Regional Rail Link

Yep, I’m at it again, following the progress on the Regional Rail Link project.

At Footscray the widened railway cutting through Fordham Reserve had been partially reinstated.

Right up to abandoned Franco Cozzo showroom.

The backdrop is now filled with new apartment blocks, and the Franco Cozzo site has been turned into the Moon Dog brewery.

While down the line, trees marked the fenced off site of what used to be David Matthews Park.

That park has since been sold off for development.

Out in Albion brand new steel noise walls line the rail corridor parallel to Forrest Street.

A decade later they’re now hidden behind a row of gum trees.

A short distance away at Ardeer station a gravel platform welcomed passengers – along with a two hour wait for the next train, a mere 15 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD.

Thankfully the platforms have since been resurfaced with asphalt, and trains now stop every 20 minutes.

And finally – work had finally started at the future site of Caroline Springs station.

The station was eventually opened to passengers in January 2017.

Terrorism fears

In September 2014 Public Transport Victoria yanked the rubbish bins from Melbourne railway stations as a response to the “increased terror alert level”.

With the response from slovenly passengers being to just throw their rubbish on the ground instead.

The bins eventually returned in March 2015 as transparent plastic bags that resembled a scrotum, with the exception of Southern Cross Station – where they have never returned.

Penalty Fares scaremongering from PTV

August 2014 was the introduction of a new on-the-spot ‘Penalty Fares’ regime.

It allowed passengers caught travelling without a without a valid ticket to pay an on-the-spot penalty fare of $75 by credit card, instead of being issued with a $223 infringement notice that arrived in the mail a few weeks later.

As you might expect, fare evaders worked out it was cheaper to just pay the $75 penalty if you did get caught, and so the scheme was terminated in January 2017.

More Melbourne Airport Rail Link propaganda

With the lead up to the 2014 State Election, the Napthine Government ramped up their ‘Moving Victoria’ campaign, promoting their unfunded ‘Melbourne Rail Link‘ project.

Covering Southern Cross Station with ‘From plane to train in 25 minutes’ propaganda.

On the big screen at Flinders Street Station.

Plastering propaganda stickers on the back of train seats.

On signs at railway stations.

And on billboards, like this one beside Ballarat Road in Albion.

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, and work on the Melbourne Airport Rail project has been stop-start.

Level crossings that are gone

Level crossing removals in Melbourne were few and far between, so I didn’t think much about it when I photographed an X’Trapolis train departing Bayswater station on the Belgrave line.

Or this Comeng train departing Essendon station on the Craigieburn line.

But in 2017 the level crossings at Mountain Highway and Scoresby Road at Bayswater were replaced with rail under road bridges, and in 2018 the Buckley Street level crossing in Essendon was replaced by a road under rail bridge.

Before the West Gate ‘Tunnel’

Another project that didn’t exist a decade ago was the West Gate ‘Tunnel’.

Dynon Road through West Melbourne used to be two lanes in each direction.

With an empty paddock beside the railway bridge.

And you could see the sky above Footscray Road.

But now all three sites are covered by a tangle of freeway overpasses forming what is supposedly a ‘tunnel’, unsolicited proposal conceived by Transurban as a way to increase profits to their shareholders.

V/Line around the place

Just another view of Southern Cross Station, with work on the 699 Bourke Street development underway.

Since then the original purple and green VLocity livery is no more, and only a single Sprinter railcar is left in the red and yellow ‘cheeseburger’ livery.

Locomotive hauled carriages were also still being shunted out on peak hour runs.

The last of the H sets was withdrawn in February 2024, with the N sets soon to follow.

The one thing I did expect to see go was A66 leading a Shepparton service through Moonee Ponds.

The fleet of A class locomotives are now with railway heritage groups, and the Shepparton service has been exclusively VLocity trains since 2022.

Ding ding on the trams

The brand new E class trams entered service in November 2013, and were now starting to dominate route 96 services.

The older D2 class trams being demoted to route 19 services, including one plastered in ‘E class trams on route 96’ advertising.

The tram allocations are the same today, despite the low floor trams lacking any platform stops on Sydney Road.

Melbourne’s prototype high floor light rail vehicles from 1985 were also still in service.

Both were withdrawn a few years later, and eventually scrapped.

