Another instalment in my photos from ten years ago series – this time it is October 2012.
Building it up, tear it down
We start off in the Melbourne CBD, where the Emporium Melbourne shopping centre was emerging inside the gutted facade of Myer’s Lonsdale Street store.
The complex opened a few years later in April 2014.
Over at Royal Park the old Royal Children’s Hospital was being demolished.
Opening up a view towards the CBD.
The expansion of Royal Park onto the site was completed by December 2014.
And out in Truganina I photographed the trashed gatehouse at the abandoned Truganina Munitions Reserve on Palmers Road.
Abandoned for years, it eventually bulldozed in 2020 so the road could be widened.
Building Regional Rail Link
In October 2012 work on the Regional Rail Link was well underway, with the west side of Sunshine station cleared to make room for two new V/Line platforms.
The car park off Irving Street at Footscray station was also closed for good, to make way for two new suburban platforms.
Work to widen the rail corridor towards Middle Footscray about to begin.
And out in the back blocks of Truganina a number of minor roads were about to be permanently closed, so that work on the new Regional Rail Link route between Deer Park and Werribee could start.
The new platforms at Footscray were first to open in January 2014, followed by the new platforms at Sunshine in April 2014, the new tracks between South Kensington and Sunshine in July 2014, and finally the new route via Tarneit in June 2015.
Myki replaces Metcard
The Metcard magstripe ticketing system was scheduled to be switched off at the end of December 2012, so the switch to Myki message was everywhere, including the soon to be removed ticket machines onboard trams.
At Flagstaff station the Metcard barriers were being replaced by new Myki gates.
Allowing the decommissioning of the 1990s-era ‘Barrier Lane Control’ computer that controlled them.
The Metcard gates were then disassembled.
With the ‘frankenbarrier’ conversion kits removed.
I assume the old ticket gates were sent back to Metcard operator OneLink, while the Myki readers were sent go back to their owner – Kamco.
Scenes that are gone
One morning I was out at Sunshine, where I found two V/Line trains running parallel towards me.
It was a little unusual back then, but it’s impossible now – Regional Rail Link converted the tracks to two single directional tracks, removing flexibility if a broken down train blocks one line.
On a quiet weekend I found dozens of Melbourne Bus Link buses stabled for the weekend at their Footscray depot.
Melbourne Bus Link was replaced by Transdev in 2013, who were then replaced by Kinetic in 2022; and the depot in Footscray closed in 2016, replaced by a new depot at Sunshine West.
At Moonee Ponds Junction I found tram passengers playing frogger while trying to change between route 59 and route 82 trams.
The mess of an interchange was rebuilt in 2016, providing a slightly nicer experience for passengers.
And finally, I spotted one of the seven surviving Hitachi trains in Melbourne running a Belgrave train at Southern Cross.
It took until December 2013 until the last one was finally withdrawn from revenue service.
Footnote
Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.
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