Jarred Crowe

Train stations serve as symbolic landmarks that define a city's character and welcome travellers with a sense of place and identity. Geelong Station, a heritage-listed gem, unfortunately, stands as a stark example of neglect. Despite its historical significance and architectural charm, the station suffers from a lack of pride, maintenance, and upkeep.  The once-grand structure now bears the scars of time, with visible damage, vandalism, and signs of poor workmanship obvious. As a frequent traveller from Waurn Ponds to the Geelong CBD, I recently had the opportunity to observe the state of Geelong Station while waiting for my train. During my 15-minute wait, I encountered numerous instances of neglect and poor care. Waiting Room The waiting room is ridden with stained carpets. An exchange library, once a unique initiative now stands abandoned. Holes in the walls aren't hard to find. A drinking fountain was removed from this spot over 2 years ago, The skirting boards have still n

Alan Thomas has recently published an excellent map that shows all the various "bus" and coach routes that connect regional Victoria's various cities and towns. An impressive feast considering how difficult it can be to find information about these services.  Map showing regional public transport services in Victoria [ Alan Thomas ] It's really disappointing that it takes the will of an independent and passionate advocate to produce such things as the Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) should really step up and do it officially.  Aside from V/Line train services, journey planning can get very complicated in Regional Victoria. This is due to the multitude of planning tools that exist in the V/Line and PTV silos of information. Those not familiar could think we have two isolated networks as opposed to one integrated one.  Many problems could be solved by better integrating V/Line information into existing PTV tools. Currently, the majority of V/Line tools provid

The Moorabool Street bus interchange is a contentious issue in Geelong with many prominent locals calling to remove it and to revert bus services to their old complex form. It's not hard to find pieces online from its critics, The Geelong Advertiser has published over 20 articles since 2015 in support of dumping it. Making matters worse the Andrews government has been silent on the topic and is seemingly unwilling to address problems with the current arrangement. In this article, I intend to explain my vision for the space and reaffirm why the busses must continue as they are but why the stop infrastructure and surroundings must be changed. Busses operating route 1 and route 25 services departing the Moorabool Street Interchange. [Me] Part 1: The History Prior to October 2010 most busses that serviced Geelong picked up and dropped off passengers at locations all around the CBD. The map below retrieved from the McHarrys website in 2007 shows how spread out stops were. Map of Geelong