Big ship, small minds

Today the large P&O cruise ship Arcadia called at Port Adelaide.

I went there to meet some English friends, one of whom is 87 years old, who were visiting Adelaide for the first time.

Arrangements, or lack thereof, for disembarking passengers left much to be desired. A wire fence security cordon extending well beyond the passenger terminal (and my comprehension) added to the third world ambience. I took the photo from the security barrier. The passenger terminal is the white building on the right, about 200m from the barrier.

The port security staff, while courteous, lacked the authority and perhaps the desire to assist those passengers who had not booked tours or taxis. It took me several phone calls and about 45 minutes to obtain permission to drive to the terminal and collect my friends, who'd been left waiting outside the building.

One problem was that nobody with a skerrick of authority seemed to have easy access to a passenger list, let alone a list of those who'd actually disembarked. This is a major deficiency in security arrangements.

Another was that the security cordon was crack-brainedly large. Why does Port Adelaide need a large fenced off compound surrounding its terminal building when other terminals eg ports such as San Francisco and Singapore and every international airport I've seen, don't?

On reflection it seems as if the port operators are trying to dissuade cruise ships from visiting Adelaide. If they were serious about supporting tourism in SA they could do a few simple things such as putting information on the web and allowing people meeting passengers to register in advance so that they can meet their friends without having to wait in limbo for an indefinite time.

Back from leave...more transport problems

Adelaide Now/The Advertiser reports that a train was delayed for almost an hour because the driver missed a stop, while a tram (presumably one of the recently acquired ones) was delayed due to a malfunctioning door:

A Transadelaide train was stopped in the middle of a busy peakhour service because the driver missed a stop and the rules say he had to be relieved.

According to an explanation given to passengers on the Noarlunga line train stopped on the city side of the Emmerson station, regulations say the driver must not continue with the run after making such a mistake.

The train was stopped about 8.20am and did not resume until a relief driver took over about 9.10am.

Also this morning, a peak-hour tram into the city arrived 15 minutes late after problems with a door delayed the tram at a suburban stop.

PS Will try to post more frequently from now on.

Public transport makeover promised for Adelaide

In his budget South Australia's Treasurer Kevin Foley has promised a radical overhaul of Adelaide's rail/ tram/ light rail transport system .

The Advertiser/ Adelaide Now reports:

The state's ailing public transport system has received a $2 billion injection described as the "single biggest commitment to public transport in the state's history" by Treasurer Kevin Foley. The centrepiece of the massive announcement is an extension of the Glenelg-city tramline to West Lakes, Port Adelaide and Semaphore at a cost of $162 million.

Over the next four years, $648.4 million will be spent on the first leg of the extension, the purchase of new light rail vehicles and buses, electrification of the rail network and a new ticketing system.

Speculation has been rife the Government would extend the tramline following the recently announced upgrade of AAMI Stadium.

Work will begin "immediately" on the first leg of the extension, to the Entertainment Centre, and trams are expected to be running on the new line by 2010.

A park-and-ride facility will be set up at the centre where western suburbs commuters can park their cars for a fee and commute by tram to the city.


To address capacity issues on the already overcrowded tram service, the Government has committed to buying or leasing six new or second-hand trams "immediately".

A further 15 hybrid tram-trains and 50 new electric trains will be bought and 58 diesel trains will be refurbished and converted to electric over the same period.

Mr Foley described the transport budget as a "blueprint for redeveloping our transport network that will help provide a framework for the future development of our city and state".

In the northern and southern suburbs, rail was the focus.

Electrification of the Noarlunga and Outer Harbour lines will begin at a total cost of $292 million and the start of concrete re-sleepering of the Gawler line will cost $116 million.

On the roads, an extra 80 buses will be added to the fleet over the next four years at a cost of $64.4 million.

This is in addition to the 133 replacement buses to be purchased under and $102.2 million program.

A long-awaited replacement for the more than 20-year-old Crouzet ticketing system has been promised with a commitment of $29 million to begin purchasing new machines.

For a map of the proposed changes see here.

