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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Up in the air

Who remembers the day of big events and flying? March 2011 saw the Australian International Airshow held at Avalon, with Tiger Airways still flying into the airport.

V/Line ran extra trains to Lara station.

Connecting with shuttle buses.

That delivered patrons to Avalon Airport.

New roads

Around Geelong big money was being spent on new roads, with Stage 4A of the Geelong Ring Road taking shape at Waurn Ponds, extending the freeway south towards Colac.

$63 million was also being spent on a new bridge over the Barwon River at Breakwater, replacing the previous flood prone crossing.

The project also included a massive new intersection with Fellmongers Road.

Resulting in the demolition of nine houses.

Rail projects

West of Geelong, duplication was underway on the main line west to Adelaide. The second track was completed in 2012, and allows grain trains to access the Port of Geelong without conflicting with through services.

The rail over road bridge at Moorabool Street was upgraded, with the 100 year steel span being replaced by a new one looking much the same.

Out at Marshall station was a much less interesting upgrade – the 1 in 2 replacement of timber sleepers with concrete.

March 2011 also saw the disused Geelong Racecourse station disconnected from the main line, removing the ability for trains to access the platform.

Footscray gained a new traction substation at the corner of Ballarat Road and Droop Street, providing extra power for route 82 trams.

The $48.5 million Kororoit Creek Road duplication project reached a milestone – the bridge carrying the westbound carriageway over the Werribee line was complete, allowing the level crossing to be closed, and work to start on the parallel bridge.

Was Regional Rail Link really a decade ago? 2011 saw the new platforms 15 and 16 at Southern Cross Station almost finished – track being the most noticeable omission!

Alstom Ballarat was churning out new X’Trapolis trains for the Melbourne suburban network.

And the massive new train maintenance facility at Craigieburn was taking shape to house a growing fleet of trains.

And scenes that are gone

Who remembers the Melbourne City Tourist Shuttle? Introduced in 2006 by the City of Melbourne as a free service, fares were introduced in 2011 but with competition from the Free Tram Zone, it was discontinued in 2017.

Something else gone is the stink of horse piss at the arse end of Swanston Street. They were kicked out in 2017, and the strip of seedy fast food restaurants was demolished soon after to make way for the new Town Hall station.

A forgettable building was 199 William Street. After sitting empty for decades the year 2011 saw work start on the redevelopment of the tower into ‘The William’ hotel and apartment complex.

I wrote about ‘Mount Mistake’ in Footscray recently – a decade ago the old West Footscray station still existed. The current station opened in 2013.

The same can also be said about this level crossing in Sunshine, where Anderson Road passes over the Sunbury line tracks. It was replaced by a road under rail bridge in 2014.

And finally, we end on the northern edge of Melbourne at the township of Donnybrook. Back then the only people who went there were gunzels photographing trains passing the semaphore signals and having a feed at the local pub, but today it is new housing estates as far as the eye can see.

Footnote

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

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The van driver squeezed past waiting pedestrians to drive down the bike lane.

Then swerved around a pedestrian in the bike lane.

You’re getting awfully close to the edge there…

And CRUNCH – the bottom of the van bottoms out on the tram stop!

‘Yeah, you’re stuck!’

Yarra Trams staff also came over for a look.

The first police arrived on the scene a few minutes after the van got stuck.

With more police arriving in an unmarked car.

Southbound trams still running past the stuck van.

But northbound trams hat to stop running.

Stuck at Bourke Street with nowhere to go.

They had to run ‘bang road’ (wrong direction) down Swanston Street.

Until they reached the crossover at Flinders Lane, where they crossed over onto the southbound track.

Back up at the Bourke Street tram stop, a tilt tray truck eventually arrived.

With a few attempts required to line it up with the stuck van.

Eventually it was all hooked up.

And up went the van.

All loaded up, and ready for trams to run again.

Play it again, Sam

And here is the van getting stuck, in animated GIF format.

via Gfycat

And over on Reddit

From a commenter on /r/Melbourne:

I like how someone manages to take picture before the “accident”.

I’ve photographed so many idiots driving down Swanston Street it was only a matter of time until I caught someone come off second best.

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I was walking past the Swanston and Collins Street tram stop one lunchtime, when I saw a divvy van on the wrong side of the road with their window wound down, talking to the driver of a clapped out Mitsubishi Lancer.

They told them to drive down Swanston Street until they could find a clear place to pull over.

And then they did the usual drivers licence and vehicle registration checks.

A one off event, or is a police blitz on idiot motorists queuing through intersections next?

Footnote

After seeing the police pull over the motorist on Swanston Street, the universe corrected itself by the time I had walked up to Bourke Street. This nuffy drove south through the bike lane…

Then did a u-turn, and came back for more!

Getting part way into the bike lane, pedestrians crossing the road did a double take.

An office worker on their lunch break gave the confused driver directions to get out of there.

Reversing at the corner of Bourke and Swanston Street, to leave the bike lane.

And finally driving out of Swanston Street via the only piece of public road.

All cleaned up in time for another pointless ‘jaywalking’ blitz.

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The first sign of trouble was these tourists in a Wicked Campervan.

After turning left from Swanston Street, they made it down to other end of the mall, where they met a stationary tram at the Elizabeth Street stop.

With tram works underway at the corner of Bourke and Elizabeth Streets, a traffic controller on duty told the driver they needed to head back the way they came.

While reversing back out of the tram stop, the campervan encountered a confused truck driver, who had already made it half way down the mall.

And behind the truck was a third car – presumably they blindly followed the truck, their mind on auto pilot.

Once the truck driver realised he can’t continue, he executes a three point turn outside Myer.

Leaving the campervan driver to wait for the truck to head in the right direction.

After seeing the traffic jam, the car driver finally realises they can’t continue this way.

They execute a u-turn so they are facing the correct direction.

And the three vehicles then head back out of the Bourke Street Mall

Footnote

On Monday afternoon Daniel Bowen also encountered some equally oblivious drivers in the Bourke Street Mall. Has an extra dose of stupid been given to Melbourne’s drivers this week?

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One would think these new obstructions to traffic would make it impossible for motorists to accidentally drive down the road, but it seems that the universe is quite capable of creating an even more clueless form of idiot.

Some dingbats have trouble understanding the ‘don’t queue through an intersection’ concept.

This person figured queuing across the intersection in front of a police car was a good idea. (unfortunately they didn’t get booked – see footnote…)

With tram stops or pedestrian malls on all sides, I’m not how the hell this red car ended up at the corner of Bourke and Swanston Streets headed south, but they managed to block a westbound tram for a minute or so.

This moron from north of the border drove west through the middle of the Bourke Street tram stop, then south into Swanston Street.

The other platform stops along Swanston Street present a similar challenge to other clueless motorists, who attempt to follow tram along the tracks.

But this P plater takes the cake: she drove right through the bike path section of the Bourke Street stop.

With concrete blocks guarding the narrowed entrance and exit of the platforms, along with ‘bike lane’ signage, anybody with a clue would have noticed that they were heading the wrong way and had second thoughts.

Bonus idiot

Somebody on Twitter reminded me of this incident in October 2012, when a taxi tried to drive with one wheel on the tracks and the other on the platform stop, getting stuck and blocking trams for a few hours

Footnote

Victoria Police seem more than happy to have regular blitzes at CBD intersections to book pedestrians to jaywalk – how come they never both booking motorists who queue through intersections? An idiot pedestrian is only going to injure themselves, but inconsiderate motorists block trams full of dozen of people, and cause gridlock on adjoining streets.

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