Regional Rail Link

The Regional Rail Link project has been an ongoing theme in this series, and this month we see progress on the rebuidling Footscray platforms 3 and 4 for V/Line trains.

With V/Line services still sharing the tracks with suburban trains, such as this since-retired P class hauled push-pull train.

And this also retired A class locomotive-hauled train.

The tracks towards Sunshine were already in place, but still being finished off.

As was the junction for Bendigo trains at Sunshine.

The trees found at what was once David Matthews Park were still in place, but they’ve since been cut down – the land sold off for townhouses.

Southern Cross Station

At the entrance to the station the Water Tower Clock was ready to be unveiled.

A big red curtain erected over the top.

Ready for the unveiling held on 14 May 2014.

Meanwhile at the other end of the station, work was still underway on the 699 Bourke Street development.

While trains continued to use platforms 13 through 16 down below.

Note the lights on the ceiling were still operational – they failed a few months later and have never been fixed.

Myki receipts

Remember when unwanted Myki receipts used to cover railway stations and tram stops all over Melbourne?

That problem wasn’t fixed until June 2019!

The crumbling station building at Newmarket

In 2013 I noticed that the foundations of the station building at Newmarket was falling apart, with Metro deciding to demolish the station.

But after a public outcry they backpedaled, adding a web of steelwork beneath the building, and replacing the cantilevered verandah with a freestanding steel structure, which is still in place today.

Ding ding on the trams

Remember the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant?

It last ran in October 2018.

I also found a faded ‘Bumblebee’ tram headed down Bourke Street.

They’re still used on route 96 today, but have since received a refreshed PTV livery.

Over on Collins Street, the recently installed plastic kerbs along the tracks didn’t do much to stop taxi drivers making u-turns in front of trams and getting t-boned.

A problem not solved until 2022, when much higher concrete barriers were installed.

Rickety old W class trams were also still being used on route 30 across the top of the CBD.

They were finally demoted to the City Circle from December 2014, and replaced by modern E class trams in November 2020.

Meanwhile at Footscray, things look the same as today.

The high-floor Z3 class trams having received a stop-gap refurbishment in 2021 so they can stay in service until the arrival of the ‘Next Generation’ G class trams.

And outside Yarra Trams head office on William Street, the RTBU Tram and Bus Division was holding a rally in the lead up to their 2015 Enterprise Bargaining Agreement.

Tram and Bus Division secretary Phil Altieri addresses the rally.

Along with Labor MP and then-Shadow Minister for Road Safety Luke Donnellan.

A bus

Around Footscray the Westrans brand was still in use.

One of a number of bus operators owned by Kefford Corporation , in October 2014 it was rebranded as CDC Melbourne, and the buses progressively repainted into PTV livery.

To spend a penny

I was at Parliament Station and photographed the public toilets located beneath Gordon Reserve.

Opened c1924, they’re still in use today, unlike many other underground toilets in Melbourne.

And around the corner at Nicholson and Albert Street I snapped a cast iron public urinal.

One of eight surviving urinals around Melbourne which are heritage listed.

And the rest

The former MMBW House at 120 Spencer Street was a 25 story dull grey office tower completed in 1979 as the head office of the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works, which got an early-2000s facelift with the addition of a bright red band across the top.

But in 2014 it scored a millennial greige makeover.

The anodised aluminum cladding being painted over in a dull generic grey.

And since then it’s gone even more millennial – site of a WeWork coworking space.

Footnote

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

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Regional Rail Link works

Quite the coincidence given the works currently underway in Melbourne’s west – June 2013 was a two week long shut down of the railway lines to Sunbury, Ballarat and Bendigo for work on the Regional Rail Link project.

Passengers being sent onto buses running via Dynon Road.

But interestingly trains were able to keep running on the parallel Werribee line.

Track gangs playing frogger with passing trains.

But the Sunbury, Ballarat and Bendigo lines were less lucky – their tracks were blocked by construction equipment.

At the new West Footscray station the first section of the overhead concourse was put in place.

While at Sunshine the new overhead concourse loomed over the decrepit timber station building that came before it.

Works were also well underway on the greenfield section of the rail corridor – the platforms at Tarneit station were taking shape in an empty paddock.

Road over rail bridges were in place over yet to be laid track.

And the first spans of the massive rail over rail flyover at Manor Junction had been craned into place.

On Myki

A decade ago Myki had taken over as the only ticketing system in Melbourne, but slow readers resulted in long queues to exit stations. The solution – adding additional Myki readers, in a process that took months.