Notwithstanding a question or two about details (eg how will standard gauge trams run on the broad gauge Port Adelaide rail track?) I'm obviously in favour of the proposals and look forward to seeing them implemented within Mr Foley's timeframe.

"The quality of travellers is better at the back end of the plane"

In The Weekend Australian former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie writes whimsically about his journey across the Pacific and the US in economy class.

Extract:

I really didn't think it was that funny to be honest but I smiled politely as I desperately tried to force my carry-on luggage into the overhead bin above seat 50H in the bowels of economy class on the Brisbane to LA flight QF175.

"What no more first or business class?" chuckled a friendly Australian of Indian descent, who seemed far too pleased with himself. The woman next to him across the aisle was even more direct: "Why are you down here?" I thought that was self-evident so I just kept smiling like some deranged idiot until the last of my luggage was finally safely in place.

But as I sat down she wouldn't let it go, "Don't ex-premiers get first and business class travel for life?" she inquired. She was about my age and pleasant enough so I ever so politely explained that ex-premiers did not get free air travel for life, secretly wishing for the first time ever that we did. But since I was the fool who had banned such travel I was in no position to complain.

"The quality of travellers is better at the back end of the plane," I stated bravely. They seemed particularly pleased with that idea and I was equally pleased they didn't ask when was the last time I travelled economy. The truth was it has been a little while since I travelled either out of the government jet or the pointy end of the plane and since their taxes had been paying for both the least I could do was to take their gentle Australian ribbing on the chin. So I did.

The pointy end of QF175 may have been full but there were plenty of spare seats where the "quality passengers" were. So my new travelling mates told me that as soon as we took off we should divide up the empty seats for maximum comfort. "We will end up with more room that those buggers in business class at a fraction of the cost," my new best mate said in his clear Australian-Indian accent. And he was right...

I must try to emulate Mr B and be more stoic about long distance flights; but it would be good to acquire the secret of how he managed to get a whole row of seats to himself on a Qantas trans-Pacific flight.

More transport miscellany

Cycling and trams

Today's Advertiser/ Adelaide Now editorial, acknowledges the Tour Down Under and calls for better cycling infrastructure for "day to day riders", eg me:

Bicycle lanes on our streets are haphazard and poorly co-ordinated.

There are few, if any, viable bicycle transport corridors leading into the city.

Worse, bike lanes often peter out into nothing on the most dangerous stretches of road such as Main North Rd leading into the city.

.....

With the event celebrating its 10th year, it is time for Mr Rann and his Government to show similar support for grassroots cyclists, by developing a co-ordinated approach to making the roads safer for our bike riders.

Bicycle lanes and dedicated transport corridors should be as much a part of our transport planning as trams, trains, and large-scale roadworks like the Northern Expressway – construction of which began yesterday.

Cycling is a healthy, environmentally-friendly transport option. It ties with many of the Government's strategic plan targets concerning sustainability and wellbeing.

It is time to fund it accordingly.

While it's on the topic of transport the editorial adds some supportive words to say about the much maligned tram extension:

The new trams, while relatively comfortable, are clearly not big enough for their task.

Either the Government incorrectly forecast passenger numbers or it bought the wrong trams for the job.

Adelaide urgently needs a greatly expanded light rail network as part of an overhaul of its public transport system.

It is to be hoped the same mistakes do not happen next time.

When will the next time be, I wonder?

The tram line now runs down North Terrace by the railway station so it shouldn't be too difficult to convert at least some of the existing suburban lines eg Outer Harbor, Grange, Belair to "light rail". This has been done elsewhere, including some Melbourne lines and in South London .

Insurance to protect licence losers

TheAge reports that an insurance company is now offering cover against loss of a driving licence.

National Underwriting Agencies spokesman Noel Johns said the policy was designed for good drivers who fell victim to revenue-raising.

"Thousands of Australians are being penalised for minor transgressions each day and the loss of their licence can really affect their work and family life," Mr Johns said.

"There are over 10.5 million registered passenger vehicles in Australia and the majority of the drivers of those vehicles are trying to do the right thing.