Speaking of platform stops, the only recently constructed tram stops in the Bourke Street Mall were closed, so they could rebuilt to a revised platform height.

The Colonial Tramcar Restaurant was still trundling around the streets of Melbourne.

The service last ran in October 2018, when Yarra Trams banned the fleet of the network citing safety concerns.

Another W class tram had been turned into the ‘Tram Bar‘ at the Arts Centre.

Opened in 2011, the tram came and went with the seasons, until permanently closed in January 2015.

And finally, what was then an unremarkable photo of trams at Domain Interchange on St Kilda Road.

Rebuilt in 2013 at great expense to modern accessible standards, in 2018 the interchange was closed to make way for the construction of Anzac station, with route 58 trams being diverted onto a new alignment via Toorak Road, pending the completion of a replacement tram stop in December 2022.

And forgotten bus companies

I didn’t realise it at the time, but a decade ago I photographed a long list of bus companies that no longer exist.

Sita Bus Lines used to use plain white buses on the route 400 service to Melbourne’s prisons.

They were bought by Transit Systems in 2019, but their clapped out poo brown and orange buses can still be seen the western suburbs.

East West Bus Company once ran bus sources in the northern suburbs, as a joint venture between Dysons Group and Reservoir Bus Company.

The joint venture was taken over by Dysons in February 2014, with the East West brand phased out in 2019.

Tullamarine Bus Lines once ran bus routes around Moonee Ponds and Airport West.

They were acquired by ComfortDelGro Corporation in 2018, and merged into the operations of CDC Melbourne.

Moonee Valley Coaches was another bus operator in the inner north.

They were acquired by Dyson Group in 2024.

Kastoria Bus Lines is another smaller operator in the north-western suburbs.

They lost out in the recent Metropolitan Zero Emission Bus Franchise process, and will be taken over by CDC Melbourne from 2025.

I also found a Melbourne Visitor Shuttle bus on St Kilda Road.

Funded by the City of Melbourne, the service was discontinued in 2017 after competition from the Free Tram Zone.

And City Sightseeing Melbourne once ran a hop-on hop-off tourist service with open-top double decker buses.

They suspended operations in March 2020 thanks to Covid-19, and are yet to restart operations.

And a final word

Remember Melbourne Bike Share, with bikes that needed to be pedaled, and docks to return them to?

The service was withdrawn in 2019.

And what about yellow taxis?

A common sight since introduced by Jeff Kennett in the 1990s, the requirement was dropped in 2013 as part of the legalisation of Uber and other so called “ridewhare” services.

Footnote

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

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I first became aware of it years ago when a mate who uses a mobility scooter tried to travel to Seymour on a weekend when rail replacement buses were running, but no accessible road coaches were available. Result – V/Line called up a maxi taxi to take him there, the finaly fare coming to around $200!

Some more examples

During V/Line’s 2016 VLocity fleet crisis taxis were called up when accessible road coaches were unavailable.

On Wednesday, V/Line paid $350 dollars for Gary Mitchell to get from Traralgon to Melbourne after the coach he attempted to get on did not have wheelchair access.

In 2017 a V/Line train to Warrnambool was diverted via Werribee, leaving behind passengers on the usual route, who had to complete their journey by taxi.

Two V/Line passengers were transported from Geelong to Terang and Warrnambool by taxi on Monday night at a cost of $365 to the rail operator.

The passengers were attempting to board the 7.05pm service from Southern Cross at Tarneit and Wyndham Vale, but were left behind as the train didn’t stop at those stations.

After some confusion and a considerable wait, the passengers were advised to catch a later service to Geelong.

The Warrnambool-bound passengers were then transported from Geelong to Terang and Warrnambool in a taxi paid for by V/Line, arriving just before midnight.

On New Years Eve 2019 V/Line ran out of rail replacement buses and had to call for a cab.

Taxis were needed to ferry stranded commuters home to Geelong after V/Line ran out of buses at Southern Cross Station on New Year’s Day.

About 100 people were left languishing in the bus terminal in the early hours of Monday morning after buses to Geelong and Ballarat quickly filled up.

It forked out money for 12 taxis to transport stranded commuters on the Geelong and Ballarat lines, but a V/Line spokeswoman said she did not know how much was spent.

Services on the Albury line are chronically unreliable – as well as inaccessible to many.

