u/Aromatic_Classic3295

I think our tram network needs to be extended out more to the outer suburbs with frequent, modern & disabled access trams.

I ride the 19 from Flinders Street to Brunswick and the 58 from Flagstaff to ANZAC and these routes are always busy while using the older tram sets.

I had an idea of making another cross-city group connecting Upfield with Frankston. Here is how it would work.

- Upfield city bound trains would run direct to Flinders Street via Southern Cross Platform 11 using the Northern Viaduct and arrive into Platform 6 at Flinders Street to form a down Frankston service.

- Frankston city bound trains would run direct to Flinders Street via Richmond Platform 3, arrive into Platform 7 at Flinders Street, then using the Caulfield Viaduct, arrive into Platform 12 at Southern Cross to form a down Upfield service.

- This will mean the Caulfield Loop will be empty since Dandenong has moved to the Metro Tunnel.

- Craigeburn trains will have the entire Northern Loop tunnel to itself and run anti-clockwise all day weekdays & weekends (North Melbourne-SC-FSS-Parliament-MC-Flagstaff) to allow for Upfield-Frankston to share Platform 11 at Southern Cross & the Northern viaduct tracks to Flinders Street. This will also mean Craigeburn trains will have its own dedicated Platform 5 at Flinders Street.

There would be no bottlenecks at the North Melbourne, Richmond & Flinders Street flat junctions so this idea is very possible.

THIS IDEA IS ONLY AFTER UPFIELD LINE GETS DUPLICATED FULLY & LXR WORKS TAKE PLACE THEN UPFIELD CAN RUN FREQUENTLY WITH FRANKSTON

Glad to hear that the young lad is doing well and this incident didn’t become a fatality. I big investigation needs to be done to in order to prevent something like this happening again.

Travelling Richmond-Flinders Street-Southern Cross route was possible before the Big Switch earlier this year with the Frankston trains through running to the Newport lines. Now that Frankston is back in the Caulfield Loop and Dandenong lines are out, there is no line that through runs from Richmond to Southern Cross.

It is impossible to travel directly to Southern Cross in the morning (before 1pm) without having to go all the way around the City Loop from Richmond on a Belgrave, Lilydale, Alemain or Frankston train.

I did notice today at 4pm while I was waiting on Platform 7/8 for a Flinders Street train, the “destinations board” displayed Southern Cross as having no designated platform but in reality you can get to Southern Cross after 1pm as the Burnley Group goes direct to Flinders Street and Frankston line around the loop is another way but to completely skip the loop you can take Burnley train from P7/8. Doesn’t make sense why the PID doesn’t mention this.

Same can be said for Footscray to Richmond/North Melbourne to Richmond without having to interchange at Southern Cross/Flinders Street. Once the Newport lines and Sandringham come together, this will be possible all day long.

Lately I’ve been noticing that a lot of women around me (especially uni students/full-time workers) seem to talk less about “bad skincare” and more about things like:
- stress
- hormones
- sleep
- burnout
- routine changes
- anxiety during busy periods

all affecting their skin.

I’ve been doing some research around women’s wellness/beauty and something interesting keeps coming up:

A lot of girls say their skin feels unpredictable even when they’re using “good” skincare.

Like:
- random breakouts
- dullness during stressful weeks
- skin changing around their cycle
- flare ups even with a consistent routine

Curious if anyone else here feels like internal things (stress, hormones, sleep, lifestyle etc.) affect their skin more than products sometimes?

And if so:

What’s been the BIGGEST trigger for you personally?

Would genuinely love to hear real experiences because the answers have been surprisingly emotional and relatable so far.

Lately I’ve been noticing that a lot of women around me (especially uni students/full-time workers) seem to talk less about “bad skincare” and more about things like:
- stress
- hormones
- sleep
- burnout
- routine changes
- anxiety during busy periods

affecting their skin.

I’ve been doing some research around women’s wellness/beauty and something interesting keeps coming up:

A lot of girls say their skin feels unpredictable even when they’re using “good” skincare.

Like:
- random breakouts
- dullness during stressful weeks
- skin changing around their cycle
- flare ups even with a consistent routine

Curious if anyone else here feels like internal things (stress, hormones, sleep, lifestyle etc.) affect their skin more than products sometimes?

And if so:

What’s been the BIGGEST trigger for you personally?

Would genuinely love to hear real experiences because the answers have been surprisingly emotional and relatable so far.

I’ve been researching something interesting recently around the women’s wellness/skincare space and noticed a pattern that surprised me.

A lot of brands seem heavily focused on “beauty”, “glow”, or quick physical results…

But after speaking to hundreds of women (mostly university students + young professionals), the conversations kept going deeper than skincare.

The things that came up most were:
- stress
- hormones
- sleep
- confidence
- emotional wellbeing
- feeling “out of sync”

What surprised me is that many women didn’t even talk about “perfect skin” as the main goal.

It was more:
“I just want to feel balanced again.”

