woberto Report This Comment
Date: April 16, 2026 07:37AM

quasi Report This Comment
Date: April 16, 2026 12:03PM

I've seen the news about the refinery fire in Geelong and they're saying it's the petrol producing part of the place that burned. Strange timing; coincidence or deliberate? Good thing pulse rides a bicycle. How's the public transportation system there? It truly sucks here.

pulse Report This Comment
Date: April 16, 2026 10:27PM

Public transport in Melbourne is great unless you're in an outer suburb.

Fortunately for me, yep can ride or walk to work, it's about 1.5 miles/2.x km. You'd be mad to drive there, parking in the area is about $50 a day, when public transport is effectively $5 one way, $10 per day, to/from anywhere in the state.

My wife is about a 20km drive to work, heading away from the city so it's definitely doable by PT it's a bit of a hassle because it would probably be a tram, a train then a bus. Maybe an hour?

I haven't read much about the fire beyond it was the petrol part, and Diesel is our bigger issue right now. What I saw yesterday was supposedly an equipment fire.

Either way, perfect timing indeed!

pulse Report This Comment
Date: April 16, 2026 10:38PM

Basically for PT, Melbourne is a tale of 2 cities. Pre war and post WW2 boom.

Post war, suburbs expanded from the city at rapid pace. We took on hundreds of thousands of immigrants, expanding and building new suburbs.

Those suburbs were very much built on an American model, car centric and while most have a train line through them, that's about it.

Everything pre war will also have light rail services as well as heavy rail and buses. This is the inner city and very well connected.

The biggest problem with Melbourne PT is the city itself, where all the high rises etc are, is the centre point for it all. The networks all look like a spider, with legs coming off the body. If you want to get from 2 suburban areas, you either come into the city and back out, or maybe catch a bus. The rail all terminates in a loop in the CBD where the stations are all interchanges and then goes back where it came from.

Exception is a new Metro tunnel that opened this year and provides an east west connection via a north south tunnel under the city.



Edit: contruction has started on a middle ring tunnel (roughly where the map has dotted line, but that's not it) but I can't imagine it getting completed at the cost and time it will take.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 16/04/2026 10:42PM by pulse.

woberto Report This Comment
Date: April 17, 2026 03:04AM

Yeah tat fire sounds a bit sus' to me.
But having met a few of the management types in mining and petro' I suspect it was a guy in a suit saying "can we just speed it up a bit" and then it went pop.

pulse Report This Comment
Date: April 17, 2026 08:37AM

That'd be my guess

"We can make a fortune at this fuel price, let's turn it up to 11"

quasi Report This Comment
Date: April 17, 2026 11:02AM

I wasn't yet old enough to drive then but I can remember the first Arab oil embargo, 1973 I think, when petrol stations were running out so rationing began and the national interstate speed limit was reduced about 20%. It was 25 or 30 years before the speed limit was increased again. People here today would lose their minds here if that happened again, they act tough but actually have no balls or patience, entitled crybaby pricks. The second Arab embargo happened soon after I started driving and I remember a sudden 45% increase in fuel price. There's been a larger increase in price since Trump's war began. I'm doing a 2250km road trip next month and don't really expect any price drop, but even towing my trailer the old Outback gets better range than the old, American V8 wagon I drove before it even without the trailer.

woberto Report This Comment
Date: April 17, 2026 12:06PM

Hear hear! Or is it here here IDK.
In every generation there are lazybones, dumbfucks & stoners. But I would guess those numbers are increasing due to phones and the interweb. I think a short attention span prevents any real learning.
And yes I have recently watched "good luck have fun don't die" and felt like it was a documentary.

quasi Report This Comment
Date: April 17, 2026 12:41PM

FYI, the entitled crybaby pricks I referred to are the ones who were too special to wear a mask during the initial COVID outbreak to perhaps save someone else's life, get all bothered by drag queens and trans people, think the immigrant laborers are to blame for their problems and crime, etc.

woberto Report This Comment
Date: May 02, 2026 02:08AM

20 years on, same shit.

I miss fossil and beast going at it.

woberto Report This Comment
Date: May 16, 2026 10:36PM

Is this still going?
I saw the $7:11 @ 7ELEVEn meme,
what's the real price around the world now?

quasi Report This Comment
Date: May 17, 2026 12:52PM

I'm visiting family in another state right now and haven't seen the prices here which are generally a little lower than Florida because Florida has higher fuel taxes, but according to Google the low price station back home is charging 49% more than what I saw with my own eyes at the start of Netanyahu's war.