Two north-east Victorian residents have claimed V/Line regularly pays more than $1,000 for return taxi trips to Melbourne due to train and coach services being wheelchair inaccessible.

Albury-based Luke Sefton said V/Line had recently arranged a taxi for at least three return trips to Melbourne.

“If there’s more than two wheelchairs they tell you the train’s full and you can’t get a ticket. If it’s not running you’ve got to get a taxi and they pay the money for that — maybe $700 or more, one way,” he said.

But Mr Sefton said V/Line would sometimes turn him away.

“I’ve called up a few times and there’s only two [people with wheelchairs] allowed on there and they say ‘we’ve sold out today’,” he said.

“In that case they don’t get you a taxi either, they just say they’ve sold out.”

The chair of The Victorian Disability Advisory Council, Colleen Furlanetto, said she had used replacement taxi services from Euroa and Seymour more than a dozen times at a cost to V/Line of around $300 each way.

Ms Furlanetto said she felt guilty depriving local residents of a wheelchair accessible service whenever V/Line arranged a taxi for her to Melbourne.

V/Line has used taxis to replace a broken down rail replacement coach.

V/Line has forked out around $750 for a maxi-taxi to ferry passengers to Melbourne after two breakdowns on regional train service left passengers fuming.

The saga for passengers began when a V/Line train bound for Melbourne from Albury broke down at Chiltern in the state’s north east on Sunday.

Passengers were then moved to a replacement coach service which also broke down.

Two maxi taxis were called to replace the coach.

Chiltern resident Sheridan Williams said passengers were stranded on the coach for up to 20 minutes before they were told what had happened.

Ms Williams said the taxis arrived from Wangaratta to take the passengers to Melbourne. She said the meter showed $750 when it arrived in Melbourne at 11:45pm — two hours late.

It is not known what the fare was on the second taxi.

But this tale from the Warrnambool line really takes the cake.

In May 2019 Janet and Susan, who use wheelchairs, decided to travel from Melbourne to Warrnambool on V/Line trains.

For both it was a work-related visit, they were attending a forum hosted by All Abilities Advocacy and supported by Warrnambool City Council’s Rural Access program.

Janet, after first checking with V/Line, booked a first class ticket in order to sit next to colleagues. On May 14 when she arrived at the Southern Cross platform she was advised she could not sit next to her colleagues and was segregated.

On the way to Warrnambool she received a call from V/Line advising that the return booking was not an accessible service and she was requested to use an earlier train. This was not possible because Susan would still be at the forum.

On May 15, at 12.30pm, both women were contacted by V/Line and informed that the accessible carriage was not available. They had no alternative means of returning home to Melbourne.

V/Line asked Susan if she could leave her wheelchair in the conductor’s area and sit down, which she had been required to do on the trip to Warrnambool. Susan said this did not work properly and she needed her wheelchair with her.

V/Line advised Janet and Susan they return to Melbourne in separate taxis with the bill of about $1200 to be covered by taxpayers.

At 5pm Janet and Susan arrived at the Warrnambool Station to catch the taxis back to Melbourne.

They then discovered the disabled toilet at Warrnambool Railway Station was not accessible. The toilet was behind swinging doors and at the end of two cubicles for ambulatory people. The room was narrow with insufficient space for a wheelchair to turn into the “accessible” cubicle.

When the taxi arrived, V/Line initially wanted Janet and Susan to share a ride home – impossible given the size of their two wheelchairs. With the insistence of a support person V/Line eventually called a second taxi.

So how much is being spent on replacement taxis?

Back in 2006 Shadow Minister for Transport Terry Mulder inquired in question time about V/Line’s usage of rail replacement taxis on the Warrnambool line.

920. Mr MULDER to ask the Minister for Transport with reference to taxis used to transport excess passengers on the 5.15 pm Geelong to Warrnambool road coach on Sunday 16 October 2005 —

(1) Were four taxis used to transport the excess passengers; if not, how many taxis were requisitioned.
(2) What was the final destination of each taxi.
(3) What was the cost of each taxi.
(4) How many passengers did each taxi transport and to where.
(5) Was there any attempt made to secure a second coach and driver to run part of the way such as to Birregurra or Colac; if not, why.
(6) Does V/Line assess the respective costs of rail replacement taxis versus coaches for particular unscheduled journeys and the relative availability and time taken to secure either mode.
(7) Would a coach have been cheaper than four taxis.
(8) What would be the likely cost of a replacement coach between —
(a) Geelong and Birregurra;
(b) Geelong and Colac.

