Another instalment in my photos from ten years ago series – this time it is December 2013.
Regional Rail Link
We’ve been following the Regional Rail Link project for some time now, and now it is ribbon cutting for the first stage. Friday, 20 December 2013 marked the last day that Geelong trains stopped at North Melbourne station.
As the following Monday morning the new Regional Rail Link platforms 15 and 16 at Southern Cross Station opened, bypassing the station platforms.
But work on the rest of the project was still ongoing – over the Christmas break the tracks leading to the rest of Southern Cross Station were dug up.
So that prefabricated sections of track could be installed.
With work also completed on the reconfigured North Melbourne flyover that would carry V/Line trains on towards Footscray.
Out in Deer Park, the junction between the Ballarat line and the future tracks towards Tarneit and Wyndham Vale was now in place.
And a gravel trackbed now taking shape.
The station at Tarneit looked pretty much complete – except for the tracks!
Road over rail bridges also yet to be brought into use.
But the developers of the Manor Lakes estate at Wyndham Vale were more than happy to promote their upcoming railway station.
Things that go ding
Rattly old W class trams were still clanking their way along La Trobe Street on route 30 services.
They’ve since been replaced by modern low floor E class trams, but still no more accessible given the lack of platform stops.
Meanwhile out at North Fitzroy the former tram depot was now closed, the City Circle trams having been relocated to Southbank Depot following expansion of the stabling yard there.
However the connection on Nicholson Street was still there.
It eventually being removed in 2020 when the tracks along Nicholson Street were relaid.
Commercialising commuters
The level of trust in the Myki ticketing system was still pretty low, with long lines of passengers lining up at railway stations to top up their cards.
Meanwhile at Flinders Street Station the main concourse was blocked by a “pop up” Myer shop.
And something new was coming to the disused platform 11.
“Melbourne’s newest riverside venue”.
And the others
A mainstay of Chinatown in Melbourne is the little gravel car park at 132 Little Bourke Street, where a guy sits in a little tin shed ready to jenga your car into a tiny patch of primce CBD real estate.
The space continue to be used as a car park until 2019 or so, when it was turned into a pop up events space.
I also found a VicRoads liveried Holden Commodore station wagon.
Enforcement of heavy vehicles in Victoria transitioned to the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator in December 2019.
As well as a Taxi Services Commission liveried one.
Since 2018 they are now known as Commercial Passenger Vehicles Victoria following the legalisation of rideshare services.
Footnote
Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.
Commercial Passenger Vehicles Victoria has been renamed yet again. The agency is now Safe Transport Victoria and it is just as useless and under-resourced as its predecessors.
At least the CPV name was descriptive – Safe Transport Victoria sounds more like TAC than anything else.
“Managing the safety, compliance, accreditation and registration for commercial passenger vehicles, buses, and the marine sector.”
Is this how transdev were able to let their busses fall apart?
Hi. I just want to correct you here, as the venue in question was the old Flinders Street Platform 11, not Platform 10 (which is still being used for the cross-city lines).
Oops – now fixed!