Trains

I’ve been posting about progress on Regional Rail Link for a few years now, and finally it’s the big day – VLocity VL09 was the first “proper” test train to run along the new tracks from Deer Park towards West Werribee.

However it wasn’t the actual first train to use the line – a few months earlier a super heavy “consolidation train” spent a few days driving back and forth along the line, simulating the load of multiple passenger trains in order to bed down the brand new track.

Also this month the brand new station at Waurn Ponds in Geelong’s southern suburbs opened.

But it was a bare bones operation, with just a single platform, and a short siding down the line to allow terminating trains to shunt clear of services continuing to Warrnambool.

Nearby Baanip Boulevard was also under construction – a link between the recently completed Geelong Ring Road and the Surfcoast Highway.

Since then Waurn Ponds gained a second platform in 2022, the short holding siding has been replaced by a six road train stabling yard past the cement works, and 8 kilometers of track between South Geelong and Waurn Ponds has been duplicated.

Terrorism scaremongering

A decade ago the government decided to ratchet up the National Terrorism Threat Level from medium to high, and in return the City Loop railway stations were blanketed in ‘If you see something, say something’ scaremongering.

We also lost our rubbish bins at railway stations, and the recent installed lockers at Flinders Street Station were shut down.

The bins eventually returned but now see through, with the exception of Southern Cross Station, which still lacks them.

And things that are gone

A decade ago the LED matrix next train displays were still a common sight outside of the CBD.

Since 2018 the majority of them have been replaced by modern LCD screens.

Next up, we have an Alstom Comeng arrives into an almost new West Footscray platform 1 with an up Sunbury service.

Now numbered platform 2, a third turnback platform has since been constructed as part of the Metro Tunnel project.

And finally, the view onboard an EDI Comeng train.

The windbreakers and 15 seats around the doors of each carriage were removed in 2015, to make more room for standing passengers.

Trams

I headed out to Victoria Gardens in Richmond to check out the new route 12 terminus – opened in July 2014 after route 112 from West Preston to St Kilda was split into route 11 from West Preston to Victoria Harbour, and route 12 from St Kilda to Victoria Gardens.

Also ongoing was the rebuilding of recently completed tram stops in the Melbourne CBD so their platform heights met new standards.

And in Ascot Vale I revisited a tram stop that landed me in the newspaper for tracking the ongoing procession of motorists who crashed into it.

Buses

A decade ago Sita was still running clapped out high floor buses on services around Sunshine, complete with paper destination signs as they didn’t want spend the money updating the old fashioned destination blind.

While a much more salubrious bus service was the privately operated ‘SuitJet’ express bus to the Melbourne CBD.

Launched in August 2014 with services from Point Cook, Eltham, Doreen, Mernda and Templestowe, there were few takers for the $30 return fare, and the service shut down a few weeks later.

And something else

Something that always intrigued me was the handful of houses left standing in the middle of the Victoria University car park in Footscray.

I eventually got around to writing about them in 2018, only for the State Government to announce in 2019 that the new Footscray Hospital would be built on the site. Today the houses are gone, replaced by a 10-storey glass and concrete tower.

Footnote

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

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The first coincidence

The story starts in 1977, when the Victorian Railways called tenders for 100 new air-conditioned trains for the Melbourne suburban network. Comeng Dandenong won the $108.5 million contract in 1979 with a stainless steel train with GEC traction equipment.

The first train of what are known as the ‘Comeng trains‘ was handed over in September 1981.

Weston Langford photo

A follow-on order for 90 additional trains followed in 1982, the last of which entered service in June 1989, with around half of the fleet still in service today.

Meanwhile over in South Australia, in 1983 tenders were called for 20 suburban diesel railcars for Adelaide. Both Comeng Granville and Comeng Dandenong submitted bids for various combinations of single and double-deck trains with diesel-electric and diesel-hydraulic transmissions.

In 1985 it was announced that the Comeng Dandenong design was the winner, marrying a Victorian Railways derived stainless steel bodyshell with a Stromberg diesel-electric traction package. The body shells were assembled at Dandenong and then transported by rail to Dry Creek in Adelaide for final fitout.

The first of the ‘3000/3100 class‘ railcars entered service in November 1987.

Image via Wikipedia

An additional 50 railcars being completed by Clyde Engineering between 1992 and 1996, with the fleet still being in service today.