ANSWER:
As at the date the question was raised, the answer is:

(1) No, three taxis were used.
(2) One taxi went to Birregurra and two taxis to Colac.
(3) The Birregurra taxi fare cost $90 and the Colac taxi fares cost $130 each.
(4) The Birregurra taxi carried four passengers and the two Colac taxis carried five and four passengers respectively.
(5) No, as it would have delayed passengers for up to a further hour waiting for the coach.
(6) Yes.
(7) In this case no.
(8) The coach would have travelled through to Colac at a cost of $400.

As well as the wider usage of taxis by V/Line.

922. Mr MULDER to ask the Minister for Transport with reference to rail or coach services that were full or partly replaced or augmented by taxis in September 2005 —

(1) On what dates were taxis used to convey V/Line passengers.

(2) What rail or coach services were fully or partly replaced or augmented by taxis.

(3) Between what stations or locations were passengers conveyed by taxi.

(4) Was each service partly replaced or augmented due to —
(a) locomotive breakdown;
(b) ‘Sprinter’ railcar breakdown;
(c) locomotive-hauled carriage breakdown such as an airconditioning fault;
(d) accidents;
(e) signalling faults;
(f) unscheduled track repairs;
(g) breakdown of a Connex train;
(h) breakdown of a Pacific National train;
(i) overbooking of a booked seat V/Line service;
(j) excess number of passengers arriving to travel on an unbooked rail or coach service;
(k) other unavailability of locomotives, ‘Sprinters’ or locomotive-hauled carriages.

ANSWER:
As at the date the question was raised, the answer is:

(1) September 1,2,3,4,7,10,13,14,15,17,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,30.

(2) V/Line was unable to identify the fully or partly replaced or augmented rail and coach services from the taxi dockets.

(3) Melton–Newport; Ballarat–Melbourne; Bendigo–Castlemaine; Anderson–Cowes; Broadmeadows–Tullamarine; Bendigo–Sunbury; Warrnambool–Casterton; Bega–Cooma; Swan Hill–Bendigo; Shepparton–Cobram; Geelong–Barwon Heads; Bendigo–Echuca; Geelong–Torquay; Melbourne–Seymour; Lara–South Geelong; Werribee–Geelong; Ballarat–Beaufort; Shepparton–Melbourne; Ballarat–Daylesford; Woodend–Daylesford; Camperdown–Warrnambool; Ballarat; Beaufort; Geelong–Anglesea; Ararat–Hamilton; Wangaratta–Chiltern; Warrnambool–Port Fairy; Sunshine–Sunbury; Footscray–Geelong; Werribee–Geelong; Ararat–Hamilton; Bendigo Kerang; Morwell–Traralgon; Ballarat–St Arnaud; Footscray–South Geelong; Lara–South Geelong; Lara–Newport; Lara–Geelong; South Geelong–Geelong; Traralgon–Caulfield; Ballarat–Creswick.

(4)
(a) In part
(b) No.
(c) No.
(d) In part.
(e) In part.
(f) No.
(g) No.
(h) No.
(i) No.
(j) In part.
(k) No.

And the most expensive fares.

923. Mr MULDER to ask the Minister for Transport —

(1) What was the highest individual bill in September 2005, between what locations the taxi travel and on what date did the journey occur for the use of a taxi to convey —
(a) V/Line passengers;
(b) V/Line train drivers;
(c) other V/Line staff.

(2) How much was spent on taxis conveying V/Line train drivers in September 2005 between —
(a) Sunbury and Bendigo;
(b) Spencer Street and Bendigo.

(3) Does V/Line pay a standard per kilometre rate for every taxi hire, the same as any member of the public, or does it contract with taxi operators at a lower rate per kilometre; if not the latter, why not.

ANSWER:
As at the date the question was raised, the answer is:

(1)
(a) V/Line passengers–Spencer Street to Albury, $408.18.
(b) V/Line train drivers–Warragul to Melbourne, $161.82.
(c) V/Line staff–Airport to Carrum, $78.55.

(2) No amount was spent on taxis for driver travel between Sunbury and Bendigo or Spencer Street and Bendigo during September 2005.

