graffiti in aus

[keitaro]

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/graffiti-vandals-forced-to-clean-up-20110531-1fesp.html

 

Finally a step in the right direction. Still need to be more strict than this but a step better than nothing

[harukablue]

I read an article in Japan a couple of years ago when an Hungarian and Slovakian "artist" got 5 years each , suspended for 2 years for train graffiti in Japan where its basically un seen.

[Mudkip Orange]

Jail and fines and all that may or may not be appropriate, but this whole thing of suspending driver's licenses for infractions not actually related to driving is the height of asininity.

 

Also the wall shown in the article was rather aesthetic... certainly better looking that what would've been there before (some rusty garage doors, it looks like).

[keitaro]

you're not the owner of the property though who has to look at that and put up with it.

 

taking the liscence away has a major impact on some ones life and in some cases job, i know it would make me think twice about doing graffiti if i lost my liscence and had to public transport everywhere.

 

Also for said young people your loss of liscence means restarting the p plate your are on and being stuck on it for up to another 18 months. before progressing to the next level of p's.

 

Not stereo typing young but just saying it's a big deterrent for them and for adults as lack of car in australia sucks wang. given our appauling public transport options.

[westfalen]

you're not the owner of the property though who has to look at that and put up with it.

 

taking the liscence away has a major impact on some ones life and in some cases job, i know it would make me think twice about doing graffiti if i lost my liscence and had to public transport everywhere.

 

Also for said young people your loss of liscence means restarting the p plate your are on and being stuck on it for up to another 18 months. before progressing to the next level of p's.

 

Not stereo typing young but just saying it's a big deterrent for them and for adults as lack of car in australia sucks wang. given our appauling public transport options.

I agree with this, they just laugh at fines because they don't pay them anyway and putting them in gaol would have all the do-good civil righters coming out of the woodwork to defend them. Then again no punishment is of use unless it is enforced, people who have had their license taken from them have been known to walk out of the court house and straight into their car. Maybe after the third conviction give them the punishment they would get in some other countries, chop their hands off.

 

My fear is that these idiots going to Japan to practice their 'hobby' on Japanese trains will make it harder for us to practice ours. Japan is one of the few places left in the world where you can photograph trains without graffiti or hang around the tracks or depot without the railway employees thinking you're up to no good.

[Mudkip Orange]

they just laugh at fines because they don't pay them anyway and putting them in gaol would have all the do-good civil righters coming out of the woodwork to defend them.

 

So what you're saying is, because the government is incapable of enforcing the existing penalties, newer, stronger and more draconian penalties should be instituted, without regard to whether they're any more enforceable.

 

Makes perfect sense 

[bikkuri bahn]

taking the liscence away has a major impact on some ones life and in some cases job,

 

I live in Japan and don't have a driver's license.  Don't want (or need) one either.  Thank God.

[keitaro]

come to australia you will change your mind quickly :p

[bikkuri bahn]

come to australia you will change your mind quickly :p

 

Oh, I am very aware of that- I am a transplanted Californian.

[marknewton]

Jail and fines and all that may or may not be appropriate, but this whole thing of suspending driver's licenses for infractions not actually related to driving is the height of asininity.

 

O'Farrell is just doing the usual NSW politicians trick of re-announcing an existing policy. There are already a number of infractions/offences unrelated to driving that lead to your license being suspended. Been that way for years. I recently went through this bullshit, my license was suspended because I allegedly failed to vote in a local council election. The amount of faffing around needed to get the matter sorted was unbelievable.

 

Another thing not mentioned in the article is that a criminal conviction usually means you're ineligible for a government job. Not that many of these bludgers are ever likely to join the workforce.

 

I agree, it's asinine, but for as long as I can recall we've been saddled with two major political parties who desperately want to appear as tough on "law and order".

 

As for the aesthetic merits of the garage door in the photo, two thoughts occur to me. One, it isn't theirs to paint, no matter how unlovely the scene may have originally been. Two, knocking off a Vaughn Bode cartoon from the 1970s is just plagiarism. Not much artistic merit in that. 

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[The_Ghan]

come to australia you will change your mind quickly :p

 

Hey Keitaro!

 

We are proud of our trains! The next one's coming .... er .... real soon now!!! 

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[marknewton]

Wait until the industrial action starts in connection with the changes to our access to the IRC - the next train may well be delayed.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[keitaro]

Ghan the waratah's are a fail :p have you read th report on the test one ? Doors do or don't open when requested comms wiring failure.

 

Also thedrivers complaining the the sun makes the screen unreadable and the dash reflects glare etc etc

 

There were other issues as well. 

 

If I were not on my iPhone I'd try dig up a link

[The_Ghan]

Keitaro,

 

I was of course joking.  Our trains are a farce.  In fact, I'm unsure why we bother to build them.  I'd rather we contracted the whole deal out to Europe or Japan.  Still, we persevere!

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[keitaro]

ahh good i was thinking all those adhesive fumes had gotten to you :p

[marknewton]

Ghan the waratah's are a fail :p have you read th report on the test one?