And lighting strikes twice

In 2001 the Victorian Government called tenders for 29 2-car diesel railcars for V/Line. The $206.8 million contract was awarded to Bombardier Transportation, who had taken over the Comeng Dandenong plant through a series of corporate takeovers. The train was designed at their Brisbane offices, and was intended to follow on from their previous XPlorer train designed for NSW, but used a new bodyshell mated with a cab designed by the team behind the Transperth B-series electric multiple unit.

Dubbed ‘VLocity‘, the first train entered service in 2005.

And in the decades since, over 100 trains to the same design have joined the V/Line fleet thanks to dozens of follow-on orders.

And in 2011, the South Australia approved the electrification of the Adelaide suburban network, and needed some new electric trains to run on it. Bombardier con the contract, based on their bid combining the VLocity railcar bodyshell with the underfloor design of the Transperth B-series electric multiple unit.

Classified as the ‘4000 class‘, the first train entered service in February 2014.

Like the previous Adelaide order the Dandenong plant was involved in the contract, but this time they were responsible for completion of the entire train, which was then transported carriage-by-carriage by road for the thanks 700 kilometre section of standard gauge between the broad gauge rail networks of Adelaide and Melbourne.

An interior related footnote

As delivered the Comeng trains in Melbourne had 2-by-3 seating with tartan cushions on white fibreglass bases.

John Dunn photo

A design also applied to the Adelaide version.

In the 2000s the Melbourne trains were refurbished, with the seats replaced with a more spartan design with less padding.

An idea also copied by Adelaide.

But Victoria’s VLocity trains designed for country services received 2-by-2 high back seats with comfortable padding.

A seating layout that the Adelaide 4000 class trains also received, but with a more suburban style seat.

Sources

The book series “Comeng: A History of Commonwealth Engineering” by John Dunn covers the history of all four classes of train mention in this piece, across Volume 4 (1977-1985) and Volume 5 (1985-1990 plus ABB, Adtranz and Bombardier to 2012).

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Regional Rail Link

We start the month like many others, with progress on the Regional Rail Link project through Melbourne’s west.

The old West Footscray station was still in place beneath ‘Mount Mistake‘.

But the new station to the west was well underway.

Being constructed clear of the existing tracks to avoid disruption to Sunbury line services.

Down the line at Sunshine similar thoughtful works were underway – the level crossing at Anderson Road had been relocated clear of the grade separation works.

So that the future rail bridge could be constructed clear of the tracks, and slid into place when complete.

Meanwhile on the greenfield section of the route, the new Tarneit station had everything in place except for tracks!

Ballan Road had a road bridge passing over an incomplete rail cutting.

Wyndham Vale had pedestrian bridge ready to cross a future four track, four platform station.

And Manor Junction had a massive flyover in place over the Geelong line tracks, but with nothing connecting at either end.

Other train bits

One evening I passed through Newmarket station and found it in the dark – a tree took out the mains power supply to the station.

So somewhat surprisingly, electricians were sent out to connect a generator to the switchboard.

After sitting empty for a decade, in 2013 work finally started on the office towers above the west end of Southern Cross Station.

699 Bourke Street at the north end was first to be completed in 2015, followed by 664 Collins Street at the south end in 2019.

I also paid a visit to Dandenong South, where I found something different sitting dumped beside the tracks.

Comeng carriages 305M, 1003T and 306M stored in the Membreys Transport yard, after being damaged in the November 2012 level crossing crash at Abbotts Road in Dandenong South.

Ding ding

Preparation for the introduction of the new E class trams was underway on route 96, with the inaccessible safety zones along Nicholson Street being extended so the rear doors of the longer trams would not overhang into traffic.

This interim fix remained in place until 2018, when they were finally replaced by accessible platform stops.

And the other bits

On Swanston Street in the CBD I found the Victoria Police bicycle squad on patrol.

But they didn’t seem to be making much of a difference to the dingbats driving down the bike lanes.

Out at Maribyrnong a brand new two-storey Bunnings Warehouse opened – the $45 million store being located around the corner from the old one at Highpoint, and at more than 17,000 square metres, was three times the size of the old one.

And around the corner at West Footscray another Bunnings Warehouse was being constructed – on the former Southern Can Company factory site, with the front office block retained, but the warehouse being being demolished to make way for a hardware store with basement car park.

Footnote

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

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The backstory

Comeng trains were introduced in 1981 by VicRail to replace the last of the 60-year-old timber bodied Tait trains. The order was then increased from 50 to 95 six-car sets, to allow the retirement of the 1950s-era Harris trains by 1988. In total 570 carriages – 380 motor cars and 190 trailer cars – were built.

