[COM] Oaklands Crossing | $174m

[Norman]

They will, in fact, they may have done that overnight. I will see in 3 hours

[muzzamo]

Norman could create a gallery in the wikipedia article and post some of your more notable photos?

I would do it for you but i'm not the owner and I didn't take them :-p

[Norman]

I will eventually.

In other news, I fell asleep at around 4am yesterday after attempting an all-nighter, so I missed out on the first trains. Not happy

[muzzamo]

Well I caught the train from here for the first time this morning - its quite impressive. They are still doing the finishing touches including cameras and the ticket kiosk.

Probably the most disappointing thing is that the car park really isn't optimized to fit more cars. There are plenty of areas that they have landscaped with bark and crappy little shrubs that could have been car parks. I can understand that they didn't want to chop more trees down but even with the trees there was room for plenty more parking . The new carpark is now full! I had to park in the old section of the carpark that they have kept.

I also like the fact that there are extra services. I caught the new 8:30 service which is express to the city which was a bonus.

[Will409]

muzzamo, as you may be aware, they are keeping the carpark from the old station that so that isn't going anywhere soon. How many cars were parked on the side streets by the way?

I have noticed similar parking issues at Mawson Lakes interchange but that merely means that more people are using public transport which is what we all want.

[Wayno]

i believe carparks are designed to stop hoons doing donuts/burnout's etc...So space (which could in theory be alocated towards more parking) is consumed for curbs, shrubs/ground cover, etc...

[Düsseldorfer]

muzzamo, as you may be aware, they are keeping the carpark from the old station that so that isn't going anywhere soon. How many cars were parked on the side streets by the way?

I have noticed similar parking issues at Mawson Lakes interchange but that merely means that more people are using public transport which is what we all want.

Perhaps a few multi-story carparks are required for these busy stations, people who have a train/bus tickets should be able to park for free.

[muzzamo]

i believe carparks are designed to stop hoons doing donuts/burnout's etc...So space (which could in theory be alocated towards more parking) is consumed for curbs, shrubs/ground cover, etc...

That can easily be solved with concrete barriers on the ground.

I think in this case the car park design was a result of "community consultation" etc, basically the train station was to be built around the trees without any more being cut down. As I said I wouldn't have had any problems with that but the design as it is is very sparse.

There were heaps of cars parked on the road on the North side too, but yeah I'm aware that the old carpark is being kept too (thank god). I have no doubt that it will be full to within a year or so though. Old Reynella interchange park and ride is now full with people parking on the street and that is only a year or two old now.

[muzzamo]

I wonder where the real time passenger info displays will be, and what type they are?

There doesn't seem to be anywhere immediately obvious where they are mounting them. I guess they will go in when the security cameras go in. It would be nice if they were LCDs like at Adelaide Station (the vandalism potential is obvious but they are everywhere in Sydney - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... ation2.JPG)

[AtD]

Speaking of which, have the LCD screens in the waiting room in Mawson Lakes been turned on yet?

[Will409]

I don't believe they have.

[Düsseldorfer]

what the hell will they show when the finally do get turned on??

but i never use that waiting room its like a refrigerator in winter and a sauna in summer... the elevators make the best waiting room at that station

[Cruise]

But if you wait in the elevator people will think you are wierd

[Aidan]

I will eventually.

In other news, I fell asleep at around 4am yesterday after attempting an all-nighter, so I missed out on the first trains. Not happy

I stayed awake, and was on the first southbound train. It was nothing special, and the first northbound train, which used the station about three minutes before, appeared to be empty.

[James Renfrey]

I made a point of using both platforms and the bus interchange bays for travel on Tuesday, and was very pleased to meet Norman while doing so. We have identical cameras, but I didn't use mine as he has done such a good job of keeping us pictorially informed.

Generally I was very pleased with what I saw, but found waiting for the train quite chilly with a brisk wind blowing onto my back. Unfortunately we have to be content with cold metal seats to defeat the vandals, but waiting enclosures are needed on each platform. With a little care they can be made to blend with the aesthetically pleasing design of the platform roofing. There was plenty of such shelter in the otherwise unlamented former station.

Once again I must congratulate Mr. Conlon. He has kept a very low profile, but slowly and steadily has done more to improve our public transport than any of his predecessors for many years. Almost every station shows signs of this.

We have a long way to go to bring our public transport up to the standard that our beautiful city deserves, and maybe it is time to abandon expensive road upgrades in favour of the environmentally friendly rail and bus option which is currently showing signs of strain as more and more commuters abandon their expensive and antisocial private vehicles.