A trip to Sydney

I decided to make the trip up to Sydney this month, catching the XPT north from Melbourne.

And being greeted by a light rail vehicle tram as soon as I arrived at Central Station.

I saw a double decker train the next day.

And presumably took some other photos up there, but they weren’t of trains – as I still haven’t uploaded them to my Flickr account.

Then then flew back home to Melbourne – to be greeted by a Myki visitors pack advertisement inside the Qantas terminal.

Along with a SkyBus one.

A decade on and the Myki machines at Melbourne Airport are just as hard to find, and SkyBus is still the only public transport route that runs from the airport to the CBD.

Melbourne Central

I also went on a tour of the Melbourne Central Tower this month, where we got to look out over the roof of Melbourne Central Shopping Centre, towards Myer House and Emporium.

But unfortunately we only got to look down on the glass cone, not look inside like some previous tours did.

Technology

It seems like an everyday scene now, but a decade ago seeing an entire tram full of passengers absorbed in their smartphones was still novel.

But Telstra was still behind the times – rollout out their ‘Telstra Air’ wifi hotspots to payphones, despite almost everyone having stacks of mobile data to use on their phone.

The Wi-Fi network is still in place today, but free since 2023.

Trams

‘Safety’ zone trams stops were still common place in the Melbourne CBD a decade ago – this one was on Collins Street at William Street.

This particular tram stop was replaced by a platform stop in June 2015, with the last safety zones in the CBD upgraded in July 2024. As for the rest of the tram network – the December 2022 deadline to make all tram stops accessible has been and gone, with hundreds still non compliant.

Meanwhile Yarra Trams was coming up with crackpot schemes like a coffee stall taking up precious space for passengers at the Flinders and Swanston Street stop.

Luckily that idea got kicked out very quickly.

A handful of 1970s-era Z1 class trams were also still kicking around the network, with their crappy little sliding windows and only two doors per side – despite having supposed to have been retired a decade earlier in favour of the incoming low floor C and D class trams, but kept on due to increasing patronage.

This particular tram – Z3.86 – was eventually retired in August 2015, following the delivery of the new E class trams.

A different flavour of stupidity are people who drive down Swanston Street – this driver managed to break down in the middle of the tram stop, and drum up help from passersby to get clear of the tracks.

While this confused country bumpkin headed up Swanston Street in their LandCruiser got pulled up by an unmarked police car, and got sent on their way.

And a decade on – nothing much has really changed.

V/Line trains

Here we see an original liveried VLocity train departing Richmond station for the city.

These days the entire VLocity fleet is in the PTV purple livery, the open air ramps at Richmond station are now roofed over, and Eureka Tower has been usurped by Australia 108 as the tallest building in Australia.

Down in Geelong I photographed a 6-car V/Line train approaching the brand new terminus station of Waurn Ponds.

Opened in October 2014, Waurn Ponds gained a second platform in 2022, and the 8 kilometers of track between South Geelong and Waurn Ponds has just been duplicated.

And a V/Line train in are more shocking condition was VLocity set VL12.

Involved in a collision on the Werribee line in August 2014 where a V/Line train passed a signal at stop and crashed into the rear of a Metro train, it had to be dragged to the workshops at Bendigo to be repaired.

The collision resulted in Metro trains rewriting the rules around passing a signal at stop, while VLocity VL12 reentered service in March 2015 as the only 2-car VLocity set to ever wear the PTV livery.

A load of rubbish

After the removal of rubbish bins from Melbourne stations due to the “increased terror alert level”, they all got dumped in a pile at Flinders Street Station.

And the average passenger responded as you might expect – like a filthy pig just leaving their rubbish on the ground.

The bins were eventually returned in March 2015, with the exception of the private management at Southern Cross Station, who still refuse to place any rubbish bins on their platforms.

A different kind of rubbish

It was the leadup to the 2014 State Election, and the Napthine Government was ramped up their ‘Moving Victoria’ campaign, promoting their unfundedthe Melbourne Rail Link project.

