Waking up in Geelong

Another instalment in my photos from ten years ago series – this time it is April 2013.

Regional Rail Link

We start the month at Footscray station, where work was well underway on building the two new suburban platforms beside Irving Street.

A whole lot of digging was required in what was once a car park.

And the north end of the recently completed footbridge had to be demolished to make way for it.

So a temporary staircase was built so passengers could still leave the station.

A new station at West Footscray was also taking shape, with piers in place to support the future overhead concourse.

While on the other side of Geelong Road, the ‘Rising Sun’ footbridge had been demolished to make way for the new tracks.

Choo choo!

The ‘Dumb Ways to Die‘ rail safety campaign was still doing the rounds, including this billboard beside the railway line at Sunshine.

But something far less safe was my V/Line train with the doors stuck open.

It was a systematic flaw in V/Line’s fleet that was not acknowledged until October 2014, and not fixed until December 2015.

Over at Newmarket, the crumbling station building had been partially demolished to remove stress on the remaining structure.

A handful of Hitachi trains from the 1970s were still running around Melbourne.

And V/Line trains at Southern Cross Station were stell belching diesel exhaust under the enclosed roof.

Beep beep!

A decade ago public transport to Fishermans Bend was just as woeful as today – buses the only option.

I also found a collection of Dyson Group buses and changeover cars outside Essendon station on rail replacement work.

Connecting with 3-car Comeng trains at the seldom-used Essendon platform 1 to run shuttles on the Craigieburn, due to trackwork closer to the city.

Myki bits

Back in 2013 Myki was still new and untrusted by passengers, so queues at topup machines were common.

Myki cards also came in separate designs for full fare, concession and seniors.

Myki readers dumping stack traces on screen was also common.

As were Windows error messages.

Incorrectly configured devices.

Including one I managed to get my name displayed on.

And some loose ends

I was out in Brunswick and found the Victoria Police ‘booze bus‘ fleet parked up behind the Dawson Street Police Complex.

And on Collins Street in the Melbourne CBD I found something odd – a McDonald’s restaurant that had closed down.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

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