Aussie Roads

[Sabrista]

I dropped a few pics from my recent Aussie trip into the International (Australian) section of the gallery.

Some general road sign pics in Sydney, and in Perth, something rather more interesting: a railway line, complete with big glass stations, running down the central reservation of the motorway (couldn't tell you which motorway though)!

Chatroom participants have already have a look. The rest of you can now go have a peek!

Serena

[ChrisH]

The freeway in Perth with railway stations in is State Route 2... it has a name as well, but it escapes me! That's unless the light rail runs along the other freeway (south of the city)...

There's a poor shot here.

[mistral]

I think the rail line in Perth is the Northern Suburbs railway to Joondalup. Virtually the entire length of the line is in the Mitchell Freeway's central reservation.

Graham

[ChrisH]

I think the rail line in Perth is the Northern Suburbs railway to Joondalup. Virtually the entire length of the line is in the Mitchell Freeway's central reservation.

Graham

That's the one! Drove up and down that freeway quite a few times.

[Sabrista]

I thought it was a tram line at first until we came to a station (big glass structure) and I asked my friend (who was driving) what that was, and he quite matter-of-factly said, "just the station," and bang on cue, along came a train! We raced it down the motorway for a while (the train won, of course!).

They're not little light-rail trains either, but proper trains, much like the new ones that now run on the c2c line out of Fenchurch Street to Southend, only silver. Went on one (not along the middle of the motorway!) from Perth to Fremantle. Very nice inside too.

Serena

[ChrisH]

I'm not sure you'd want to go very far on one of them though... the seats are pretty hard, aren't they?

*ahem* Anyway, on a similar note, when I saw the red shoulders I wondered to myself "do the other freeways in Western Australia have red shoulders?" Then I realised - what other freeways!? A state the size of western Europe with less than 100 miles of motorway, and 1.8 million people. Unreal!

[M4Simon]

Yes - I once drove around 500 miles in a day across the south west corner of WA - all of which was on single carriageway roads.

Great stuff.

Simon

[Sabrista]

I'm not sure you'd want to go very far on one of them though... the seats are pretty hard, aren't they?

No more uncomfortable than UK trains from what I remember. I had a nice ride to Fremantle.

Serena

[M4Simon]

No more uncomfortable than UK trains from what I remember. I had a nice ride to Fremantle.

We used the local trains in Perth in 1994 - I remember being impressed with them.

We also went on the Australind from Perth to Bunbury - a train that was far superior to anything I had been on in the UK at that time - I wondered whether my ticket was valid for the seat I was sitting in, which felt like first class to me.

Simon

[mistral]

Perhaps they need to try this on the M6Toll!

Free tunnel trial to woo Sydney drivers

More about Sydney's Cross-City Tunnel problems here,here, andhere. Are there any countries where PFI schemes have actually worked properly?

[mistral]

Secret tunnel plan

February 15, 2006

A SECRET fall-back option of buying back the Cross City Tunnel if motorists continue to desert the disastrous motorway is being considered by the State Government. Such a move would finally give the Government power to reduce or scrap the excessive tolls and reverse the road closures that funnel unwilling drivers into the tunnel.

More here.

[M1]

... a railway line, complete with big glass stations, running down the central reservation of the motorway (couldn't tell you which motorway though)!

I have already seen a motorway like that and have gotten completely used to it thanks to the repetitive use of it: The Ayalon freeway in Israel.

[sydneynick]

Perhaps they need to try this on the M6Toll!

Free tunnel trial to woo Sydney drivers

More about Sydney's Cross-City Tunnel problems here,here, andhere. Are there any countries where PFI schemes have actually worked properly?

Well, the Sydney Cross-City Tunnel has been a disaster, but on the other hand there have been successes with the M7 orbital, the Eastern Distributor, and the M5 East, all of which were privately funded.

[M1]

Motorway and road numbering in Australia is regional, isn't it? They can't have a national system for a place that big.

[sydneynick]

Motorway and road numbering in Australia is regional, isn't it? They can't have a national system for a place that big.

There's a national system for major routes. National Highway 1 runs from Cairns to Darwin near the coast, takining in Brisbane, Sydey, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth. National 15 is the inland (better and faster) route from Newcastle to Brisbane via Tamworth and Warwick. National 31 is the direct (well, fairly direct) Sydney to Melbourne via Albury. There doesn't seem to be much system in these numberings, which are usually shown on road signs as a black number on white shield.

For other roads, there are State numbering systems, often with a sub-system for main roads in the capital cities. Victoria, Tasmania, and SA have fairly recently introduced a system of A, B and C class numbering, and show the road numbers consistently on direction signs. NSW numbers all its main roads, but seldom shows the numbers on signs, preferring to use the highway name or just the names of towns.