Conceived as an alternative to the Metro Tunnel, the Melbourne Rail Link tunnel would have run between South Yarra and Southern Cross, serving new stations at Domain and Fishermans Bend – instead of Arden and Parkville, who would be stuck using buses and trams.

But as you might have guessed, the Melbourne Rail Link project went nowhere, construction of the Metro Tunnel started a few years later and is almost finished, work on the Melbourne Airport Rail project has been stop-start, and a rail link to Fishermans Bend is as far away as ever.

And another piece of pork barrelling I photographed was this Denis Napthine’s $115 million dollar train on the Frankston line – or what the government called the ‘Bayside Rail Project’.

Announced in May 2013, the Bayside Rail Project was promoted as bringing the newest trains in Melbourne – the X’Trapolis – to the Frankston line.

However these trains accelerate faster than anything else in the Melbourne fleet, putting them at risk of beating the boom barriers at level crossings, but because of the upcoming election, it was decided in October 2014, to just run a single X’Trapolis train on the line each morning, but with a speed restrictor on the throttle and two drivers in the cab.

Following changes to level crossing timings on the line in August 2016, the restriction on X’Trapolis trains was removed, allowing any X’Trapolis set to run revenue services to Frankston, and more amazingly a decade later, the bulk of the level crossings on the Frankston line don’t even exist anymore.

And a third kind of rubbish

For decades this ancient advertisement for Medibank Private faced passengers at Melbourne Central platform 1.

But 2014 saw this billboard finally removed from the platform wall, replaced by the ‘Xtrack TV’ digital screens with their insipid loop of advertisements – with audio soundtrack.

And Medibank Private – it’s still just as useless as the rest of the Australian private health insurance system.

Footnote

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

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The post Photos from ten years ago: November 2014 appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

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 post Photos from ten years ago: October 2014 appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

We start overlooking Southern Cross Station, where the Docklands skyline was a lot emptier.

As was that of Spencer Street.

And the western edge of the CBD.

Back in 2009 the explosion of (flammable!) apartment blocks was yet to take off, with 3-car trains still used after 6 PM on some suburban railway lines, and low floor E class trams not appearing on route 86 until 2016.

Metro Trains Melbourne had just taken over from Connex, so a rebranding effort was underway, like this train at West Footscray.

These ones parked for the night at North Melbourne.

And this one at Footscray.

Passing beneath the new footbridge.

A decade on Regional Rail Link has changed this entire rail corridor beyond recognition, with new tracks at North Melbourne, the near new Footscray footbridge demolished then rebuilt, a rebuilt station at West Footscray, and an extra pair of tracks between the city and Sunshine.

Next up – a ride to the country, where there was a long line at Southern Cross Station to buy a V/Line ticket.

In the days before myki paper tickets were the only option for V/Line travel, and had to be purchased for a specific date, leading to massive queues in the leadup to holiday periods.

But I followed it up with a far more laid back train journey, heading to Tocumwal with the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre.

With Santa even coming along the the ride.

I also headed home to Geelong for Christmas, and passed a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 firefighting air tanker stationed at Avalon Airport.

Registration N17085, it was based at Avalon from January to March 2010 for the summer fire season, but I don’t think it was ever called into service.

On the other side of Geelong, I photographed a V/Line train headed further afield to Warrnambool.

Back then the area south of Grovedale was empty paddocks.

And empty country roads.

But change was coming – stage 4A of the Geelong Ring Road was underway, turning the area into a commuter destination.

Today the paddocks are the Armstrong Creek urban growth area – the Anglesea Road level crossing was grade separated in 2011, Waurn Ponds station opened in 2014, and the Baanip Boulevard connection to the Surf Coast Highway was completed in 2015.

Footnote

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

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The post Photos from ten years ago: December 2009 appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

In with the new

Every month seems to involve new rail infrastructure, and this is no different.

At Laverton station on the Werribee line, a crane was hard at work lifting the new footbridge spans into place.

Cranes were also working at Coolaroo.

Where a new two platform station was being built on the Craigieburn line, between Broadmeadows and Roxburgh Park stations.

While the long awaited new footbridge at Footscray station was slowly being extended across the tracks.

