Family issues wrote:
No, I believe it really is family issues. I know this is hard to believe given this excuse is used so readily by politicians and CEO's who have been tapped and told to piss off. Kosky has been a frequent visitor to the exclusive Albert Road Psychiatric Clinic of late, so I would speculate that a family member is an inpatient there. She inherited a total basket case with transport, I reckon I would run a mile as well.

Great that we have an insider posting to the forum.

The exclusive Albert Road Psychiatric Clinic, hey? A family member, hey? Inherited a basket case, hey?

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/problems-with-myki-and-trains-to-be-top-priority-for-lynne-koskys-replacement/story-e6frf7jo-1225821008333

PROBLEMS with the myki smartcard and with trains will be top priorities for the new public transport minister.



"Lynne Kosky has been much maligned, but she inherited a number of problems from former minister Peter Batchelor."

===

And poor Tim Pallas, much maligned already, inherited a number of problems from former minister Lynne Kosky.

And the poor bastard who is next in line will, much maligned unfortunately, inherit a number of problems from former minister Tim Pallas.

More jobs for the boys. The Loser of Hotham.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/pakula-to-inherit-transport-troubles-20100119-mj3p.html

FORMER union heavyweight Martin Pakula will be charged with fixing Melbourne's troubled transport system when he becomes the state's new transport minister today.



Mr Pakula is a former state secretary of the National Union of Workers and a member of the Premier's dominant Right faction.

He was elected to Parliament's upper house at the 2006 election following the intervention of former premier Steve Bracks.

The political lifeline came after Mr Pakula lost a bruising preselection battle against former federal Labor leader Simon Crean in 2006.

Branch stacker for public transport wrote:
More jobs for the boys. The Loser of Hotham.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/pakula-to-inherit-transport-troubles-20100119-mj3p.html

FORMER union heavyweight Martin Pakula will be charged with fixing Melbourne's troubled transport system when he becomes the state's new transport minister today.



Mr Pakula is a former state secretary of the National Union of Workers and a member of the Premier's dominant Right faction.

He was elected to Parliament's upper house at the 2006 election following the intervention of former premier Steve Bracks.

The political lifeline came after Mr Pakula lost a bruising preselection battle against former federal Labor leader Simon Crean in 2006.

liked this bit of the Age article

But shadow scrutiny of government spokesman David Davis called on the Premier to use Ms Kosky's resignation to dump other ''incompetent ministers'', naming Police Minister Bob Cameron, Community Services Minister Lisa Neville and Planning Minister Justin Madden.

Why would the people of Essendon vote for the village idiot?

"A new portfolio has been created to oversee the government’s respect agenda, which is aimed at reducing alcohol-fuelled violence and anti-social behaviour.Planning Minister Justin Madden will add the portfolio to his responsibilities."

http://www.theage.com.au/national/brumby-to-announce-cabinet-reshuffle-20100120-mkcz.html

Madden promoted wrote:
"A new portfolio has been created to oversee the government’s respect agenda, which is aimed at reducing alcohol-fuelled violence and anti-social behaviour.Planning Minister Justin Madden will add the portfolio to his responsibilities."

http://www.theage.com.au/national/brumby-to-announce-cabinet-reshuffle-20100120-mkcz.html

Madden, through his planning decisions, is RESPONSIBLE for the alcohol fuelled violence and anti social behaviour.

The village idiot is asked to clean up his own mess. Is this new portfolio a joke?

Huh?? wrote:
Madden promoted wrote:
"A new portfolio has been created to oversee the government’s respect agenda, which is aimed at reducing alcohol-fuelled violence and anti-social behaviour.Planning Minister Justin Madden will add the portfolio to his responsibilities."

http://www.theage.com.au/national/brumby-to-announce-cabinet-reshuffle-20100120-mkcz.html

Madden, through his planning decisions, is RESPONSIBLE for the alcohol fuelled violence and anti social behaviour.

The village idiot is asked to clean up his own mess. Is this new portfolio a joke?

What a joke the Brumby government has become.

Putting Madden in charge of a Respect agenda when he has none for his own western suburbs community and in particular the people of Sunshine.

The evening after the last State election the canditats put on a small party for all those members who worked on that day and before the election.All,exept the MINISTER FOR Boosbarns put money in to buy for it,exept this tight arss.Clad I put him last on my ticket.

manfred wrote:
The evening after the last State election the canditats put on a small party for all those members who worked on that day and before the election.All,exept the MINISTER FOR Boosbarns put money in to buy for it,exept this tight arss.Clad I put him last on my ticket.

even manfred can see madden has ho respect hinmself so how can he be put in charge of a guvernment policy??

its a joke alright

The whole Brumby Government is a joke!!!!The only thing it is great at is branchstacking....