"But with the increase of fixed cameras and other devices, people are getting tired of being booked for a few kilometres over."

An increase in the number of speed detection devices throughout Australia has made it more likely for the average motorist to accumulate points and lose their driving licence.

The latest VicRoads figures show 33,082 full-licence drivers had 12 or more demerit points at June 30 last year, while 12,132 had 11 demerit points and 22,844 had 10 demerit points.

The State Government and Victoria Police deny speed cameras are used to raise revenue.

Although I won't be applying for one of the company's policies as I'm not (touch wood) at immediate risk of losing my licence (I have 3 demerit points) I think their arguments have some merit. For one thing, the government and Vic Police claim that speed cameras are not used to raise revenue is balderdash, for another many speed limits are arbitrarily selected and often on the "if in doubt, lower the limit" principle.

See the article I referred to in yesterday's post for another example of concern at the growing, and potentially misdirected, regulation of on road behaviour.

None of this is intended to make light of the still unsatisfactorily large road toll on our roads, and I'd be happy to consider any other views about what might be done to reduce it.

World's cheapest car

Both the Murdoch and Fairfax media report on the launch in India of what is claimed to be the world's cheapest car, the Tata Nano, a five seater no frills (eg no Air Con) vehicle with a 624cc engine which will sell for 100,000 rupees (about $A2,800).

I'd expect it to do well, though driving in many parts of India is, from my experience ( only as a passenger, apart from a brief bike ride in Goa), not for the faint-hearted. The price of petrol is high, the roads are are variable quality (there are some very good ones), and none of the cities have half decent street directories (or if they have none of the hire car, taxi or auto rickshaw drivers I've used have had one). That said, while I expect many people here will turn their noses up at the Nano, it doesn't seem to be very different in specs from a Fiat 500 or 600, a specimen of which I saw yesterday on the road near here.

Motor skills

A grab bag of pieces about motoring from the media:

• "Lost in the rush" by motoring journalist Bill Tuckey in The Australian: "Revenue-hungry governments ignore the statistics as they hype the holiday road toll, while their focus on speeding blinds us to the myriad other reasons behind accidents". It skims over a lot of topics but asks some pertinent questions.

• A difference of opinion as to whether the Indian cricket team's bus was involved in a minor accident in Sydney. According to The Australian Radio 2UE reported it as a fact, yet the Indian team media manager said "I am on the bus. We didn't hit anything."
  

• An anti- 4WD rant by Charlotte George in The Age . She uses the fuel guzzling Hummer to condemn all 4WDs (or SUVs as they are increasingly becoming known here) , which is fair enough...up to a point. As a 4WD owner let me say in my defence that I try to restrict my use to medium - long trips, and that I try to drive at the optimum speed for fuel economy (around 90 kph). Doing so makes for long days but with some CDs (audio books or music) to listen to on the open road and stops every two hours or so travelling can be enjoyable.

Transport matters

Suburban railway travel






Today The Advertiser published (but not online) some more letters about Adelaide's public transport situation.

I travelled on the rail system today and found it very punctual (I just missed one train but won't complain) yet still looking tired and in need of upgrading.

A relatively cheap way of doing something would be to clean the train windows, or replace those those which are badly scratched (see this post from last year for an illustration). It's dispiriting not to be able to see clearly where you're travelling: I wonder how many people have missed their station because of not being able to read station identification signs (some of which are themselves defaced and illegible). I know drivers often read out station names, but their voices don't always come through clearly on the PA systems.

The drivers are currently in dispute with TransAdelaide over pay and they are holding stop work meetings (short strikes?) during off peak hours on some days. As it's school holidays I doubt whether too many people are inconvenienced much, but even so I hope that this relatively low key pressure helps obtain a reasonably satisfactory result for them.

Another current issue, and one which almost certainly will not be resolved as easily as the drivers's dispute is the poor condition of the track. The Outer Harbor line was reballasted and generally upgraded only five years or so ago yet there are now a significant number of speed restrictions, some as low as 15 kph, as the photo above, which I took during my travels today, indicates. (I found the page in a carriage- someone had used the back of it to draw attention to a wet seat).