Just in time to be partially demolished in 2013 to make way for Regional Rail Link.

The first of the new X’Trapolis trains had arrived into Melbourne, and were running around minus any branding.

The result of a 2007 contest between existing suppliers of Melbourne trains, Siemens and Alstom, the trains were a much needed response to cater for an explosion in rail patronage. The past decade has seen X’Trapolis trains now forming the core of the Melbourne train fleet, but have been ordered in numbers just big enough to keep the Alstom factory at Ballarat in business, putting it’s future in doubt.

In 2009 the rollout of Myki equipment on the V/Line platforms at Southern Cross Station kicked off.

With temporary fencing funnelling passengers through the future ticket gates.

But it took June 2013 (four more years!) until Myki was first accepted on V/Line commuter services, with paper tickets not killed off until February 2014.

Scenes that no longer exist

Non-air conditioned Hitachi trains were still in service.

The last one running in December 2013.

Furlong Road at Ginifer station still had a level crossing.

It wasn’t grade separated until 2017.

V/Line was still running two car VLocity trains, like this one passing through Middle Footscray.

The houses in the background were demolished in 2011 to make way for the Regional Rail Link project, and in June 2016 the last VLocity train was extended to three cars.

Here a V/Line train pulling into Melbourne Yard, with the Docklands skyline in the background.

In 2014 the area was rebuilt as part of the Regional Rail Link project, but without any platforms at North Melbourne, while the V/Line train itself was retired in August 2017.

I went past the freight yard at North Dynon freight yard.

Aurizon withdrew from the operation of interstate intermodal services in 2017, V/Line trains now pass by on their own Regional Rail Link tracks, and Sunbury trains will soon move into the Metro Tunnel portal now being constructed.

Plus further afield, I photographed a V/Line train from Warrnambool passes the new housing developments of Grovedale and Waurn Ponds.

The surrounding paddocks were rezoned as the Armstrong Creek Growth Area in 2010, with Waurn Ponds station opened on the site in 2014, but it took until this year for the first bus route through Armstrong Creek to commence operation.

I also followed a freight train bound for Mildura, passing through the abandoned station at Creswick.

And Clunes.

Both stations closed to passengers in 1993, but now see passenger trains again – Creswick from a new platform opened in 2010 following the restoration of passenger services to Maryborough, and Clunes from a platform restored in 2011.

And away from the railway tracks

Remember when the Western Ring Road had a grass median strip?

Opened back in the 1990s, it was widened in stages from 2009, with the final section completed in 2018. How long until the next ‘upgrade’?

Birrarung Marr used to be the home of a ferris wheel.

Billed as the “largest travelling ferris wheel in the southern hemisphere“, patronage plummeted following the opening of the Melbourne Star observation wheel in the back blocks of Docklands, with it being relocated to Geelong.

And goodbye to the art deco Lonsdale House.

Reconstructed in 1934 from two different sized Victorian-era buildings, it was demolished in 2009 as part of the Emporium shopping centre development – to make room for a loading dock.

Footnote

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

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The post Photos from ten years ago: October 2009 appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

Around Geelong

We start down in the Geelong suburb of Waurn Ponds.

Which a decade ago was the southern terminus of the Geelong Ring Road.

But work was underway to extend the freeway over the Waurn Ponds Creek valley.

And up the hill via Anglesea Road.

The nearby streets had bus stops to nowhere.

With new houses stretching as far as the railway line.

Back then only thrice-daily trains to Warrnambool used this line.

But a decade later it is now the site of Waurn Ponds station, terminus of the majority of V/Line services from Melbourne.

The Geelong Football Club made it into the 2009 AFL Grand Final, so V/Line ran special trains from Geelong to the MCG to carry the thousands of fans.

With a special ‘Geelong Cats’ headboard decorating the front of one train.

More construction

The new concourse at North Melbourne station opened in September 2009.

With Connex staff outnumbering the passengers on the first day of operations.

But for the first few weeks passengers still used the old northern entrance, as work on the new station building was still underway.

