Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Australian Transport

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Proposed merger of Park Road/Boggo Road station articles

Proposed merger of Park Road railway station, Boggo Road busway station and Boggo Road railway station content and all three redirected to a new article Boggo Road station. Please discuss in Talk:Boggo Road railway station. DigitalPanda (talk) 08:28, 22 August 2024 (UTC)

Citation template (and other templates)

Responding to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Australian Transport/Archive 2#Replacement of Vicsig links...
@Anothersignalman (and anyone else that wants templates),
I can happily create a citation template for whatever is needed. I have created both simple (eg Stopping All Stations, VR Diagram books) and some more complex (eg Newsrail and Brief History Books) templates.

• Newsrail - automatically swaps publisher between "ARHS Victoria Division" and "Victorian Rail Publishing Inc" depending on year as well as auto getting the volume and number from the month and year.
• Brief History Books - automatically changing title, date, isbn, and even the addition of Daryl Gregory as author from book 4 onwards depending on what volume is selected.

I'd just need the details for what to add to each template.
This isn't limited to just citation templates, I have also made Table Age Calculator (or TAC2 for short) – a useful little thing to add sortable start date, sortable end date, and then give the age to a table without the need to re type the date multiple times (removing the chance of simple little errors). -- ThylacineHunter (talk) 06:57, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

Number of years to include station infobox patronage figures

With the recent publication of patronage statistics for Victorian railway stations the relevant infobox sections of many railway station articles in Victoria has expanded dramatically. For example, see Laburnum railway station with figures going back to 2005. While this is important information it does make the infobox very large. To remediate this I would like to propose that only the past three years of patronage figures are included directly in the infobox - any previous statistics can be included in the main article (perhaps as a graph). Happy to discuss. Takerlamar (talk) 02:12, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

All the way back to 2005 is clearly excessive. UK stations have statistics for the most recent five years. That would have been a good thing during COVID, so people can easily see the pre-pandemic numbers, but now that we have reached a new normal, I don't think five years is as good anymore. Three years would be good, so that a trend can be shown, without there being too many years to show. Steelkamp (talk) 03:53, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

It is time to remove transport link sections?

I came across a block evading user seemingly obsessed with keeping Woy_Woy_railway_station#Transport_links up-to-date. While one bad apple shouldn't spoil the bunch it did get me to question to validity of these sections. In this case all info comes from the official transit website (incidentally the links are all broken; report), there seems to be no historical perspective and it is difficult for Wikipedia not to mislead readers with old info. I am not sure about guidelines or previous discussions on the matter. Commander Keane (talk) 01:50, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

I wondered the same thing when an IP added all the bus information to Perth suburbs and railway station articles. These routes and numbers change frequently and, I think, will potentially become outdated quickly. As a minimum, it should use the Template:As of to clarify how old the information is. But, I think, its pointless information, Wikipedia is not a guide. Calistemon (talk) 03:38, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

I for one am fine with transport link sections, although I make sure the ones in Perth are up to date myself (I prefer describing the routes in prose rather than a list though). This information doesn't really change too often, but it does change every now and then, which will make these sections out of date unless someone maintains them.

Whether the bus routes fail NOTGUIDE I think depends. Leederville railway station only has two bus routes and one of them has received coverage in secondary sources (the Green CAT). On the other hand, Canning Bridge railway station has many bus routes. Some of them have received coverage in secondary sources (such as the 100 and 101 to Curtin University and the bus routes along the freeway), but most have not. I think the paragraph on bus routes there can be shortened (I'm calling myself out). The destinations can be stated, but the individual bus route numbers should not, apart from 100 and 101, which have secondary sources. Steelkamp (talk) 04:11, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

Prose or not, the examples Steelkamp gives can easily be prefixed by an {{as of}} and they are referenced to archivable pdfs. Looks reasonable to me. In Woy Woy railway station the references are using dynamic template that links to a dynamic website. With everything changing like that an {{as of}}, though essential, is impossible to apply. Templates like {{Cite New South Wales transport timetables}} are seemingly violating WP:NOTGUIDE and are a major part of the issue. Any route mentioned in a secondary source can be included, I am not suggesting removing stuff like that. Commander Keane (talk) 04:36, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

I also think the transport link sections are useful in principle. Onward transport is very important for many stations - e.g. Box Hill where over a quarter of passengers arrive by bus - and therefore useful to include. Perhaps this kind of format used on many Melbourne station articles could be a template for others? I agree that the quality and format varies significantly and can be updated but I don't think that's a reason to remove them. Takerlamar (talk) 04:43, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

At least {{cite PTV route}}, used in Box Hill, has an accessdate field. Doesn't seem to be used often though. These sections are useful as a guide, no question. An example problem is when stand numbers change, at Box Hill it says route 733 leaves from bay 11 but the source doesn't confirm that, does any source state it? Commander Keane (talk) 05:08, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

Yes there are, I suppose this photo of the interchange map would count as a valid source. Takerlamar (talk) 21:31, 11 November 2024 (UTC)