Weston Langford photo

Throughout the 1990s Comeng trains formed the core of the Melbourne train network, alongside the non-air conditioned Hitachi sets.

Following privatisation of the network in the 2000s the Hitachi trains were retired, replaced by Siemens and X’Trapolis trains, and the Comeng fleet were split between M>Train and Connex, and received mid-life refurbishments by EDI Rail and Alstom respectively.

Weston Langford photo

And now today – the new High Capacity Metro Trains are entering service on the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines, and on to Sunbury once the Metro Tunnel opens.

Which leaves the Comeng trains the oldest in the fleet – and next in line to be withdrawn.

Metro Trains Melbourne MR4 Franchise Agreement ‘Train Rolling Stock Module’

And it starts

On the evening of 18 August 2021 retired Comeng sets 320M-1107T-321M and 363M-1032T-364M were transferred behind a pair of diesel locomotives from Newport Workshops to Tottenham Yard, where they were parked up for the night.

Since it was the middle of yet another Melbourne lockdown, curfew got in the way of railfans seeing it happen, so I didn’t get to see it until the next morning.

But word travels fast, even with a lockdown – the unattended train was covered in graffiti within a few hours.

Until finally on Saturday 21 August the train was off again – headed to North Shore in Geelong for long term storage, travelling via Sunshine and Melbourne Yard.

The next week a second train followed – class leaders 301M-1001T-302M and 303M-1002T-304M heading to Geelong on 28 August 2021.

A third train followed on 4 September 2021 – 491M-1096T-492M and 339M-1020T-340M.

And finally a fourth – 325M-1013T-326M and 479M-1090T-480M on 11 September 2021.

The four sets were lined up in the sidings opposite North Shore station, and were soon completely covered in graffiti, and thoroughly trashed by vandals.

Doors and windows kicked in.

Including class leader Comeng 301M.

But carriage 492M came out worst – burnt out by fire on 19 October 2021.

So in a case of too little, too late – a security guard was hired to look over the trashed trains.

And the retirements ramp up

After a bit of a break, another Comeng train was transferred for storage – 408M-1054T-407M and 475M-1088T-476M being transferred on 25 September 2021 to Tottenham Yard.

The retired train being pushed into a siding specially prepared for long term storage, and the train crew headed off.

And in came the graffiti vandals – repainting the train within hours.

Two weeks later on 9 October 2021, another two sets arrived – 307M-1004T-308M and 309M-1005T-310M.

Fresh meat for the vandals.

Sets 311M-1006T-312M and 318M-1009T-317M arrived on 23 October 2021.

Starting to notice a pattern?

With the trains left unattended at night, the vandalism should be no surprise.

Gates surround the yard getting kicked in.

And holes cut in the fences.

Until a security guard was finally hired to stand guard over the stored trains – with the only vandalism since being a few quick tags scrawled on the side of the latest arrivals.

Now to mix things up

The initial Comeng transfers from Newport Workshops to Tottenham Yard took a convoluted route via North Melbourne, Sunshine and two changes of directions because ARTC – manager of the direct Newport-Sunshine railway – had never approved the operation of Comeng trains across their network.

Eventually the paperwork made the way through the bureaucracy, and they were approved – but subject to a 25 km/h speed restriction. The first movement via Brooklyn occurred on 6 November 2021 with sets 336M-1069T-437M and 414M-1057T-413M.

Metro has also made their own change – covering the ‘Metro’ logo on the side of each train with blue stickers. Because nobody will guess who they really belong to.

30 November 2021 saw another retired train transferred to Tottenham Yard, with three sidings now full of stored Comeng trains.

A mystery

At the end of November 2021 a different move happened – a single retired train was transferred to Tottenham Yard, then stabled for the night with locomotives still attached.

Then departed the next day for the Bendigo Rail Workshops.

It’s fate is unknown, but if the 2018 transfer of a Hitachi trains to Bendigo is anything to go but – it won’t be coming back.

And the end of the line

On January 14 stripped Comeng set 338M-1092T-484M was removed from the rails at Newport Workshops, and placed onto a hastily prepared gravel hard stand.

Excavator ready to rip into the remaining stainless steel body shell.

Each carriage was cut up into a number of chunks, then transported to road to a scrap yard at Dandenong South.

Ready to be shredded up into scrap metal for recycling.

And on it goes

On 28 January 2022 a pair of diesel locomotives headed down to North Shore to pick up stored Comeng sets 325M-1013T-326M and 479M-1090T-480M.

Surprisingly the trashed carriages were still in a state to move by rail.

