Another instalment in my photos from ten years ago series – this time it is August 2010.
Scenes that are gone
The western skyline of the Melbourne CBD was much sparser.
Today apartment towers cover the former Spencer Street Power Station, The Age building, and Australia Post sorting facility.
The Melbourne Star Observation Wheel was still in pieces.
It didn’t reopen until 2013.
And the Lacrosse building hadn’t been built yet.
It was completed in 2012, only to catch fire two years later.
Williams Landing was just an abandoned RAAF airfield.
The station opened in 2013.
West Footscray station was a shadow of what it is now.
As was Sunshine station.
Both were rebuilt in 2012-14 with stairs, lifts and ramps serving massive overhead concourses as part of the Regional Rail Link project.
Old and clunky
Hitachi trains were still running around Melbourne.
Their last revenue service was back in December 2013.
Metcard was also still the ticket to travel across Melbourne.
It was eventually switched off in 2012, replaced by Myki.
Playing catch up
V/Line was having trouble on the Ballarat line, thanks to something called fairy grass.
The grass would be blown across the tracks, then crushed by rail wheels, creating a film on the tracks that reduced adhesion, necessitating a 25km/h speed limit through the area.
Metro Trains was starting to play catchup on maintenance, like this hi-rail truck working on the overhead wires at Altona station.
The tracks at Sunshine station were also being dug up.
The spoil being loaded onto a train for removal from the work site, then transferred onto trucks for disposal.
The Victorian Government was also playing catch up, with the installation of a permanent suicide fence along the West Gate Bridge.
Replacing temporary concrete barriers added a few years earlier.
The barriers were successful, cutting the number of deaths.
Pretty pictures
I went for a wander around Melbourne Central station.
Peering down the City Loop tunnels.
Waited around at Ascot Vale.
And headed to Ballarat to follow a steam train.
And a note on Queensland
During 2010 the Queensland Government was preparing to sell off rail freight operator QR National in a public float, with advertisements appearing all over Melbourne.
Following the sale QR National was rebranded as Aurizon, and withdrawing from intermodal freight operations in 2017, to instead focus on hauling export coal.
Footnote
Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.
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