It doesn't look good. This is what happens when you trust a branch stacker with actual decisions.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/pakula-the-heat-is-on-20100120-mlrs.html

Premier John Brumby instructed his new Transport Minister to spend a fortnight riding the state's trains, trams and buses. "It's probably fair to say he's a casual user of the system at the moment. He will be an intense user of the public transport system," Mr Brumby said.

Mr Pakula described himself as a moderate user of public transport, saying he travelled by train a couple of dozen times a year. He said he would ride the system to hear about the problems first hand.

Using public transport a dozen times a year is not 'moderate' it's rare, infrequent, and seemingly under duress.

Let's hope the transport operators aren't told which system Pakula is electioneering on as they will arrange that service to run on time, and efficiently leaving other commuters stranded. And Pakula unaware of the misery of using this system during peak hours - 6am -9:30am to 3:30pm to 7:00pm every weekday. Try getting on a Sydenham train from Melbourne Central or Flagstaff during these peak hours once the Christmas holidays are over....

Or listen to the sometimes hysterical announcements at Spencer St and marvel at the transmogrification of destinations when the train actually departs. Or smile whimsically at the on train destination being shown or announced and realise that if you were a tourist you would be very, very lost.

Nice to get out but you have to get down and dirty to share the frustrations when you can't rely on this system. Get a warts and all view, not just the smoothed-out experience a minister would receive.

Lets see, its still January now, so the end of the year is about 12 months away. So our new transport minister, the branch stacking "Loser of Hotham" is running how late?

Myki on trams, buses by year's end: Pakula

http://www.theage.com.au/national/myki-on-trams-buses-by-years-end-pakula-20100122-mqrn.html

VICTORIA'S new Public Transport Minister Martin Pakula says he expects the troubled myki ticket system to be working on trams and buses in Melbourne by the end of the year.



How do people bear it?

It's time to sack this whole government people. Think about it. They put a branch stacking spin doctor in charge of trains because there is nobody left with any nous.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/chaos-across-rail-system-over-brakes-20100124-mskt.html


Metro Trains boss Andrew Lezala has refused to guarantee the 28 Siemens trains still in service in Melbourne will not suffer the same braking problems that have caused at least one train to overshoot a station by 90 metres.

The latest rail crisis comes as freedom of information documents show the Government spent more than a quarter of a million dollars adjusting the height of myki readers on trams that will be sent back to France next year.

Indeed. However, we will notice improvements (although not a silver bullet to the train fiasco) once the Regional Rail Link Project and the Sunbury Electrification Project are both completed in 2013 and 2012 respectively.

Also, with 18 new X'Trapolis trains being delivered each month from late 2009, we will indeed notice improvements. Altough as I previously mentioned, all of this is not a silver bullet to the issue of aged infrastructure and the like, however these projects once completed in 2-3 years and the new 38 new trains arriving, there will be a significant improvement to the rail service for the commuters of the west, believe me.

Just my thoughts. Cheers.

blokeofthewest01 wrote:

Also, with 18 new X'Trapolis trains being delivered each month from late 2009, we will indeed notice improvements.

Not here we won't. The trains are earmarked only for lines that go to more marginal areas in the East.

marginal improvement? wrote:
blokeofthewest01 wrote:

Also, with 18 new X'Trapolis trains being delivered each month from late 2009, we will indeed notice improvements.

Not here we won't. The trains are earmarked only for lines that go to more marginal areas in the East.

I know, however mate what you need to think is that once these new X'trapolis trains are running on those tracks in the East, other older train types will then be freed up and allocated to lines that could really use an extra train or two. But yes, to put it simply the newer X'trap trains will operate in the East and the older trains that the Xtrap s will be replacing will then in return be sent over here in the west to operate on the most crowded or 'as needed' train lines. Just my thoughts.

http://theage.drive.com.au/transport-revolution-to-get-city-moving-20100206-njxf.html

THE state government will unveil a ground-breaking transport plan, conceding that it can no longer simply build new roads to fix Melbourne's congestion crisis and must instead transform the way existing roads are used.



The plan, expected to be released by the government this month, centres on the creation of a "road use hierarchy" that gives priority to cars, cyclists, pedestrians and public transport at different times of the day to improve travel times.



Monash University transport expert Professor Graham Currie said the plan - an Australian first - marked a crucial change in thinking by the government.

Has the Moon been given away yet?

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/only-three-in-every-100-myki-cards-issued-are-being-used-regularly/story-e6frf7jo-1225828990648

JUST three in every 100 myki cards issued are being used regulary.

Mr Pakula said. "It is self-evident that a number of the predictions that were made by the contractor in the past did not come to fruition."

Mr Bowen said commuters should stick to using Metcards until myki was running reliably across the network.

Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder said myki was a dog. "This has turned into the greatest fiasco," he said.