The #IndianPacific 🇦🇺 from #Sydney to #Perth via #Adelaide has got a number of Lounge Cars in its consist: perfect places to unwind, to enjoy some really good coffee ☕️ or a drink.
Boarding the #IndianPacific 🇦🇺 at #Sydney Central. The train is almost 30 cars long. The 4,352 km long journey to #Perth, on the other end of #Australia, will last 65 hours they say. Plenty of mileage ahead then. And what a beautiful train!
#Sydney’s 🇦🇺 commuter network is not only land-based: a range of passenger ferry lines are serving neighbourhoods bordering the harbour. And the fine catamarans operating on these waterborne routes provide some nice sightseeing opportunities. 😊
Early morning sees quite a number of #InterCity services coming and going to and from #Sydney 🇦🇺 Central. These services are usually worked by very nice trainsets that look familiar to the British traveller: their design is very close to the #InterCity125#HST.
Good Morning from #Sydney 🇦🇺 Central Station, a busy transport hub with #InterCity and #Suburban train services, #LightRail and more. It also is a nice place for the railfan (and, I understand, a convenient one for the commuters).
Australia's roads are "killing corridors" for biodiversity
Mobility design for extinction records
"Appin Road is known as Australia's 'killing corridor' because of the large number of endangered koalas killed on the stretch. Increased traffic on south-west Sydney's Appin Road has resulted in 32 of the endangered marsupials being killed on the notorious stretch since July 2022 – roughly half of all deaths in the district over the same period. Wildlife advocates have long referred to it as Australia's "killing corridor".
>> https://au.news.yahoo.com/developer-responds-as-aussie-road-upgrade-near-killing-corridor-labelled-pretty-horrific-030233495.html
We have a wonderful pipeline of Linux Australia-auspiced events coming up for the back half of 2024, after fantastic conferences earlier in the year by the teams at #DrupalSouth in #Sydney and @everythingopen in #Gladstone
Hornsby is the fifth best place to live in Australia, apparently.
At least, according to a study SGS Economics and Planning:
"Sydney's Northern beaches ranks as the highest in the nation for wellbeing, with only one Queensland city making it to the top 10, the annual index revealed today.
"The Australian Capital Territory came in second due to its low gender wage gaps, climate change risks and the division of wealth."
The study assessed 518 local council areas on seven indicators:
If you haven't already heard the news, Cumberland Council in Sydney's west has voted to ban books that feature same-sex parents from public libraries in their LGA.
I will be speaking more on this issue, but you can send a message to councilors via Equality Australia, asking them to rescind the motion.
Looks like Sydney Trains is going to drop the jargon from its PA announcements.
From the SMH:
"Commuters will soon be told to “get off” the train, rather than “alight”, after Sydney Trains resolved to overhaul its station announcements to favour colloquial language.
"The phrase “this train terminates here” is also being retired, due to concerns the word “terminates” is difficult to understand."
So the RTA's own modelling showed the Rozelle Interchange would be a traffic disaster—but generating more toll road trips for Transurban was more important.
"The [NSW Roads and Traffic Authority] finalised the first business case for the WestConnex tunnel project in June 2013, with the help of road designers from around the world.
"[Paul Forward, a former CEO of the RTA] said the initial concept did not include the Rozelle Interchange.
...
"In 2014, an expert review group was formed to assess these plans.
"Mr Forward said it was at this point that TfNSW bureaucrats began to question the connectivity provided by the design.
"The RTA's former director of traffic Chris Ford told the inquiry that 15 alternative designs were modelled.
"Mr Ford said the modelling found that another motorway leading to the Anzac Bridge would cause congestion.
"'The issues that we see today were very clearly established in the modelling in 2014,' he said.
"In November 2015, after Mr Forward and Mr Ford were dismissed, TfNSW updated the WestConnex business case to include the tunnel to the Anzac Bridge, despite the congestion concerns raised by the modelling.
"In 2016, Transport for NSW updated the business case a second time ... creating a tunnel linking the Iron Cove Bridge to the Anzac Bridge."
...
"In 2018, the NSW government sold its 51 per cent stake in the Sydney Motorway Corporation, the body responsible for operating WestConnex, to Transurban for $9 billion.
"Mr Forward said the final design would generate a larger number of toll trips than previous options."
"It's going to be a bloody disaster": Tell me again about how the second road tunnel under Sydney Harbour won't make congestion worse?
"Civil engineer Les Wielinga, a former CEO at the now-defunct Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA), made the fiery comments at a NSW parliamentary inquiry into the bungled Rozelle Interchange.
"The Western Harbour Tunnel, which is under construction, will allow drivers travelling between the inner west and the North Shore to bypass the CBD.
"Entries and exits to the tunnel will lie at the Ernest Street interchange in Cammeray and near the Falcon Street interchange at North Sydney.
"'It's going to be a bloody disaster,' Mr Wielinga told the upper house committee on Friday.
"Paul Forward, another former CEO of the RTA, told the inquiry he was concerned about the project's design.
"'You've now got three motorways coming out into this short area, and whilst I would recognise there are some exit points, some off-ramps, those motorways are now all going into the Lane Cove Tunnel,' he said.
"'A large number of lanes are going into two lanes at the Lane Cove Tunnel. Sounds familiar?'"
"Deliberately grounded on a tiny reef in the #SouthChinaSea, part of an island chain claimed by the two Asian countries, the #BRPSierraMadre is now the unlikely base for a detachment of Filipino marines who stand guard over the atoll, scanning the turquoise waters for Chinese ships." #AyunginShoal#SecondThomasShoal#Philippines
#SYDNEY, #Australia – Australian Prime Minister #AnthonyAlbanese said on Tuesday, May 7, it was unacceptable for Australian defence personnel to be put at risk in international airspace by the Chinese military as they took part in an operation to enforce #UnitedNations sanctions on #NorthKorea.
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