(3) V/Line pays the metered fare rate for every taxi hire, the same as any member of the public. The reason V/Line does not have a contract with taxi operators at a lower rate is due to the number of taxi companies used throughout the State.

As for more recent figures, someone identified as ‘BC8’ lodged a freedom of information request with V/Line for:

A document listing the cost of all incidents where V/Line has paid for a train replacement Taxi, including the date, line, station and cost, in date order from [date] to the date of this request.

A document listing the cost of all unplanned or unscheduled incidents where V/Line has paid for a train replacement bus, including the date, line, station and cost, in date order from [date] to the date of this request.

A document listing all planned station or line closures where V/Line has utilised replacement transport.

V/Line identified three documents falling within the terms of the request; granting access to two of them and refusing access to a third, resulting in a request being made to the Information Commissioner to have the decision reviewed. They found:

The document subject to review was a spreadsheet listing types of incidents and total costs incurred by the Agency in paying for train replacement taxis

V/Line claiming.

… [the data set] is incomplete as regional stations also provide taxi vouchers directly to customers. This data is not always captured …

As well as a much more interesting reason.

V/Line is currently in the process of releasing a Request For Proposal to selected vendors in the Commercial Passenger Vehicle space (including taxis) and release of this data may corrupt the tender process.

However the Information Commissioner found that the document was not exempt from access, and so should be released.

I wonder who submitted the FOI request, and how long until V/Line puts into place a cost effective method of hiring replacement taxis.

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I’m guessing that person was the Victorian Liberal Government, as their ‘Moving Victoria’ propaganda is now covering taxis across Melbourne.

As well as the traditional panel on the boot, A-frame boards on the roof have also popped up.

The conspiracy theorist in me wants to link this sudden explosion in advertising is due to someone in the Liberal Party owing a taxi advertising company.

Some background

Advertising on Melbourne’s fleet of taxis ended in 2005 with the passing of the Transport (Taxi-Cabs) Regulations 2005, Regulation 23(4) of which prohibited operators from attaching non-approved fittings to the inside or outside of their vehicles without approval.

These regulations were reversed in September 2013, following the 2011 Victorian Taxi Industry Inquiry which recommended that advertising should be allowed, subject to size, placement, subject matter and other requirements set by the Taxi Services Commission.

Today there are two different companies selling advertising space on taxis in Melbourne – ‘Rova Taxi Media‘ appears to have contracts with television stations.

While ‘Ultimate Media’ and their ‘Taxi Network‘ of advertisement are making a mint from Denis Napthine’s desperate attempts to win the 2014 Victorian state election.

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We start in the Melbourne CBD, and myself taking my usual lunchtime walk. Crossing the road at the busy intersection of King and Flinders Streets, I found a Nokia ‘brick’ phone scattered across the asphalt, smashed into three pieces. I looked at the remains for a second – phone, battery and rear cover – until I decided to pick them up before the next car smashed them to smithereens.

The SIM card was still there and the battery slipped into place without any trouble, so I held down the power switch hoping for some signs of life. Thankfully the phone burst into life, so I checked the phone book to see how I could reunite the phone with the original owner.

My first lead was to see if there was a ‘home’ or ‘Mum and Dad’ number listed – but no luck there. No success under the list of recently used contacts either: only bare numbers and a few text messages related to being picked up from the airport.

By that point I figured the owner was a tourist or overseas student who had left the country and didn’t need the phone anymore, so I just sent a text message out to a half dozen contacts:

Hi, I found this phone on the street. How can I return it to you.

About five minutes later I got a phone call from a person with a foreign accent saying something I could hardly understand over the noise of trains passing by overhead, coupled with what sounded like a two way radio in the background at his end. Combined with the random phone numbers and the reference to the airport – was he was a taxi driver?

In the end I managed to let him know my current location, and he asked if I could wait around for 10 more minutes so he could pick it up – that wasn’t any trouble for me, so I kept my eye out for a taxi – dozens went past as I waited…

Soon enough I got another call – the cabbie was almost there – when I realised I should ask for this taxi number so I could pick him out from the crowds. Soon enough he pulled up at the kerb, and I handed his phone back – turns out it was his work number, so he was rather grateful.

Hopefully if I ever lose something, my story will also have a happy ending.

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