Being allowed to proceed at the usual line speed of 80 km/h en route to Newport Workshops.

Where it was pushed into the siding where the previous Comeng train had been scrapped.

So it won’t be long until this set is also cat food tins.

Further reading

• Comeng trains at Wikipedia and Vicsig.net
• Comeng… Retirement Plans by Max Thum
• Comeng trains starting to be scrapped by Daniel Bowen
• And more photos of retired Comeng trains – by me!

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My favourite answer so far? 22.

Footnote

Both trains are members of the fleet of Comeng trains operated by Metro Trains Melbourne. The yellow stickers read ‘We’re deep-cleaning and disinfecting this vehicle every day’ while the open gangways between carriages are a dying breed – the Comeng Life Extension project has been replacing them with enclosed walkways.

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Changed scenes

Back then the tram stops along Swanston Street were at ground level.

The platform stops at Collins, Bourke and La Trobe Street weren’t completed until July 2012.

And the Melbourne CBD skyline was much smaller, as seen in this view from the rail yards of West Melbourne.

This entire area is about to be covered in freeway overpasses as part of the West Gate ‘Tunnel’ project.

The railway yards beside North Melbourne station have also changed, when I photographed the ‘Apex’ quarry train parked for the weekend.

And a grain train headed to Kensington.

Both trains still run today, but under new operators – Qube Logistics and Southern Shorthaul Railroad respectively – while the sidings they use have been completely rebuilt as part of the Regional Rail Link project.

Another scene changed thanks to Regional Rail Link is the approach to Sunshine, where V/Line and suburban trains had to share the tracks.

Today a second track pair runs between Sunshine and the city, speeding the journey for V/Line trains on the Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo lines.

And new trains

The construction of new X’Trapolis trains had just restarted at the Alstom Ballarat workshops.

A decade on we’re still building them, with seven follow on orders signed so far, but no firm commitment has been made as to the future of the facility.

And the older Comeng trains were also in the middle of an air conditioning upgrade program.

Previously known for their propensity to drop dead whenever the temperature hit 36 degrees, the State Government spent $18.7 million retrofitting the units so that they would continue to run at temperatures up to 45 degrees.

The Bombardier plant at Dandenong was also busy, refurbishing Endeavour and Xplorer railcars for New South Wales.

Due to the railways of New South Wales being standard gauge, each railcar needed to be transferred to broad gauge bogies at South Dynon, then dragged to Dandenong behind a diesel locomotive.

Headed out west

Another rail gauge muddle can be found at Maryborough, where the mothballed standard gauge track to Ararat met the broad gauge tracks from Ballarat.

In 2018 the line from Ararat was reopened as part of the Murray Basin Rail Project that converted the Mildura line to standard gauge, but lefts things in worse shape than before: poorly built and slower than the previous route.

On my way back to Ballarat I visited the disused railway station at Creswick, as a grain train passed through.

The newly relaid track was part of the restoration of V/Line services to Maryborough, with Creswick station reopening to passenger on July 2010.

But a station in even worse condition was that at Maldon, on the the Victorian Goldfields Railway.

The 120-year-old building was gutted by fire in October 2009, but has since been rebuilt.

And the unexpected

One afternoon at Kensington I spotted some ‘police’ wandering the tracks at Kensington.

But it was just a television show.

Apparently for the Channel Seven series City Homicide, which screened between 2007 and 2011.

Footnote

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

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Rolling out a new look

The government released a flashy video alongside the media release, featuring an X’Trapolis train bearing the new Metro corporate image.

Back in 2009 X’Trapolis trains were the newest in the Melbourne suburban fleet, following a hurried order for 20 new trains to cater for an explosion in patronage.

But for the launch of Metro Trains Melbourne on 30 November none of the new trains were ready to carry passengers, so one of the older X’Trapolis trains was rebranded, with a design looking much like the train featured in the animation.

But it wasn’t a full repaint, but a change of stickers – goodbye Connex logo, hello Metro Trains Melbourne.

The same process followed with the rest of the fleet – the first Siemens train to receive the Metro livery appearing a week later, with the fractal design and large ‘METRO’ text fitting easily onto the flat carriage sides.

But that design wouldn’t fit over the fluted sides of the older Comeng trains, so a cut back version was devised – which didn’t appear until April 2010.

But if in doubt – rebrand again!

Following the launch of Public Transport Victoria in 2012, the Metro Trains Melbourne brand was taken off the side of trains, replaced by new PTV logos – resulting in three layers of branding visible.

