rail has an advantage over road – it goes very directly to these places. Without tunnels, you end up with the Johnsonville line situation, rail services that really only work to connect welfare customers. J’ville is not so much a problem, it has a loyal clientele who find the train convenient at that close distance. But imagine if that was the main line to Auckland still. It would be like…NSW!

We stop outside Kaiwharawhara presumably for a signal. The congestion as we approach the terminus is noticeable. They are building an extra track into the terminus from here. I have never understood why five tracks (Hutt Valley, NIMT and Johnsonville) fell to 2 right at the terminus. We are talking running lines, not track, as there are dozens of freight sidings and electric car sidings beside us. We’ve been given the road, and are moving at pace towards the terminus. People are starting to get up from their seats.

I’ll leave it here as it’s time to pack up and go. An excellent rail service, which would put most Australian ones to shame.

Dave Snowdon, “Chief Scientist” with a UK consulting firm called Cognitive Edge, has developed a way of looking at problems that breaks a lot of conventional thinking – an idea that will appeal to me!

http://www.cognitive-edge.com/

He covers a lot of topics that would be of interest to PT theorists including the power of social networks and distributed cognition.

His Cynefin framework, though, is the piece de resistance and helps with understanding the difficult policy and operational environments that decrepit public transport systems such as Melbourne and Sydney now have.

He has built a matrix of four cells (although he tends to not like them expressed with rigid boundaries):

In the lower right, simple situations, in the upper right, complicated situations, in the upper left, complex situations, and finally, in the lower left, chaotic situations.

He argues that a rational person needs to use different responses according to what quadrant they are in.

Simple problems have simple solutions, and Nike’s Just do it phrase is appropriate here.

If the bus from Huntingdale to Monash, or from Griffith Uni to Queen St is always slightly over-full, then get a bigger bus! (or run another one)

Complicated problems require un-picking, but there is an inherent logic at work. Economic downturns result in unemployment, but the relationship is not immediate, direct or even proportional. Several dozen intermediate steps need to be worked through, and they take time and have a certain unpredictability about the reactions. But the relationship is there, and is real.

You can’t Just to It, when it comes to fixing these problems, as you will need to unpick exactly what the problem is, and which part really needs to be fixed. Exploratory surgery. But there is an answer in there, and you will find it with diligence.

For example, the signalling system is regularly failing, and some part out of millions is not performing as specified. A detailed engineering assessment, including root cause analysis might find the correct sources of failure and address them. It is no good just finding the defective part. You need to find what made it defective.

But from those two ‘comfortable’ states we move into the uncomfortable ones, complexity and chaos.

In the complex state, we start to find problems that have no coherent chain of cause and effect. While the complicated state had a very long chain of root causes, this one may have none. A failure in one part of a complex system may riccochet into other parts, or not.

This is where we start finding ourselves in east-coast transport policy development. It is somewhat clear that there may have been a relationship between transport spending and transport outcomes at some point, now we are not even clear on that. As this site has famously identified, simple projects in Melbourne are costing more than complex ones in Perth. And even then, which one is the cause and which is the effect. Are the projects costing so much because of costs, or because of lack of spending in the past?

In economics this can be regarded as ‘path dependency’. The logic goes something like this. If the price of apples doubles and the quantity therefore consumed halves, it seems reasonable that when the price falls again by the same amount, the quantity will go back to what it was before. But it doesn’t always happen this way. If the price of oil doubles, and people invest in new technology to use substitute energy sources, they won’t necessarily go back to consuming the same level of oil they did if the price returns to the old price.

And that’s a simple example of path dependency! Sources of complexity in social systems would generally be even less obvious than this one.

Because there is no simple logic of cause and effect, or even a complicated logic, not only does Just Do It not work, but a detailed surgical analysis or root cause analysis will also not necessarily pick up the cause, or find a feasible solution.