The suburban railway system for all its shortcomings is an essential part of Adelaide's public transport system but an element for which the government seems to have no coherent or feasible plans for the medium to long term. It is planning to effect some repairs to the Outer Harbor and Grange lines over the next couple of weekends, but beyond that what? The State government's goal of doubling public transport use by 2014 or thereabouts seems to have been shunted into a siding. The cover story of this week's Independent Weekly indicates that the Noarlunga railway line is unlikely to be extended in our time, which is probably a wise decision notwithstanding the urban expansion down south, but something should be done to ensure the sustainability of the existing system, especially the major north and south lines.

Bicycle sales exceed those of cars...again

Today I used the train as a means of transporting my bike to and from the beach, where I rode from Grange to Outer Harbor (an excellent ride when the weather is like it was today - sunny and not too hot - and the tide is out). It's therefore good to see that, as The Age reports, in Australia bicycle sales have outstripped car sales for the eighth consecutive year.

Not that I've bought a bike for several years, but I do own two: a mountain bike, whose tyres make it easier to tride on firm sand, and a road bike, which I use less often. (I only have one car, which I try to use as little as possible around town, even in inclement weather).

"Airports are very stressful places for a lot of people"

So spake a Sydney magistrate who, as today's Australian reports, did not convict a university lecturer who pleaded guilty to two counts of assault and swearing in a public place (that's still an offence?) because she missed a Jetstar flight to Hervey Bay.

The magistrate expected a bucketload of criticism from the usual tabloid sources. I don't condone violence but I do think that the magistrate has a point and, moreover, that the authorities, by which I mean airline, customs/immigration/ quarantine , airport security and management, can do more to alleviate matters.

For starters:

1. Review processes with a view to speeding them up at both departure and (particularly for international flights) arrival .

This means, among other things:

• improving technology, eg x-ray equipment, to reduce/eliminate errors: on my recent trip transiting via Singapore (and not going out of the airport) I had to empty my carry on bag as the X-ray operators were adamant that I was carrying a small cutting instrument (I wasn't, but they wouldn't take my word for it).
  
• seeing that enough trained people are available to deal with the customers.

2. Provide passengers with as sufficient information as possible to help them go through departure and arrival formalities as smoothly as possible.

Suggestions:

• make information available as widely as possible and in a variety of media: online, print and, for inbound passengers, in the destination videos which are shown just before arrival.
• have clear instructions and signage throughout terminals.

If this sounds like I'm just being grumpy let me give a bouquet to the authorities at Heathrow, who seem to have, especially after the foiled bombing attempt at Glasgow airport, recognised that slow moving crowds of people in terminals can be a major security risk. My impression when I left this year was that the processing was still rigorous but that people didn't have to wait as long as has been the case in the past. By no means perfect (and the immigration counters for arriving non-British/EU citizens are understaffed - or perhaps on the morning when I passed through there were a few late arrivals ) but getting better.

In Australia the procedures at Darwin Airport were sub-standard: a long, slow moving queue stretched out of the terminal building into the tropical night, and the few instructions were bellowed out by the staff operating the x-ray machines (in a language which I, but not I imagine foreign passengers, just recognised as Australian English). Some of the staff came across as brusque and officious. Not a good way to welcome visitors and returning citizens.

Note: The version of this story printed in The Oz is longer than the online version linked to above.

Third world rail system?

Last Thursday Adelaide commuters were, as the picture below shows , inconvenienced by a peak hour Noarlunga line train derailment just outside the Adelaide station . For reports see here and here.



The derailed Noarlunga bound train.

On Saturday The Advertiser published (not online) a letter from a passenger on the train who described the local railway system as of third world standard. IMO this is not an unfair comment as the system has been allowed to run down to the point where old rolling stock (see photo) and either decayed infrastructure or signalling or both impedes its smooth operation.


For example, see the photo below, which I took on 22 August this year. The window is typical of many on the rail cars: somehow the outer layer of glass/ plastic becomes corroded or scored and obscures passengers' ( not the driver's I hope) view. In the photo only a small portion of the window (on the right) is unaffected.