From an ecommerce/branding perspective, it made me think:

Do you think the next big wellness brands will be built more around emotional identity + lifestyle psychology rather than just physical transformation?

Especially with younger consumers becoming more emotionally aware/self-aware.

Curious to hear thoughts from:
- ecommerce founders
- brand owners
- people in wellness/skincare
- anyone seeing shifts in consumer psychology lately

A few questions I’ve been thinking about:

1. Are consumers becoming more emotionally driven than product driven?

2. Do modern wellness brands need to feel more “human” and emotionally relatable to win long term trust?

3. Is “community + understanding” becoming more important than aggressive marketing?

4. What wellness/skincare brands do you think are currently doing this well?

Would genuinely love to hear different opinions because I think consumer behaviour is changing fast right now.

Caulfield Station is in big need of a massive upgrade. Not even a petition or crowdfunding would enable the Government to rebuild this station. Metro Tunnel is already open, will the Government even bother investing money to rebuild this station?

Frankston line trains running back into the loop now means more interchanges from the Dandenong line passengers who want to bypass the entire Metro Tunnel.

The annoying thing about the City Loop operations is we still have 2 of the busiest tunnels changing directions (Platforms 3/4 - Northern & Burnley group)

With the Metro Tunnel now being in play, passengers have to interchange to get to certain destinations faster.

The Northern Group which caters to the busy Craigeburn & Upfield lines should permanently run clockwise (North Melbourne to Flinders Street via City Loop) all day every day.

The Burnley Group which caters to the busy Belgrave, Lilydale, GW and Alemain lines should permanently run anti-clockwise (Richmond to Flinders Street via City Loop and Southern Cross) all day everyday. Also remove Glen Wavery and Alemain from the loop to free up more space for Ringwood trains.

The Caulfield Group (now only Frankston line) should permanently run clockwise (Flinders Street to Richmond via City Loop) all day everyday.

Reason I have suggested this is because:

A. Having the Burnley run in the other direction as Frankston, allows passengers direct access to Richmond let’s say you are at Parliament and want to bypass the entire loop, Southern Cross and sit at Flinders Street for a few minutes.

B. Frankston line used to run direct to Flinders Street when Cran/Pak was looping so passengers on that line were used to changing at Richmond for a City Loop service.

C. Northern running via Loop all day allows passengers on Burnley group to travel to Richmond faster from Parliment via Flinders Street.

D. Metro Tunnel passengers have more options when changing at State Library since you would have trains running to Richmond, Southern Cross and Parliament directly from Melbourne Central all day everyday.

F. The cross platform interchange at Richmond’s 7/8 is very busy and right now it only in use in the mornings. Passengers are always travelling into the city all day.

G. Werribee & Williamstown passengers have access to to City Loop from North Melbourne all day everyday instead of having to go straight to Southern Cross or Flinders Street.

To sum everything up:

- Platform 1: Mernda and Hurstbridge runnning clockwise

- Platform 2: Frankston line running clockwise

- Platform 3: Craigeburn & Upfield running clockwise

- Platform 4: Belgrave and Lilydale running anti-clockwise

I noticed that the trains that start up from West Footscray and terminate at West Footscray don’t have much people on them before the train arrives/departs Footscray for both directions.

Why didn’t they just replace the West Footscray terminator services to Footscray trains since that’s where most passengers living in Footscray get off and get on. All the Sunbury & Watergardens services can be used for passengers boarding at West Footscray & Middle Footscray stations.

2 options would be possible:

1. Building a third platform for trains to terminate and track into the Metro Tunnel at Footscray.

During the morning peak, you could have some trains run “Non PSR” from Calder Park sidings, Sunbury sidings or Watergardens sidings and start running from Footscray Platform 1.

This may sound like a silly idea, but it would allow for more trains to run to Sunbury during the peaks instead of every 2nd train running to West Footscray in which Footscray passengers already have the option of using a Sunbury or Watergardens service.

In case of a Sunbury line shutdown, you could have trains terminating at Footscray from the city and from Sunbury.

I was on the first XT2 service from Flinders Street to Upfield today and thought I’d share some early impressions, especially since I regularly use the HCMTs on the Sunbury line.

First off, it definitely feels like a big step up from the older trains it’s replacing. The interior is clean, modern, and noticeably more refined. Seating felt a bit more comfortable than I expected, and the overall layout seems more thought-out. Compared to HCMTs, though, the difference in design philosophy is pretty obvious.

HCMTs still feel more “metro-style” with super open, lots of standing room, built to move large volumes of people quickly. You really notice the walkthrough design and how spacious it feels. The XT2s feel more like a traditional suburban train but upgraded (a bit more balanced between seating and standing rather than going all-in on capacity)

Ride quality on the XT2 was smooth, maybe slightly quieter than what I’m used to, but not a massive difference. Doors and acceleration felt pretty responsive too.

If I had to sum it up I’d choose the HCMTs over XT2 any day!! I think the XT2s are great for the network (not as high capacity as the HCMTs) but it just feels like a solid, modern upgrade.