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The Bullroarer - Wednesday 23 January 2008
Posted by Big Gav on January 23, 2008 - 6:38am in The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand
The Age - Connex doesn't like passengers, and it shows
Our transport companies could learn a lot from the Japanese. OF ALL the wonders of the Tokyo subway and train network, by far the greatest are the ticket machines. The Shinkansen, or bullet train, the labyrinth that is the Tokyo subway system and the punctuality of the trains are all amazing feats of human ingenuity, design and organisation. Next to the ticket machines, though, they pale by comparison.
The machines I have in mind aren't technically ticket machines at all, since they don't even dispense tickets. Rather, they enable travellers to add value to their tickets. They're called "fare-adjustment" machines and they're located just inside the barrier gates of almost every station. You enter your ticket into the machine and it tells you how much credit you need to add to go through the station exit barriers.
The genius of the fare adjustment machine doesn't lie in the technology itself. No doubt manufacturers of ticket machines could knock one together in an afternoon. Rather, the genius of the fare-adjustment machine is the culture of which it is a product. The lowly fare adjustment machine is a concrete expression of a culture that is determined to serve customers and help them to do the right thing. The fare-adjustment machine doesn't make any presumptions about why you didn't purchase the correct ticket in the first place. You could be trying to cheat the system or you could be a clueless tourist who's struggling with the sensory overload of Tokyo and innocently bought the wrong ticket.
The Australian - WA issues geothermal permits
ABC - Geothermal exploration welcomed in WA
The Australian - Green light for third Newcastle port coal terminal
The Australian - Floods cut northern coal mine production
SMH - NSW dumps Tcard and wants $95m back
SMH - Push for public places to see the light
The Age - Plans, trains and automobiles, and the way forward
SMH - Conservationist Wran doubles in coal miner role
Cleantech.com - Epuron selling 3 wind projects to Origin Energy
SMH - In come the (wind)milling crowd
Bloomberg - Caltex Australia Has `Small Fire' at Sydney Refinery
The Australian - Nexus agrees to buy Anzon for $674m
The Australian - Delays in Marathon Mt Gee uranium project
Upstream Online - Petrovietnam sees flat output in 2008
Upstream Online - MEO Australia fails to find gas with Heron-2 exploration well in the Timor Sea
Upstream Online - Pump fault hits Mutineer-Exeter oil flows
Upstream Online - Arc spuds Yulleroo-2 explorer in onshore Canning Basin
Upstream Online - BHP Billiton started production at three major oil and gas projects and drilled four new wells in the last quarter of 2007
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Gav
if I recall you previously commented on the irony of coal fired power stations lacking cooling water in drought. Some are now saying the flooding of Bowen Basin coal mines is akin to poetic justice or Divine Wrath. See the Have Your Say thread in
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23089446-2,00.html
Also seeing as how the rest of Australia which really needed the rain missed out. Doesn't look like Nev and Kev will do anything to cut the coal industry so Mother Nature has to intervene instead.
You remember correctly Boof.
I hadn't thought of that aspect - but I appreciate the humour of the situation.
Brings to mind Lovelock's rantings about the earth having a fever - and the coal mines are getting sweated on, big time.
A few more links that I missed earlier:
* The Australian - Query on infrastructure project body's role
Yes - I can see why that must be our national priority - "ship more coal" - a rallying cry for our clean, green nation...
* The Australian - MEO at sea after well tests fail
* The Australian - Floods cut northern coal mine production
* SMH - Origin partners NSW wind farm developers