A view from TransAdelaide's window

I'm not aware that either Premier Rann or Transport Minister Conlon has commented, let alone apologised for or, radical thought, offered to upgrade the system (a plan for electrification would be nice) .

Update/ correction 2 October

There's a letter in today's Advertiser (not online) which refers to a comment about the derailment by Transport Minister Conlon: "accidents happen sometimes". The writer comments that this "is typical of the arrogant, pig-headed attitude of the state Labor Government. You were lucky this time, Mr Conlon. Next time, you may have blood on your hands." Strong words, but not unreasonable.

Outback 'ungoverned'

Tucked away on p 7 of today's printed Australian but not, as far as I can tell, online, is an article by Victoria Laurie reporting a speech given on Saturday by former WA governor John Sanderson to the Order of Australia Association. He drew attention to governance problems in the outback, and the report quotes him as saying:

A large part of this continent is increasingly neglected and, for a significant number of our rural people, governance is weak and intangible...Government is receding from the country to what I describe as pockets of indulgence and indifference in the southeast and southwest corners. Over the past three or four decades, possibly as a consequence of market forces, we have seen a steady withdrawal of the presence of both the public and the private sector from the remote regions of the continent.

Some of this is in code (eg for "significant number of our rural people" read aboriginals) but, as a regular traveller to some of the regions he mentions, I agree that the matter should be raised and debated. The government is always banging on, often with good reason, about Australia's security, yet doesn't seem to realise that it is important to secure our own territory. Weak and intangible governance throughout much of inland and northern Australia is a major security risk.

PS Today another report Dropping Off The Edge: the distribution of disadvantage in Australia has been released. It identifies the most disadvantaged areas in Australia, several of which eg East Kimberley (WA) and Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands (SA), meet Mr Sanderson's criteria.(Today's Australian has a story about this on p3 but once again it's not online).

Travellers responsible for Melbourne public transport woes?

See this, by Christopher Scanlon, from The Age ,which takes its cue from a new Connex advertising campaign: "Don't hold others back, help our trains stay on the track":

That message, despite the spiffy-looking website and expensive TV ad campaign, was never particularly convincing. In fact, it's looking decidedly worse for wear amid the recent crisis around the braking system of Siemens trains.

As the repeated references to "Siemen's trains" in the media implies, though, Connex still isn't responsible. Rather, it's that pesky German electrical engineering giant with its unreliable brake system that's to blame. This overlooks the small fact that Connex should have thoroughly tested the trains before putting them into service.

So, should we conclude that Connex is to blame? As tempting and satisfying as it might be to lay all the blame at Connex's feet, it would still be mistaken. While Connex certainly bears a good deal of the responsibility for the crisis in Melbourne's train system, the real problem isn't Connex — or any other private operator, for that matter. Rather, the real failing is privatisation itself.

The problem with privatisation, as many opponents foresaw, is that it permits — even encourages — shifting the blame between different parties. This is the great unspoken benefit of privatisation: it allows governments not only to outsource the delivery of a service, but also to outsource the blame if and when anything goes awry.

.....

If Victoria's experience is anything to go by, the lesson of privatisation is that it puts the State Government at the mercy of the private operators who can leverage more and increasingly generous subsidies from the public purse by threatening to walk away from running the public transport system.

The record shows that private operators are quite happy to use this leverage. As University of Melbourne transport expert Paul Mees has documented, in February 2002 the State Government forked out $1 million in extra subsidies to the three private rail and tram franchisees when they threatened to walk away from their franchise agreements.

The extra money still wasn't enough to keep National Express, the UK company that formerly operated three of the Victorian franchises, from walking away in December 2002. In 2004, the two remaining private operators, Connex and Yarra Trams, negotiated a further deal to run Melbourne's train and tram network for five years, receiving about $1 billion in extra subsidies.

When the Bracks Government came to power in 1999, it reviewed the contracts signed by the previous Kennett government with contractors for privatised services. The report outlined a series of objectives that the Government would hold private transport operators accountable to. These included improving the quality of services, ensuring high safety standards were met and, crucially, transferring the risks involved in operating a public transport system to the private operators.

