Volo Kazmirchuk, who attended Supanova on Saturday and Sunday, said he had heard of the incident on the way home on Saturday evening. “It’s tragic and my sincere condolences to the families and to those affected,” Kazmirchuk said. “But I don’t feel bad coming back here because it’s not something that happened in the event here, God forbid, a shooting or something like that.”

One person dead, one seriously injured, one with minor injuries, and all this guy has to offer is "but like, you know, whatever, it's not like it was done with a gun or anything".

The passive voice was used.

I live in an area considered to be very well connected to the PT network, and yet:

🚂 Every 40 mins until 10am on Sunday, and 30 mins after 8pm all days

🚋 High-floor without aircon, replacements overdue; very few platform stops

🚌 Doesn't run on a Sunday

So, yeah, thanks heaps for making it free.

Unfortunately, and before you reply with "adurrrrrr it can be free and good at the same time", this is yet another reminder that the Victorian Labor government has repeatedly demonstrated that they are plainly not interested in making public transport good.

My very back of the envelope estimation is that for $400 million/year, the Grid could be extended across the whole metropolitan area, largely because there is more existing service provision that can be repurposed.

Imagine that!

The $100m/year cost for the Westbus grid would provide bus services every 10 minutes from ~6am until ~10pm, seven days a week, running along along the 1.6km arterial grid.

It repurposes 1/3 of the existing network, and retains 2/3 for local access etc.

This would be transformative for the west.

The Vic govt is extending free PT until the end of May, and then it's half-price until the end of 2026.

It's going to cost around $400 million. This is 4x what the Better Buses campaign suggests it would cost to bring the buses in Melbourne's western suburbs up to a world-class standard per year.

FTFY: A young man who was killed when someone driving a car struck a group of pedestrians in Melbourne's north-west was on his way home from attending the Supernova Comic Con & Gaming convention, police say.

One person dead and one with ‘life-threatening injuries’ after car hits pedestrians outside Melbourne showgrounds Incident occurred outside venue where Supanova Comic Con event was being held on Saturday

This is horrific. A driver has crashed into pedestrians at Melbourne Showgrounds, killing at least one.

still can't believe "From The River To The Sea" became an outlawed phrase in Queensland (2yrs prison) in March. JFC. "Farnsy" flashmob yday allowed protestors to sing the phrase instead & kicks off 3 days of big protests. solidarity from Aotearoa New Zealand to all at Magan-djin/Brisbane 🇵🇸 protests!

screencap of a ticket i'm lodging to my it department, which reads: No matter how many times I try to disable the "Copilot" functions in Outlook for Mac, the software keeps turning them back on. I cannot stress how much I do not want these features on my computer. I do not need a robot to give me an incorrect summary of a two-line email. Please provide staff with the option to fully disable these intrusive features.

lord give me the tenacity of a tech company desperately spruiking features that don't work most of the time

JMFC copilot it's a two-line email with a simple question, why the heck do you feel the need to offer a summary?

Do you really need that ute? Numbers show use for shopping, drop-offs Data shows, despite the marketing of these vehicles featuring rural themes, most ute trips were made by drivers living in urban areas.

I am shocked. Shocked, I tell you!!

And merge smaller countries. 140 equally sized divisions of 50 million. Perfection.

I suspect the good residents of Casey would be thrilled with a network of buses every 20 minutes - the present reality is much grimmer - but points well made

You literally do give nearly everyone free parking because only 1% of parking spaces are paid.

“Anthony Albanese … is encouraging people to take public transport where they can”… by reducing the relative cost of driving. Right.

Absolutely not the last we’ve seen from her. She’s a very clear and effective speaker who knows how to play to suburban grievances.

I don’t think a shift from either/or to both/and is possible in a state where transport planners/the guvmint have been dragging the chain on network reform since the 1960s and lately have building stuff that actively undermines the usefulness and interconnectedness of the network.

The problem I have with this whole discourse is that Jaccy A and the like see people say “free PT is nice, thanks” but then stop reading before the part about “but the services are either overcrowded or don’t meet my needs”.

Aerial image of the western suburban industrial area with a light map overlay showing main roads and railway lines.

There’s at least 60,000 jobs in Laverton/Truganina industrial area.

It’s barely served by PT. Folks with a 15 min drive to work would face a 75+ min PT journey.

This is a scenario repeated over and over across Melbourne’s suburban industrial areas.

Free PT won’t get these folks out of cars.

Again this is super useful policy for inner city greens and entirely irrelevant to most working class people who live in suburbs where public transport simply doesn’t serve their needs.

Absolute class blindness by the Greens here, per usual.

And before you think to tell me “aderrrr well we can make it free and make it good” I think it’s pretty bloody clear at this point that no, the Victorian government has no idea how to make public transport good.

The most car dependent areas of Melbourne and Victoria - i.e., the places that are most exposed the fuel price shocks - are the least able to benefit from free PT, because there’s not sufficient quality and quantity of PT for them to be enticed away from their cars to.

Public transport to be free for Victorians in April The Victorian government says public transport will be free across the state in April in a bid to relieve cost-of-living pressure as fuel prices continue to climb.

Announced this morning: Free public transport in #Melbourne and across Victoria for the month of April.
It'll clearly benefit those who can use or switch to the PT network. Not so much the people who don't have a usable service they can use.

Today is Melbourne’s West Deserves the Best workshop day, organised by Friends of the Earth, to agitate for better buses.

I’m observing the occasion by using PT to get there, which will take 100+ minutes, about 30 of which is waiting at connection points. Driving would take 25.

What about us braindead slobs?

The West Deserves the Best Mobilise! Resist! Transform!

To that end, if you haven't already signed up and you want to spend your Saturday agitating for better things for Melbourne's western suburbs, come along to FoE's event in Werribee tomorrow.

Australian petrol stations report 25% surge in demand as governments plan for ‘biggest energy crisis in history’ Rationing is not under consideration yet as hundreds of retailers report being without one or more types of fuel

Now, more than ever, the Victorian government needs to act on the numerous historical and current proposals to fix suburban buses, aiming for a standard that would allow people to choose to drive less, to sell the second household car, and ideally to opt out of car ownership altogether.

Woah will you look at this petrol station sign?? Crazy!!