Monday, 27 May 2013

Parking Pain

Another benefits of going car-free is parking. Or more precisely - not parking.

In my office building, drivers can either pay to park in the basement, or spend 10 minutes before work scouring the streets for an available spot. The first of those options became even less attractive recently when this email was sent to all employees.

email notice about parking fees increasing by up to 50%

In short, a 50% increase in parking fees. While full time workers now pay $60/week to park in the building, most weeks I pay less than 30 for public transport (for work and personal use). Also I don't pay for petrol, registration, insurance or vehicle maintenance.

Thursday, 16 May 2013

Extra morning trains :)

Public transport keeps improving all the time. Now there are two extra morning trains on my train line - arriving in the city at 7:50 and 8:02am.

translink announce new trains

This means that for most of the morning commuting period, trains are every 6 minutes. This is so convenient. Even if you've just missed one, it's only a few minutes to the next one.

On my line the morning trains arrive now arrive in the city at 7.44, 7.50, 7.56, 8.02, 8.08, 8.14, 8.20, 8.32, 8.44, 8.50 and 8.56.

Earlier than 7.44, they're about every 12 minutes, but i'm not really interested in being at work that early ;) After 9am, they're still every 15 minutes.

I reckon that's quite a good service. But of course, if even more people who use it, it will get even more frequent. :)