Recent years, and the last month particularly, have shown that the private operators have failed to deliver on these objectives — even with massive injections of public money. As much as commuters might love to hate Connex, though, the private operator is not the problem. Rather, Connex is being used as the whipping boy for the State Government's unwillingness to sort out the dog's breakfast that is Victoria's expensive experiment with privatising public transport.

Unless Connex's franchise is extended (or another party takes a turn at being the whipping boy), at 3am on November 30, 2008, Melbourne's trains and trams will revert to public ownership without the State Government having to pay a single cent of compensation to private operators. It's time for the Bracks Government to admit that privatisation has been a failure and begin preparing to once again run a public transport system.

Sound familiar? Remember this?

If you don't like our trains, don't board them

Two items about rail safety.

The Metro reports that the UK Office of the Rail Regulator (ORR) , the body which is responsible for safety on trains, claims that overcrowded trains are safer:

An ORR spokesman told the Standard: “Research in the late Nineties... found that where there was a crowded or overcrowded train carriage there was no detrimental effect to people involved in crashes. In a lot of cases people were better off in train carriages where there was overcrowding.” A spokesman added that the ORR had no say in setting the number of carriages on trains or the level of service. “Service levels are set by the Department for Transport,” he said. “We are the safety regulator for the industry. However, there is no legal limit on the number of passengers that can travel in any given train. There is no safety law regarding the maximum number of people in a train carriage.” MPs were stunned by the ORR stance, particularly by seeming to defend overcrowding on the basis that it may protect passengers.

This was followed by advice to a passenger from one rail company: if you don't like packed trains, get off.

Tony Richards complained to First Great Western about his nightmare journey on a packed train from Reading to Penzance in Cornwall. He said: 'We were shoulder to shoulder and you could not move an arm. There was a lady with three young children, a suitcase and a buggy. She ended up holding one child. Another child was sitting on someone's suitcase and her third child was on the lap of a stranger.'

Customer service adviser Calvin Abelar responded by e-mail, saying: 'If a passenger boards an already crowded service, they are in effect saying to First Great Western that they agree to travel in those conditions. 'Ultimately, if a passenger feels the travelling conditions pose a safety risk, then the responsibility lies with the passenger. As well as First Great Western maintaining a responsibility to ensure safe travel, each passenger must use their personal discretion.' But rail watchdog Passenger Focus said: 'Passengers often don't have a choice about when they can travel so can't simply get off.'

Closer to home The Age reports that some of the most sophisticated class of train in the Melbourne suburban fleet have been withdrawn because they have failed simple brake tests:

One of the most sophisticated passenger trains in the Melbourne fleet has failed the simplest of tests.On Saturday a Siemens train could not stop when soapy water was poured on the tracks in a test to try to solve a braking problem that has crippled 31 Siemens trains. Even after the driver pulled the emergency brakes and pushed the emergency stop button, the train would not stop.So he pulled the key from the train's ignition, which caused the train's computer system to shut down and activate the park brake...Now almost half the troubled Siemens fleet have been withdrawn, forcing Connex to cancel almost 40 peak-hour services a day. Over the past fortnight another seven trains have been removed, bringing the total number of trains out to 31.

The Age

All change on the buses?

The long-awaited (well for the last few months) changes to Adelaide public transport have been published online, a couple of days before their official release date.

On one hand there's been a lot of speculation about potential changes, including service reductions; on the other there's been a lot of spin from the government about better services et al.

I've run an eye over many of the changes, which will take effect from 15 October, and to me they look like a case of the more things change the more they remain the same. Many routes have been tweaked, and renumbering some gives the impression of many more changes than are in fact the case.

That said there are still some issues which the authorities have ducked , such as how to improve the provision of services accessible to physically disabled people. The current policy of publicising only routes which are totally wheelchair accessible instead of, as happens elsewhere eg Darwin, inviting disabled patrons to contact the bus company and request an accessible bus for the particular service they wish to travel on, is shortsighted and prevents the company (and the government) from earning a few brownie points.