Author: Philip Mallis
Qantas A220-300 economy review – Canberra to Melbourne
The equally beloved and disliked Boeing 717s have finished their last tours of duty for Qantaslink over the past few years. While I have fond memories of one of the few rear-wing mounted engine aircraft in Australia, they were getting old and it was high time for them to be retired. In their place, Qantas…
The broken Box Hill Bus Station lift
Followers of this blog and my Mastodon account will know that I have previously written about the access problems to the Box Hill Bus Station. This was mainly about the chronic escalator breakdowns. But unfortunately this issue appears to have spread to the bus station lift. If you’re unfamiliar with Box Hill and its importance…
Why you should visit Morocco for its trains
Before I visited I had never considered Morocco as a particular place of interest for a rail enthusiast / gunzel. Nobody had ever mentioned it to me and I don’t remember seeing anything beforehand. But after my trip I think it should be a place on the list to visit for railfans. The main reason…
Hunting for North East Link disruption information
For some reason, my first post of the new year is traditionally a bit of a rant. It seems that 2026 will be no different. This one is on my usual hobby horse of passenger information from (Public) Transport Victoria or (P)TV. Specifically on disruptions caused by the $26 billion North East Link. While travelling…
2025 in photos
Welcome to another post in this yearly series! Unfortunately this year has been one of much frustration on this blog. The forced injection of “AI enhancements” into many online tools has now taken root and noticeably spread through nearly everything. Even as I type this I have to constantly dodge an “add AI Assistant” button…
My first business class flight: Saudia 787-9 review
As I said in my previous post, my trip to Africa and Europe in 2025 was my first time flying business class. For this reason I thought I would document and give my thoughts on the experience. This was a trip in two legs. First from Changi Airport in Singapore to King Abdulaziz International Airport…
Metro Tunnel opening day
It was fantastic to see so many people out and about at yesterday’s opening of Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel. Many of you came to say hello and we had some interesting conversations! I will make a video about the opening day and Metro Tunnel in general in the near future. To be honest I’m not in…
2025 update: where to find the cheapest croissant at Melbourne Airport
After the extremely limited success of my original post from 2019 on croissant prices at Melbourne Airport, I have decided to give an update. As before this list only applies to Terminal 4. I haven’t surveyed the other three terminals. Options As of October 2025, I found only six outlets selling croissants or a similar…
Which were the least and most used stations in Victoria in 2024-25?
I recently posted about the updated data that has been released for metropolitan and regional station usage in Melbourne and Victoria. From this new information we can look at which stations were the most used and least used during the 2024 – 2025 financial year. Most used stations in Melbourne For the metropolitan network these…
Railway station patronage for Melbourne and Victoria 2008 – 2025
Here is another yearly update on metropolitan and regional railway station patronage, this time adding the recently-released 2024/25 Financial Year data. Since 2019 I’ve been keeping abreast of patronage for the train and tram network in Victoria. I’ve been progressively adding to the two spreadsheets I keep for this purpose. Not only to allow comparison…