Feedback from the workshops

In the years that followed, more X’Trapolis trains continued to be delivered – each one being painted plain white at the factory, with Metro stickers applied over the top.

Until July 2018 when a new X’Trapolis train emerged from the Alstom workshops at Ballarat, with a smaller Metro logo on the side.

But why was it changed? Take a look at the side of the side of an X’Trapolis train, when coupled to a classmate.

The previous version of the livery required four different types of door sticker to be kept in stock:

• ME (left side, left door)
• ET (left side, right door)
• TR (right side, left door)
• RO (right side, right door)

While the new design only needs one kind – plain blue. I wonder who made this clever observation?

Siemens train footnote

The Metro livery applied to the Siemens trains went through a far less noticeable evolution. Can you spot it?

The answer: the train to the left has the early version with one piece stickers, with the train on the right has stickers that avoid the seams in the stainless steel panels.

Presumably the stickers over the seam was would bubble up over time and eventually come loose, hence the change to a more secure two piece design.

And finally – level crossings

There is one that that features prominently in the government’s flashy video from 2009 – single track railways.

And level crossings!

Daniel Andrews took a ‘Level Crossing Removal Project’ policy to the 2014 State Election, with much work done since, but progress on duplicating single track railways is only happening on a sporadic basis.

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The ‘Rolling Stock Module’ of the 2017 Franchise Agreement between Public Transport Victoria and Metro Trains Melbourne describes how the ‘Mean Distance Between Failure’ is calculated:

MDBF = D/F

where:

• MDBF is the Mean Distance Between Failure (in kilometres);
• D is the total Franchise Rolling Stock Type fleet kilometres in the Relevant Month; and
• F is the number of failures in the items of a Franchise Rolling Stock Type in service in the Relevant Month.

As well as the definition of failure.

6. The definition of a ‘failure’ for the purpose of calculating MDBF is described below:

(a) A failure is the random stopping of the capability of the equipment to carry out its function, requiring an unplanned, immediate or deferred maintenance action.
(b) Failures that result in an item being unable carry out its function for a period of five minutes or greater are taken into account for this metric.
(c) Failures that are able to be rectified in under five minutes are not taken into account for this metric.
(d) If a failure lasting for a period of five minutes or greater occurs, but no fault is found, it is still recorded as a failure.
(e) Each failure situation that lasts for a period of five minutes or greater is recorded as a separate incident even if the cause of the failure is unchanged ie, if a failure on train xyz occurs at 0900 due to ‘Q’, and is rectified, then fails again at 1100 due to ‘Q’ or any other cause, this will be recorded as two failures.
(f) Failures lasting for a period of five minutes or greater and that are caused by collisions or vandalism are not taken into account for this metric.

As well as what is not considered a failure.

To avoid doubt, minor faults such as blown globes, fuses, and tripped circuit breakers etc. are not considered for this metric unless the incident result in the item being unable to carry out its function for a period of five minutes or greater.
(a) If a minor fault occurs, which does not force a train from service, but the defect precludes the train from a timely commencement of its next scheduled service run, that fault will be considered a failure disrupting service for a period of five minutes or greater and recorded as such.
(b) Delays resulting from non-maintenance sources, such as level crossing incidents, network incidents, driver errors or the like will not be considered for this metric.

As well as the reliability target that Metro Trains Melbourne will be measured against.

• X’Trapolis target: 52,000 km per Service Affecting Failure (SAF)
• Siemens target: 40,000 km per SAF
• Comeng target: 19,000 km per SAF

Which looks like this is graph form.

It takes around an hour for a suburban train to travel the 58 kilometres between Flinders Street to Pakenham – assuming a train running between the two points all day long, that is 1,392 kilometres per day, which gives the following overly pessimistic ‘days between failure’ graph – in reality the time between faults would be at least twice this, given turnaround times and the nights that trains don’t run.

Comeng trains entered service back in the 1980s and are now approaching 40 years of age, so the fact that they are the least reliable isn’t surprising.

But the difference between the Siemens and X’Trapolis trains is interesting.

The first Siemens train entered serivce in 2002, as did the first X’Trapolis train.

But between 2009 and today, the X’Trapolis fleet has doubled in size, as a steady stream of new trains are built and delivered.

So are the X’Trapolis actually more reliable than a Siemens train of the same age, or does the younger age of the overall X’Trapolis fleet led to a more ambitious reliability target?

Footnote

Apparently the fleet of X’Trapolis trains are even more reliable than the current targets call for – travelling twice as far between failure, which is something around 100,000 kilometres or more, or two months in everyday operation.

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