Ding ding

South Melbourne used to be a swamp, so it’s no surprise the Port Junction tram stop at Whiteman and Clarendon Streets turns into a lake each time it rains.

The tram stop was also used as the departure point for the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant service, with passengers given an oversized tram shelter to hide from the Melbourne weather.

To ensure the tram restaurant didn’t delay normal services, in 2016 the tram stop was rebuilt with a third track, but it didn’t see much use –
Yarra Trams kicked the service off the tracks in October 2018, citing safety concerns.

On the buses

Williams Landing station opened in 2013, with the Point Cook bus network revamped to bring passengers to it.

While at Fishermans Bend passengers were less lucky – having to wait 15 minutes in morning peak for their bus to finally arrive.

And a flushing footnote

In June 2013 the City of Melbourne closed the underground public toilets located at Collins and Queen Street.

Capping the entrances with concrete.

Footnote

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

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Ding ding

Metcard had been switched off.

The ‘safety’ zone tram stop on Epsom Road in Ascot Vale was copping a beating.

Route 19, 57 and 19 passengers didn’t have any platform stops along Elizabeth Street.

And the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant was still running lunch and dinner tours of Melbourne.

And trains

Evening peak would see massive crowds of pedestrians waiting to cross Spencer Street at Collins Street.

While on Friday nights, the queues would be at the V/Line booking office, waiting to buy a paper ticket.

South Yarra station was also becoming surrounded by new apartment blocks, but the single station entrance was struggling to cope – a problem not addressed until 2020.

But Footscray was getting an expanded station as part of the Regional Rail Link project.

The near-new footbridge demolished to make room for two additional platforms.

And Metro had unveiled a new infrastructure inspection train, in an attempt to address a spate of overhead wire failures crippling the rail network.

Things that are gone

Melbourne Bike Share was still operating.

One of the operational costs being the need to resupply bikes to empty stands.

Remember the “My Family” sticker fad? By 2013 they were on the way out.

Heritage listed public toilet on Queen Street? It was decommissioned in June 2013 and capped with concrete.

Horse drawn carriages leaving a trail of horse crap across the Melbourne CBD? They’re finally banned.

And Phillip Island

I headed out to Phillip Island, to look for the remains of the Summerland Estate. The only trace – a few dirt tracks.

I also made a detour to Pyramid Rock.

Which looked like the name suggested.

And on the way back I found a radio tower out in a paddock.

Turns out it was a non-directional beacon (NDB) used as an aviation navigational aid.

It was decommissioned in 2016 thanks to the popularity of GPS based navigation technology in general aviation.

Footnote

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

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Around the grounds

Melbourne’s CBD skyline was much shorter, with the top end of Elizabeth Street yet to be overrun by apartment towers.

And the West Gate Freeway was actually tree lined.

The unsolicited West Gate ‘Tunnel’ project just a twinkle in the eyes of Transurban management.

Meanwhile the former airfield of RAAF Williams was being subdivided.

Streets being carved out of mud at what is now Williams Landing.

Remember Melbourne Bike Share?

After years of lacklustre usage, it was finally killed in 2019.

We also once had the Melbourne City Tourist Shuttle bus.

Rendered pointless by the Free Tram Zone, it was terminated in 2017.

Ding ding

During May 2012 work on the new platform stops along Swanston Street was still dragging on.

I also photographed the then-common maroon liveried W class trams on the City Circle.

Since replaced by the rebuilt W8 class trams.

And finally, the sadly missed Colonial Tramcar Restaurant.

They last ran in 2018, after their trams were withdrawn from service for not meeting updated safety standards.

And finally – trains

You could still buy a Metcard ticket to catch a train back in May 2012, but ‘Myki Mates’ were on hand to help passengers switch over to the new ticketing system.

They were also showing passengers the “correct” way to touch on.

Meanwhile down at Sunshine I found a decrepit timber station well in need of an upgrade – which it finally received in 2014.

But over at Williams Landing, their brand new station was taking shape.

Cranes lifting steelwork into place over the tracks.

While V/Line trains to Geelong passed by.

Williams Landing station opened a year later in 2013, with V/Line trains still using the route until the opening of Regional Rail Link in 2015.

Finally, I spent a quiet Saturday cruising around Melbourne with some mates onboard a 1920s diesel railcar – travelling along some little used goods lines on our way to Sandringham and Flemington Racecourse.

And photographed a NSW Rail Transport Museum special train arriving into Southern Cross – marking the 50th anniversary of the inaugural Southern Aurora sleeping train to run between Sydney and Melbourne.

Footnote

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

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