Another instalment in my photos from ten years ago series – this time it is October 2011.
A land before COVID
Remember peak hour crowds at CBD railway stations? I wrote about it a decade ago, and ended up in The Age.
In the years since much faster ticket readers by Vix have been deployed at busy stations, but for the past 18 months they’ve been barely used – COVID has cratered patronage.
How about the days when the AFL Grand Final was held in Melbourne? Back in 2011 Collingwood and Geelong were playing, with V/Line running extra trains from Geelong to transports Cats fans to the big game.
V/Line retired their fleet of P class locomotives in 2017, selling them to freight operator Southern Shorthaul Railroad in 2019, and thanks to COVID both the 2020 and 2021 AFL Grand Finals were held interstate.
October also used to be when the Royal Melbourne Show was held, with trains to Showgrounds station to transporting the crowds.
The show has been cancelled for two consecutive years thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the site turned over to a COVID-19 testing site and vaccination hub.
Changes on the railways
Ginifer used to be a station located at ground level.
Flowers placed beside the pedestrian crossing, following yet another person being struck and killed by a train.
And I found more flowers beside a second pedestrian crossing closer to St Albans.
After years of lobbying by local residents, in 2015 level crossings grade separated and new stations were built at Ginifer and St Albans, but there was one omission – the pedestrian crossing between them was left behind.
And finally down in the shadows of Docklands, I found freight wagons being shunted ready for another trip down the Frankston line.
The entire freight yard was relocated in 2015 to make way for the E-Gate urban renewal project, but the land has since been co-opted by the West Gate ‘Tunnel’ Project, to be covered by a tangle of freeway ramps.
Build it up
At 199 William Street the long abandoned skyscraper was seeing some activity.
Redeveloped as ‘The William‘ the lower floors are the Wyndham Hotel Melbourne, with apartments above.
Out at Melbourne Airport, work was well underway on a new air traffic control tower.
The 75 metre tall tower was built at a cost of $19 million, and took over from the 1970s facility next door in 2014.
Outside of Geelong, work on the $78 million final stage of the Geelong Ring Road was almost complete, with a 4.6 kilometre extension from Anglesea Road at Waurn Ponds to Pettavel Road.
It opened to motorists in 2013, and was followed in 2016 by the $164 million Princes Highway West duplication 25 kilometres from Waurn Ponds to Winchelsea.
A nice change from endless road projects was a brand new rail freight terminal at Spotswood.
Operated by Sadleirs Logistics, the terminal sees freight trains daily.
Changes were afoot on the railway towards Sunbury – electrification works were underway
The $270 million project extended suburban train services from Watergardens to Diggers Rest and Sunbury stations, allowing the retirement of the dedicated V/Line services to Sunbury from November 2012.
And the first extension of the suburban rail network in decades – 3.5 kilometres from Epping to South Morang.
When I visited the civil works were mostly complete, with ballast being dropped along the freshly laid track.
The extended line opened to passengers in April 2012, and cleared the way for a further extension of the railway – 8 kilometres north to Mernda, completed in August 2018.
And tear it down
Between Lonsdale and Little Bourke Street in the CBD there was a massive hole.
That was once occupied by Myer Melbourne.
The site was being cleared for the Emporium Melbourne shopping centre, completed in 2014, and which sits behind the facades of the former Myer store.
Over at the former RAAF Williams airfield in Laverton, I found a runway that wasn’t in very good shape.
Last used in 1998, the site is now the suburb of Williams Landing.
On Buckley Street in Footscray I found a row of abandoned houses, with windows boarded up.
Compulsorily acquired for the Regional Rail Link project, the remaining sliver of land is now occupied by townhouses.
While beside the West Gate Freeway another abandoned building was being demolished – the former West Gate Bridge toll plaza.
Made redundant in 1985 following removal of tolls on the bridge, VicRoads retained the site as a conference centre before selling it to a developer in 2010. The site is now the Expressway Business Park.
Things that are gone
Remember yellow ‘Bumblebee’ trams?
By 2014 the bee themed decals were looking rather tatty, so the trams were repainted into the standard Public Transport Victoria livery.
How about the mX newspaper?
Handed out free to homeward bound commuters at CBD railway stations, readership declined thanks to the rise of smartphones, with the final edition published on 12 June 2015.
And the food court at Southern Cross?
It was located on the mezzanine floor at the Collins Street end, and overlooked the country platforms.
The food court closed in November 2011 to make way for a redevelopment of the food and retail outlets at the station, with a Woolworths Metro supermarket now occupying the site.
And things that are the same
Marketing stalls blocking the main entrance to Melbourne Central Station? Still there!
Waiting 20 minutes for a train on the Craigieburn line after 6pm? Still there!
‘Smartbuses’ stuck in traffic in the Melbourne CBD? Still there!
And something foreboding?
Outside Melbourne Central Station I found a line of people dressed in Tyvek coveralls.
But they weren’t testing patients at a COVID exposure site – but handing out marketing junk for the 2011 film ‘Contagion’.
Footnote
Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.
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