It is likely in this environment that any improvement would come from a series of small “safe-fail” experiments, to see which parts of the cause-effect relationship are still working in localised contexts.

We may no longer know what the true need for a tunnel from Footscray to Caulfield is, but we’ll try Mees experiment of boosting services on the Sandringham line, see if a positive demand side response occurs, and take it from there. If he’s wrong, at least the consequences won’t be so great than if we started work on a tunnel we don’t need.

Finally, we see chaotic systems. It is worse than not just having no clear cause and effect chains, no relationships between anything appear to be at work. Trains get cancelled in Melbourne, ostensibly because of 40 degree heat, but nothing appears to work – intervention at the political level, techical level, industrial level.

These systems do not benefit from any of ‘just do it’ or root cause analysis or even small experiments (as there is nothing coherent to judge your results by).

These systems need strong leadership to: limit the damage, to provide a guiding light to those within the system trying to navigate their way through it, and finally, to stabilise what results can be stabilised.

If a Ministerial resignation, followed by a new Minister with a specific brief to settle whatever the unions have asked for, pay whatever the trains cost to be fixed and finally, act as a clear source of truthful information to the public, has the desired effect, it stablises the situation, to allow followup work to deal with unreasonable union claims, redesign trains and put performance information in place that is meaningful.

I find a lot of my own work in this site and my blog has been directed at providing a clear sense of where public transport policy needs to go from an environment of chaos.

Interstate and overseas comparisons provide a guiding light, a fixed point of reference for those who struggle to see past the day-to-day chaos. Killing sacred cows and hammering home hobbyhorses can help people to see that sometimes being “right” is not relative, but absolute in certain contexts. I am not any less “right” simply because I do not bow at certain gods of politics, culture or society. I only become ‘wrong’ when the facts (simple, complicated) are wrong, or because an experiment (complex) has failed.

Mussolini didn’t get the trains to run on time, and I don’t endorse fascism. Clearly Ron Christie was trying to act as a chaos limiter when he wrote his report. He wasn’t just “right” because I agreed with the content. He was “right’ because he derived his analysis from the facts, but also saw just how much ‘rightness’ the political system could take, and sat well placed within it to make his observations without bearing excessive cost or pain from doing so.

cheers,

Phin

______________

INVITATION TRANSPORT: VISIONS FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Future Leaders in partnership with Melbourne Conversations is presenting
this event. Melbourne Conversations is the City of Melbourne’s program of
free talks.

A brief explanation is as follows: Firstly, upload the image in the add media tab (or select an existing one from the media library), and copy the part of the link url beginning with wp-content (shown below). Note there’s no need to insert this image into the post for it to work.

Then exit back to the write post screen and scroll down to custom fields. Select image and paste the link url  (wp-content/uploads/2008/10/2403524674_ec16a6a573.jpg in our example) into the value box. Click Add Custom Field and it’s done.

Cheers,

Phin

Crossing the metaphorical Murray into new transport topics!

Sorry guys – I agree we do need to start broadening out our topics beyond Melbourne though I realise that is what most people are familiar with.

I will start a series looking at urban rail transport in Brisbane which will tie in with the recent release of the report discussing an Inner City network of tunnels, loosely described as “metro” but probably more in name than in spirit or fact.

I have blogged recently on this issue as well if you are interested.

Too much to do! Working on the Pakenham series, my training tracks and dealing with current topics such as metro rail proposals, urban planning and contributing to others’ posts and blogs, and doing my own blog.

Some of my hobbyhorses I have worked on on Railpage and on my blog, such as the use of Stadtbahns in smaller capitals, I will leave for the moment as the political momentum of Adelaide pursuing this course of action will serve as a good example for other jurisdictions.

If anyone is interested, I would love to read and contribute to a discussion on the Gold Coast light rail proposal. You’re probably all as busy as I am though. And there are plenty of good Melbourne topics to keep up with. Best wishes to all.

Cheers,

Phin