Transport in Victoria is often affected by extreme weather conditions such as the recent heavy rains and flash floodings, high summer temperatures, bush fires, strong winds and hails as well as accidents and problems in the train system.

Real-time updates provided by VicRoads, Metro Train and Yarra Tram are thus handy for checking road traffic conditions and disruptions to rail and tram services. VicRoads has a very cool “Latest Travel & Road Website“. VicRoads and Yarra Tram each has a WAP site for providing real-time information to mobile users while Metro sends updates via SMS. All three have a Twitter account but Yarra Tram has not tweeted anything yet.

VicRoads Mobile Traffic VicRoads Tweets
TramTracker Mobile Metro Tweets

You can plan your journey via the Journey Planner provided by Metlink or Viclink.

Metlink also has an application for iPhone and other mobiles. The iPhone application which allows you to use the Journey Planner is not embeddable so I am showing iTransit, an alternative on iPhone with limited functionalities. For both the embedded iTransit and Mobile Metlink, click somewhere within its table cell and use your browser’s Back button to return to the previous page.

Journey Planner is based on scheduled timetables. I am hoping this service will eventually be upgraded to a real-time system, incorporating “to-the-minutes” changes in train, trams and bus services, using GPS technology.

Mobile Metlink iTransit

Google Maps Directions is a useful tool to obtain suggested driving routes from one address to another, the travel distance and time required. Clicking “View Larger Map” on the search result, followed by “Traffic” on the larger map allows you to view colour-coded real-time traffic conditions on the roads.

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