 

"test one"? There's currently three sets running on trials out of the AMF. You don't want to believe everything the Daily Telegraph prints.  You've heard the joke, "Is that true, or did you read that in the Telegraph?"

 

Doors do or don't open when requested comms wiring failure.

 

No, just software glitches related to the guard's overshoot controls, apparently.

 

Also the drivers complaining the the sun makes the screen unreadable and the dash reflects glare etc etc

 

The cab and control layout is essentially the same as Mils or Oscars, I'm not aware of any complaints about this. Next time I'm out at AMF I'll take some photos and share them - discreetly...

 

Leaving aside discussing the wisdom of procuring trains via public/private partnership, all of the suburban EMUs running in Sydney have had dramas during their development and introduction to service, the A-sets/Waratahs are no different. I've been on the job long enough to remember all the problems we had when the stainless steel double-deck trains - the S-sets and their derivatives - were introduced.

 

You may recall the endless negative coverage by the Telegraph when the Mils were being put into service? And yet they happily trundle around these days in a reliable fashion, never rating a mention.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

Our trains are a farce.  In fact, I'm unsure why we bother to build them.  I'd rather we contracted the whole deal out to Europe or Japan.

 

That's a big part of the problem, everything on the A-sets is contracted out. When the design was done in-house, and the trains were built locally, we didn't have anything like the extent of the problems we now see. But as you say, we'll persevere, Rolling Stock Division will sort the problems out, as usual. 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[The_Ghan]

Don't forget "dog ugly".  Each model gets uglier as it is released.  They persevere with the 1980's themed "Tangara" look, which looked OK in its day.  Replace the interior chrome with powdercoat yellow.  Throw on a pair of yellow doors - because yellow MUST be safer.  It just looks like a Millenium train that has had a touch up behind the toilet block.  If I was a kid I'd want to take a can of red spray paint to it as well.  Nothing to be proud of when compared with Japanese rolling stock.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[marknewton]

I think we can all agree that styling is a very subjective issue. I'm not that concerned with how they look, more with how well they work, and how easily they can be fixed. Having said that, I'm not a great fan of how any of our modern EMUs look. It amazes me that we spend so much time, effort and money employing industrial designers to style our trains, and yet the results are so remarkably ordinary. But I do like this concept rendering:

 

 

As for the yellow doors, as far as I'm aware it's a statutory requirement to aid vision-impaired passengers, not a styling exercise.

 

But I also think there are some Japanese trains that look as though they were designed by the work-experience kids!  

 

Cheers,

 

MArk.

[keitaro]

i blame cityrail for the lack of railway fans in australia interested in passenger services. everyone is freight freight and steam with some steam passenger services ...... luckily cityrail wasn't around to ruin them. 

[The_Ghan]

Mark,

 

To me personally, the Millenium, Oscar, and the Waratah are rehashes of the Tangara.  I was on an Oscar this morning, ON5916 (just proving I'm a nerd).  While there are obvious improvements to audio (it took 30 years to remove the crackeling from the speakers), powerplant, and acoustics it really does only present as Tangara Mark III.

 

As for the Waratah colour scheme - it's just Coca-Cola in blue, isn't it?

 

However, I agree with your comments regarding industrial designers and the wasted effort.  There is nothing to be proud of here.  But there was in the 1980's when the Tangara came out.  At least designers in Japan have balls.  I refer to the Nankai 50000 series (I have one in my roster) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nankai_50000_series.  Understandably, people have a love-hate relationship with this puppy - but there no confusing it with anything else.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[keitaro]

The Nankai 5000 is damn awesome how could you not design it 

[westfalen]

As for the yellow doors, as far as I'm aware it's a statutory requirement to aid vision-impaired passengers, not a styling exercise.

 

Cheers,

 

MArk.

That is the case in Queensland but unfortunately the ends of our units are also yellow and there have been a few cases of V.I.P. passengers mistaking the ends of two coupled units for an open door with potentially dangerous results if it were not for the fact that our trains still have guards.

[marknewton]

To me personally, the Millenium, Oscar, and the Waratah are rehashes of the Tangara.  I was on an Oscar this morning, ON5916 (just proving I'm a nerd).  While there are obvious improvements to audio (it took 30 years to remove the crackeling from the speakers), powerplant, and acoustics it really does only present as Tangara Mark III.

 

I don't know how you figure that, there's no commonality between Tangaras and OSCars.

 

As for the Waratah colour scheme - it's just Coca-Cola in blue, isn't it?

 

That image is just a piss-take, nothing more - a Tangara rendered in a fictitious version of the old PTC era blue and white colours. This is what a Waratah looks like...

 

 

At least designers in Japan have balls.  I refer to the Nankai 50000 series...there no confusing it with anything else.

 

No, there isn't. I reckon the things are absolutely hideous, not a good advertisment for Japanese industrial design at all.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[The_Ghan]

Hi Mark,

 

Nice photo, ugly face.  It still has a Tangara look: yellow, black, silver, and a wedge shaped nose.

 

Being a double-decker with only two pairs of doors per car it is still a "timetable delaying" design requiring long stops at a station while grandma climbs the stairs.

 

Plenty of big, flat panels for graffiti too ... 

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan