Yep, it’s cooked

Three out of the seven displays are barely visible – leaving the next seven V/Line departures MIA, along with the entire list of V/Line arrivals, and all services on the Cranbourne, Pakenham and Frankston lines.

But luckily you turn around and find a second set of screens – only to discover half these ones are also broken – you can now see the Cranbourne, Pakenham and Frankston lines; and the V/Line arrivals are nice and bright; but the Lilydale, Belgrave and Glen Waverley line are gone.

And the next seven V/Line departures – if you squint hard, you might just be able to read them on the faded screen.

And don’t hope on walking over to the platforms either – the screen at the top of platform 11 and 12 was also hardly visible.

As was the one above platform 15 and 16.

But why?

The reason for the screens not working? The screens aren’t broken outright, as they work most of the time.

The clue being in tiny text in the corner of the screen – ‘TEMPERATURE WARNING!!’. I photographed the failing screens on December 5th, when the top temperature was 33.2 °C, and that was enough for the the screens to be unable to cope.

I found a similar warning on one of the platform screens on February 4th – when the top temperature was 37.5 °C.

So in theory a simple fix – but the management at Southern Cross Station can’t even change a light bulb.

And they aren’t that old

You might point the finger at the screens being old, but that isn’t exactly true – for years Southern Cross Station used a ‘temporary’ array of CRT television screens to display the next suburban train departures.

The permanent LCD screens not being switched on for suburban trains until March 2009.

Allowing the ‘temporary’ screens to be covered up.

Until they were finally removed in April 2010.

And the LCD screens didn’t last long anyway – they were removed in November 2012 for “maintenance”.

Out of service from November 12 to December 23 – that’s 41 days to change eight screens!

Footnote: another other things cooking in the heat

Melbourne’s Comeng suburban trains from the 1980s also once had a reputation for failing in the heat.

The air conditioning failing once the temperature reached 35 degrees.

So after a spate of failures during the summer of 2008-09, the decision was made to upgrade the air conditioning units fitted to said trains.

And lo and behold – they’re just as reliable as newer trains in hot weather.

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The story begins

Once upon a time Taylors Road was a road in the middle of nowhere, beyond the edge of suburban Melbourne.

Melway Edition 1, Map 13

But Melbourne soon caught up, with boom barriers provided at the level crossing in 1986, and suburban electric trains to Watergardens station following in 2002.

Weston Langford photo

And so in 2006 the Taylors Road Project was given the go ahead to remove the level crossing.

The Taylors Road rail underpass project eliminated a railway level crossing and a five-leg roundabout between Carbine Way and Kerrison Avenue in St. Albans, Melbourne’s north-west. This AU$54 million project constructed a new road underpass beneath rural-metropolitan rail lines improving safety for drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, public transport, rail users and eased traffic congestion.

The first stage of the main contract was to transfer traffic south of the roundabout to provide sufficient work area to construct the rail bridge. The bridge was constructed on two concrete beams east of the existing railway line, minimising disruption to the rail services. Once this 1200 tonne rail bridge was completed, a 56 hour weekend occupation of the railway line was programmed for October 2007 to jack the bridge into its final position with replacement buses provided in lieu of the normal rail services.

Following successful placement of the bridge that weekend, the next stage was to complete excavation under the rail bridge, construction of associated retaining walls and the road beneath including the a signalised intersection. Road traffic was transferred under the bridge in September 2008 and the project was officially opened at the end of November 2008, ahead of time.

Google Street View imagery from December 2007 shows work on the new bridge well underway.

Google Street View December 2007

With the next Google Street View run in January 2010 showing a completed underpass.

Google Street View January 2010

And the cracks begins

November 2017 I first noticed the underpass looked a little decrepit – with rusted steel beams supporting a cracked concrete wall, with staff in hi-vis looking it over.

But Google Street View suggests those beams had been there since 2014 at least.

Google Street View Feubrary 2014

The props were still there in 2018.

And by 2022 they’d been joined by a few pieces of sheetmetal.

And then in February 2023 – survey prisms has also been added.

Just in time for VicRoads to announce they were finally going to fix the problem.

Maintenance works at Taylors Road and East Esplanade
Location: Keilor Downs
Type: Road Status: Underway
We’re completing maintenance works on the retaining wall at the corner of Taylors Road and East Esplanade.

As part of these works we will also be installing new pavement surface on a section of East Esplanade Service Road and Taylors Road Service Road.

What we’re doing

– Remediation works on the retaining wall at Taylors Road and East Esplanade
– Installing a section of new pavement surface on East Esplanade Service Road and Taylors Road Service Road
– Repainting the retaining wall.

When to expect us

You may see crews on site from Monday 6 February as they complete site investigations and begin to establish a worksite ahead of works commencing Monday 13 February. Works are expected to take seven weeks to complete, weather permitting.

Works will take place Monday to Friday, 7am to 5pm and some Saturdays, as required.

What to expect

During these works, you can expect:

– Temporary lane and footpath closures on Taylors Road and East Esplanade with signage and traffic controllers in place
– Temporary closure of Taylors Road Service Road and East Esplanade Service Road. Traffic controllers will be in place to assist residents accessing their property
– Temporary impacts to on-street parking on Taylors Road Service Road and East Esplanade Service Road
– Non-local traffic wanting to access Taylors Road Service Road and East Esplanade Service Road will be detoured via Charles Street and Power Street
– Reduced speeds during works to ensure the safety of our crews and motorists
– High levels of noise and dust, we’ll work towards minimising these impacts as much as possible.

With the new road surface and patched up retaining wall visible when I went past a few weeks ago.

I wonder what other bits of crumbing infrastructure are also propped up across Melbourne.

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The drama begins

The story starts on the morning of Monday 8 January 2024, when a Siemens train departs Flinders Street Station bound for Sandringham, when it encountered a damaged section of overhead near Richmond station, which caused all four pantographs on the train to be damaged.

Due to the number of nearby tracks and the need the keep trains moving on other lines, the decision was made to keep the defective train there until the last train of the night had departed.

Trains on the Sandringham line being replaced by buses for the day.

Getting to work

That night, Metro Trains could then turn off the overhead power to the adjacent tracks, and send in the overhead crew to inspect the damage wires.

And the damage to the pantographs.

Climbing onto the roof of the train with a ladder.

Cutting away the broken pantographs with an angle grinder.

Then throwing them down from the roof.

So they could be stashed away inside the passenger saloon.

A call for help

With the pantographs gone, an electric train isn’t able to move by itself, so Metro Trains called up V/Line to borrow a diesel locomotive, who were able to send a Y class shunter from Southern Cross to help out.

But there was one gotcha – suburban electric trains have ‘multifunction’ couplers that combine electrical, air brake and mechanical links between trains.

While diesel locomotives have old fashioned knuckle couplers, which require separate air brake hoses to be connected.

But the incompatible couplings aren’t a dealbreaker – each suburban train carries a ‘transition coupler’ that adapts the ‘multifunction’ coupler to a standard knuckle coupler.

Recovery time

With the coupling situation sorted.

Y156 slowly closed in on the disabled Siemens train.

CLUNK!

Time to connect up the transition coupler, along with a set of backup chains.

The braking system of the Siemens train then needed to switched into a fallback air braking mode.

And an emergency brake application tap connected as a backup for that.

Y156 could then set off with the disabled electric train.

Towing it through to a spare track at Flinders Street Station.

Leaving it there until another suburban train could drag it to the workshops for repair.

And then Y156 could head back home to Southern Cross.

Footnote: turns out it’s happened before

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a Siemens train need to be rescued by a V/Line diesel – back in 2023 a Powercor 22kV power line fell across the railway line at Laverton, causing a power surge on the 1500V DC traction power supply, bringing down the overhead, and cooking two Siemens trains. The next day V/Line locomotive N456 was out sent to assist, recovering the stranded Siemens trains as individual 3-car sets.

And I saw a similar move back in 2019 as well a Siemens train encountered damaged overhead wiring outside Laverton, disabling the train. Again, the pantographs had to be cut away, and diesel locomotives from V/Line sent out to drag the suburban train away.

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Reheated media release, or reheated pizza?

It started a month ago, when Melbourne’s news media started breathlessly reposting a media release from Southern Cross Station management, announcing a new vending machine that reheats pizza on demand.

And it got another run this week, as the TikTok crowd decided to review the ‘pizza’ for themselves.

So I decided to take took a look on my recent visit to the station – and found the machine, installed in front of an abandoned health food shop, and surrounded by other shuttered retail outlets.

Next door was a dog treat vending machine installed in front of an abandoned Amcal chemist.

But next door things went low budget quickly – this ‘Card Bot’ trading card vending machine was just pushed through a hole in the hoarding around the closed Spanish Doughnuts outlet.

And this pair of drink vending machines were just plonked around what was once a Mad Mex take away outlet.

But the most asinine change is the ‘Gacha Gacha’ machine surrounding what used to be a coffee shop – no gacha games have actually been installed, it’s just a hoarding covered in stickers that look like a row of vending machines.

At least the seats that served the now-closed fast food outlets still exist – but with seagulls picking through abandoned fast food wrappers, after the rubbish bins were removed a decade ago.

And downstairs

Downstairs I found another interesting vending machine beside the Spencer Street entrance to the station – a ‘Robo Tea’ bubble tea machine.

With a surprisingly long list of options for a vending machine.

Thanks to the robotic arm responsible for pouring drinks.

And a $0.20 credit card surcharge, despite the machine being unable to accept cash.

Not that you could buy a drink – a ‘Machine malfunction, temporarily out of service’ message greeted me.

At least the Amazon Hub parcel locker alongside still worked – I suppose Jeff Bezos has a team of exploited labour to keep his machines running.

And the abandoned ‘Chiko Chip Shop’ by the V/Line platforms has been replaced by a Daniel’s Donuts outlet.

So what happened?

Southern Cross Station was supposed to be a shiny new gateway to Melbourne, with then-Premier Steve Bracks declaring the station open for the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

But within five years the initial set of tenants was starting to fail, including the Delaware North managed food court.

Their solution was a $22 million refurbishment, anchored by a Woolworths Metro supermarket, more WHSmith newsagent outlets than you can shake a stick at, and increasing the number of shops from 28 to 48 by cramming them in anywhere they’d fit.

But COVID-19 followed by the growth of working from home has seen the number of commuters passing through the station each day fall. Combine that with a property management team more interested in squeezing every last penny out of business owners, it’s no surprise the station’s retail outlets has turned into a ghost town.

But some things never change

A decade ago I first wrote about the failing tactile paving at Southern Cross Station.

But a decade on, they seem to have given up trying to fix it.

Rather than installing new paving slabs, they’ve switched to just patching it up with asphalt.

Seems like par for the course, given the lights above platform 13 and 13 have been broken since 2015, frequent escalator failures, and overall passenger capacity issues.

Footnote: and it isn’t even 24/7

I had an interesting fact about the “Fresh Hot Tasty 24/7” signage pointed out to me.

Southern Cross Station isn’t actually open 24/7 – it closes at 1am.

With ‘Night Network’ trains running express through Southern Cross on Friday and Saturday nights, because opening it would have required contract renegotiation with the private managers of the station.

And in bizarre twist, these trains are advertised as ‘Ltd Express via Sthn Cross’ despite not stopping at Southern Cross.

Further reading

The Age was one of the few media outlets who didn’t breathlessly republish the pizza vending machine press releases, instead publishing ‘Spencer Street’s soul is suffering as people pass through but never stay‘ by David Estcourt – covering the decline of Southern Cross Station.

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November 5.

November 10.

November 24.

December 29.

January 9.

January 29.

How many more months until this escalator finally gets repaired?

Previous form

Southern Cross Station has a long history of failure – back in 2012 there was a plague of failing floor tiles, with escalators joining the club soon after.

In 2012 I first noticed hefty timber barriers being used to prevent passengers from trying to use failed escalators.

Despite their size, the barriers could be disassembled into smaller components, ready to be moved to the next failed escalator.

By 2015 the barriers had been so frequently used they needed a repaint and some new signage.

But that wasn’t enough, so by 2017 the signs were replaced a second time.

Which was a good thing, given the signs were getting more of a workout.

Popping up around the station on an increasingly frequent basis.

And why are they breaking anyway?

North Melbourne Station also has a reputation for failing escalators – my theory being that undersized units were originally installed, leading to premature failure. Given that the rest of Southern Cross Station is almost at design capacity, could this be the same case here?

Footnote

Turns out I photographed the very same escalator under repair back in June 2016.

Unfortunately I can’t remember how long it took to get fixed last time.

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The story starts:

Passengers on the 7.48am city-bound service from Melton were forced to break emergency locks on the train’s doors at Deer Park to get air during the incident on Wednesday morning.

One passenger said the train stopped short of the station when the air conditioning went out.

“Once we arrived at the platform people were waiting to get off the train,” she said.

“People were standing at the door inside. The doors wouldn’t open. People became distressed very quickly. People were very upset…. I became distressed very quickly.”

Two men on the carriage broke the emergency door lock after 10 minutes of trying.

V/Line staff eventually opened all the emergency doors, but the backlog of people arriving at the station created chaos.

A V/Line spokeswoman said the problem at Deer Park began at Bacchus Marsh on the 7.39am train to Southern Cross.

She said it took about half an hour to move the train after the fault occurred.

The train in question was operated by a ‘H’ type carriage set.

These carriages entered V/Line service back in the mid-1980s, having been converted from retired ‘Harris’ suburban trains.

VPRS 12800/P4, item RS/1199

As originally converted these carriages were fitted with air operated power doors, remotely closed by the conductor on departure, then remotely released on arrival at stations, allowing them to be manually opened by passengers.

An important distinction here is the power operated doors, and not power locking doors. In normal service, both systems act exactly the same, but in the case of a power failure, only power locking doors stay closed – power operated doors are free to be manually opened.

As the H set carriages aged, the reliability of these door mechanisms began to decline, with door failures becoming increasingly common.

Both doors sticking open following station stops.

Investigation after train departs Warragul with doors open
6 July 2013

V/Line is investigating after an on-peak rail service departed Warragul Station with many of its platform-facing doors still open on Wednesday night.

Doors not closing on the Traralgon-bound service, which departs Warragul Station at 7.30pm weekdays, is nothing new – passengers have reported single doors not closing or opening on the service and other services using the same type of carriages for years.

It is however less common for more than one door to remain open on departure.

It is unknown when the doors of the six-carriage service closed on Wednesday, but some remained open as carriages passed the end of the station.

The Warragul Citizen contacted V/Line on Thursday for information on the incident and is awaiting a detailed response.

A spokesperson said the regional rail operator is investigating and will supply more information to TWC when it becomes available.

As well as doors coming open while the train was in motion.

Doors swing open on train travelling at 100km/h
August 6, 2014

The doors of a packed Geelong-bound train swung open while travelling more than 100km/h today.

The doors on the 3.59pm express service worked their way open, leaving passengers in one carriage with nothing between them and the ground.

Train operator V/Line has said the train would have been travelling at speeds of up to 110km/h.

This happened on one of the older H-class carriages, a refurbished version of a train from the 1970s.

Due to the age of the train, it lacked modern passenger intercoms. V/Line only found out about this when a passenger tweeted about it.

Network control then alerted the conductor who attempted to close the door, although passengers say she was unsuccessful.

Passengers said the train left for another station with the doors still open.

V/Line said the train has now been taken out of service while it investigates the cause of this fault, and said it is taking the issue “very seriously”.

As an interim fix, V/Line changed their rules to require conductors to manually check that every door is closed before leaving the platform.

Some conductors apologies to passengers for the late running caused.

“I would like to apologise for the late running of this train, it is due to a new company policy. We are running behind schedule and will continue to fall behind due to the new policy that requires us to check that every door on the train is shut before we can exit the station. Unfortunately the only way to do this is to walk along the platform.”

In October 2014 V/Line confirmed the issues to The Age.

V/Line has ordered staff to check carriage doors are secure before departing platforms, amid reports of doors opening while trains are travelling at high speeds.

The regional rail operator confirmed the directive was given to conductors in August following safety concerns after doors opened on three moving trains recently.

Problems with the doors have all affected H-set trains, of which there are nine in V/Line’s fleet that typically run limited services to and from Geelong, Seymour, Kyneton and Bacchus Marsh each day.

V/Line said the door problems were believed to be caused by customers’ “heavy handling” or “forcing”, causing the door to become disengaged from the drive mechanism and stuck in an open position.

But a passenger who commutes from Geelong to Melbourne every day and has seen train doors automatically open in transit three times in the past two months said he believed the problem was related to an electrical fault.

“I’ve seen it happen at high speeds, where the power shuts off and the doors just come open, usually open by about three to six inches,” he said. “There is clearly a failure of power to the entire carriage because the air conditioning and the lights lose power.”

The passenger, who asked not to be named, said on two occasions the train was stopped, but the third train was kept running and passengers advised to stay away from the open door after staff said the problem could not be fixed.

V/Line says there is no correlation between problems with the doors and electrical issues.

But did mention a fix was in progress.

V/Line said it was working on a new modification for the H-set trains aimed at strengthening the door drive mechanism and a function alerting the driver if it was open.

By December 2015 the upgraded door mechanism had been retrofitted to entire H-set fleet, the main spotting feature being a new emergency door release valve beneath each carriage.

But the main change was inside the train – the conductor can now see from inside the train that all doors have been successfully locked.

And if the power supply to the train does drop out, the doors stay locked unless the emergency door release is used.

Which leaves us back at the at Deer Park station: the passengers were stuck onboard a failed train behind locked doors, thanks to a system installed after doors on an identical train didn’t stay closed when they were supposed to!

On open doors

Ever through that the ‘good old days’ before locked doors were safer? You’d be wrong.

Sure, there’s nostalgia. But the reality is there were accidents, people were injured or killed, and the quest for better safety is a worthy one.

In 2005 a passenger fell out of the open doors of a V/Line train bound for Warrnambool.

And in 2011 a five-year-old boy fell from an open door onboard the Sunlander train in Queensland.

And leaving broken down trains

Think that just because your train has stopped, you’re safe to open the door and walk down an adjacent track?

The floor of a train is about a metre above the rails, with no ladder to use.

Ballast is a pain in the ankles to walk along.

And you’re assuming that trains on other tracks have stopped – something you cannot assume even in the suburban area. On some corridors separate tracks are managed by separate rail operators, a contributing factor to the derailment of a V/Line train in 2003.

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The main concourse at the city end of North Melbourne station opened to passengers in November 2009, and with it came eight brand new escalators to provide access to the six platforms beneath.

Combined with the existing ramps at the north end of the station, the new concourse provided an additional route for passengers to change platforms, as well as aiding access for the disabled by the provision of lifts to each platform. Two escalators and a lift serve each of platform 1, platform 2/3, platform 4/5 and platform 6, with additional staircases also connecting platforms 1 and 6 to the overhead concourse.

As mentioned in my previous post, I first noticed a defective escalator in October 2012, and since then I’ve seen a broken down escalator at North Melbourne at least 16 times – about once every two months.

I have numbered the escalators 1A to 6B – east to west, based on platform number they serve.

Ever bought an escalator?

As with everything in this world, buying the right tool is important – there is no point spending thousands of dollars on something you will only use a couple of times a year, while it is also a waste of money to buy a cheap one that will break after a few hours of heavy use.

The same applies to escalators, with escalator manufacturer Thyssenkrupp dividing their range into three categories:

Commercial
Commercial applications are typically installed in department stores, shopping malls and office buildings. Commercial escalators are typically designed to move thousands of people and yet look elegant.

Heavy Duty
Heavy traffic applications are typically found in convention centres and stadiums where there is a very high traffic volume. These heavy traffic escalators have increased chain and motor sizing.

Transit
Transit applications are typically railway stations, airports and subway stations where there is a very high traffic volume. These transit escalators have a much larger, heavier truss structure, increased chain and motor sizing, heavier step track construction and a larger, heavier handrail drive system.

