A fanciful idea

A fanciful idea

What a fanciful idea, this type of train one can see in some of the shopping centres to carry children around and which are not that popular amongst shoppers.

To pull about 30 adults, the units need to be quite substantial. How are they propelled? Will there be a timetable to adhere to? What impact will all this have on customers walking along NewQuay Promenade?

Will the NewQuay surface that those trains travel on, be strong enough? What do the restaurant / bar operators think about this project?

We do have three tramlines operating an almost the same route. We have got a white elephant (wheel being worked on) for the last two years in our backyards.

Do we really need another one on our front doorsteps?

Let me come up with a much more useful idea, that would bring most if not all Docklanders closer together.

We can read and hear about the new Docklanders Deals card. “The card that gives”. Why not extend this card into a “Travel Free throughout Docklands” card.

Travel free from Flinders St West to Waterfront City and back. This would mean, that residents from Flinders Wharf, V1 and The Grand as well as from Yarra’s Edge could travel free into Waterfront City. Most trams travel almost empty through this area now.

This card could be applied for by Docklands residents, people that work in Docklands and possibly by visitors, who want to use such a facility.

The cost of such a project should become much more manageable than the purchase of two sets of transport, extra staff and costs for fuel and upkeep and housing.

Should Yarra Trams feel that they are missing out on any income, they would have to be compensated. This could be controlled by possibly having swipe contacts in the cards to use on the Myki swipe pads.

Food for thought.

Karl B

 

Puzzled by assertion

Reading the interview with Paul O’Halloran I was puzzled by his assertion that most problems are not associated with serviced apartments.

I have analysed the security reports for one of the other NewQuay apartment towers and the numbers for the first four months of 2011 show exactly the opposite. Serviced apartments account for 29 per cent of apartments in the building but are associated with 80 per cent of the security incidents.

Here is the breakdown of the percentages of apartments and the associated percentage of incidents.

Apartment type  % of apartments  % of incidents
Serviced    29    80
Rented    48    18
Owner occupied    23    2

The most serious incidents were associated only with serviced apartments. These incidents involved the attendance of police and ambulance crews and resulted in arrests for criminal damage and criminal harm.

Did Paul disclose during the interview that his wife works for one of the serviced apartment operators? Paul’s wife seems to have joined the group of people working for serviced apartment operators who have moved out of the area.

There was one point on which I agree with Paul. Serviced apartments have become an extremely divisive issue in NewQuay.

It might be easier to manage the inherent conflicts arising from mixing short-stay serviced apartments with residential apartments if we all shared more facts and fewer unsubstantiated opinions.

Name and address withheld

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