At Laverton station, the third platform was now starting to look real.

And the lift shafts for the new footbridge towering above the existing footbridge.

The new footbridge at Footscray was also rising at a rapid pace.

Multiple sections of bridge were ready to be lifted into place.

With others awaiting ramps and stairs to be added.

After the turning of the first sod for the Regional Rail Link project in August 2009, work at Southern Cross Station ramped up. The pile driver continued work on the future platform 15 and 16.

And the trackbed north of Latrobe Street was cleared to make room for the new Regional Rail Link tracks.

And some trains

The first of Melbourne’s ‘interim’ order of X’Trapolis trains had arrived at the Newport Workshops in September 2009.

A decade later we’re still ordering more of the aging design, but with no commitment to updating it, Alstom’s Ballarat plant may close down.

A much older train was the Steamrail Victoria special I followed through the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

A decade later, this station at Heatherdale no longer exists – replaced by a rail-under grade separation in 2017.

Neither does the station at Mitcham – replaced in 2014.

Or the rickety footbridge at Ringwood – replaced in 2015.

Another steam train was this Steamrail Victoria special for Ballarat.

I also captured it at North Geelong C.

Where the century-old semaphore signals have only just been replaced.

I also followed the transfer of a V/Line power van from Melbourne to the Ballarat Workshops for refurbishment.

And the return working on a refurbished classmate.

Both vans are used by V/Line on their frequently failing V/Line Albury service.

And finally we end on the derailment of a V/Line train at Stonyford on the Warrnambool line.

On the evening of Saturday 12 September 2009 the train collided with trees lying across the track, felled by strong winds.

Which resulted in the derailment of the locomotives and four of the five passenger cars.

But the presence of a second locomotive on the train may have reduced the impact of the crash – there were only minor injuries to both locomotive drivers and one passenger.

As a result of the crash V/Line has taken a much more aggressive attitude to trees near railway lines.

Footnote

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

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The post Photos from ten years ago: September 2009 appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

We start in the southern Geelong suburb of Grovedale, where I photographed a pair of locomotives retuning light engine from the Waurn Ponds cement works.

Back then it was empty paddocks, but today the crest of the hill is the location of Waurn Ponds station, surrounded by cookie cutter houses on tiny blocks.

Over on the other side of Geelong, I captured a Genesee & Wyoming Australia operated grain train heading up the hill through Bell Post Hill behind a quartet of locomotives.

Both operator and locomotives still exist today but they are an infrequent visitor to Victoria, sticking to their home turf of South Australia. My chosen location has also changed – the Geelong Ring Road now crosses the railway a short distance away.

A little further north I photographed a VLocity train arriving into Lara station.

Back then Lara only had a small brick station building, with staff only in attendance during morning peak. Soon after I took my photo, work started on a major expansion project, the current station building being opened in 2008.

On odd sight I captured on the Princes Highway at Geelong was a railway carriage being moved by road.

This privately owned carriage was bound for the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre depot, previously being stored near South Geelong station.

Some I don’t visit often is the snow – Mount Hotham was the first time I’d ever gone to an actual snowfield.

I was more interested in photography than the slopes.

Capturing the equipment used to groom the slopes for skiers.

As well as the buses used to move them around the village.

Finally, we end on a night time wander around Southern Cross Station – neither trains or passengers were visible.

The fact that it was midnight probably had something to do with it!

Footnote

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

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The post Photos from ten years ago: July 2007 appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

Turns out that hillside was just around the corner from where I grew up, with the street in question being Rossack Drive in the southern Geelong suburb of Waurn Ponds.

The photo in question was taken from where stage 3 of the Geelong Ring Road once terminated at the Princes Highway, in the days before it was extended up the Anglesea Road hill towards Winchelsea.

As for the view back from Rossack Drive towards the Geelong Ring Road, the hill on the other side of the valley is also covered with newly built houses.

Footnote

The article in question was titled NSW rush lifts housing loan figures and the photo was taken by editorial and commercial photographer Paul Rovere. Just don’t start complaining about the photo is of houses in the ‘wrong‘ state.

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