As you would expect, the designer of a building has to match the number and grade of escalators to the transportation task expected to be placed upon the completed structure – undersized escalators will break down, while oversized escalators are a needless cost for the client.

Back to North Melbourne

I had a closer look at the escalators at North Melbourne, which lead me to ThyssenKrupp – a major escalator manufacturer. After trawling through their data sheets I pinned them down as a ThyssenKrupp ‘Velino’.

Note that the ‘Velino’ is ThyssenKrupp’s commercial grade escalator – their bottom end model which was never meant to be used in a heavy traffic location such as North Melbourne station, where thousands of commuters walk up and down the escalators each day.

In the end, this suggests that the blame for the failing escalators goes all the way back to the design of the station – the level of passenger traffic was underestimated, leaving to undersized escalators being specified, which survived for the first few years, only to progressively fail as the components wear out prematurely.

Conspiracy theory

With my tinfoil hat on, I have an alternate theory – correctly sized escalators were specified as part of the North Melbourne station redevelopment project but the beancounter objected to the cost, leading to lower-specification escalators being substituted instead.

Bonus footnote

Platforms 2-3 and 4-5 have a curious escalator arrangement, with a ‘normal’ width escalator paired with a ‘narrow’ escalator that only just allows two people to pass each other.

The reason for this was the narrow platforms – if two normal escalators were installed on the platform, where would not have been enough room for wheelchairs to navigate between the escalators and the platform edge. Platforms 1 and 6 are much wider, so the same arrangement wasn’t required.

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I first bothered to take a photo of a failed escalator at North Melbourne station on October 10, 2012 – the defective unit was leading to platform 2/3.

November 21, 2012 an escalator to platform 1 broke.

And stayed that way for a day.

Staff put up an ‘out of order until further notice’ sign, with the escalator still being broken three days after the initial fault.

A few weeks later on November 26, 2012 the other escalator to platform 1 broke down.

On December 5 the escalator for platform 6 was next to fail.

A few months went by without me noticing a failed escalator, when on March 27, 2013 I discovered a hand written sign advising passengers of the fact.

A few days on, and that escalator to platform 1 was still broken.

Two weeks later the escalator was still kaput, when I took this photo on April 10.

Fast forward to late 2013, and I spotted an out of service escalator to platform 6 on December 23.

January 8, 2014 the same escalator broke yet again.

Staff wrote out a sign telling passengers to use the staircase or lift to exit the platform.

April 30, 2014 an escalator to platform 2 and 3 died.

May 30, 2014 the escalator leading to platform 6 died again, leading some wag to write “Is this a joke” on the sign.

Metro Trains must have picked up on the plague of escalator failures, as they printed up some fancy looking posters to take the place of the handwritten signs.

But two days later on July 4, that sign was still there.

On August 12, 2014 it was the turn of platform 1 to receive the new ‘Escalators out of order’ posters.

Two days later platform 6 snatched it back.

Platform 2 went belly up on October 28, 2014.

A day later the fancy ‘out of order’ sign was out, but no mechanics to fix the fault.

With so many photos of failed escalators I am now starting to run out of witty captions – this was platform 6 on November 11.

Platforms 4 and 5 appear to be the least trouble prone – this photo was from December 1, 2014.

In the race to fail, with platform 2 and 3 racking up another win on February 3, 2015.

At least this time there was technician there to fix it – they needed to pull out the electronics box at the top end.

So which escalator failed the most?

Collating the data found above gives me this table. I have numbered the escalators 1A to 6B – east to west, based on platform number they serve.

Looks like platform 6 is the big dud!

October 2012 to February 2015 is 29 months, and in that time I’ve seen the escalators at North Melbourne break at least 16 times – so that is once every two months. I’ve been working in Melbourne CBD Monday to Friday for that entire time, which suggests that the number of escalators failures could be higher, but probably not by a massive amount.

Finally, of the other railway stations I pass through, neither Southern Cross or the City Loop stations appear to have as escalators that fail as frequently – is there something in the water at North Melbourne?

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