Regional Rail Link

Progress on the Regional Rail Link project has been a theme in recent months, and this is the same – plenty of work at Footscray station, along with a clear view back to the Melbourne CBD.

With a major shutdown of the suburban lines coming up to install new bridges over the railway line between Footscray and Middle Footscray.

Excavators and dump trucks rolling in a few days later to widen the cutting.

And to demolish West Footscray station to make room for extra tracks.

The ‘West Footscray’ station signage being unceremoniously thrown into the bin of scrap metal, rather than sold off to collectors.

Trams

The Colonial Tramcar Restaurant was still running around Melbourne.

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

As were the maroon liveried City Circle Trams.

2013 also saw the launch of Melbourne Art Trams – a revival of the Transporting Art project which ran from 1978 to 1993.

The brand new E class trams were finally running around the network, but still on test.

As were the upgraded ‘W8’ class trams for use on the City Circle – I found this one at the route 82 terminus at Footscray.

Clueless drivers

It takes some skill, but some motorist managed to impale their car onto the tram stop safety zone prow at Newmarket station.

But this motorist went one better, taking out the entire tram stop.

At last one service disruption Yarra Trams could not be blamed for was this one on Maribyrnong Road, Ascot Vale – strong winds tore the roof off an apartment block, which then landed on the tramway overhead, stopping trams.

New tram tracks

For a few days route 19, 57 and 59 terminated at a temporary crossover north of La Trobe Street.

So that the tram tracks along Elizabeth Street could be dug up.

And new tracks laid.

Ready for the constructor of long awaited platform tram stops.

And then work stopped – two weeks later, the trams stops were still not ready for use.

With work on the fencing being dragged out.

With the tram stops still unfinished at the end of the month.

Buses

On my lunch break I found a Melbourne Visitor Shuttle bus – a victim of competition from the Free Tram Zone, the City of Melbourne finally killed off the service in August 2017.

Transdev was also making their brand more visible in Melbourne, having taken over the operations of National Bus Company and Melbourne Bus Link the month before.

And the other bits

With the Spring Racing Carnival upon us, it’s time for more gambling advertising – this time it was bookmaker ‘Bet365’.

Out at Melbourne Airport the 1970s water tower was still in place outside the Terminal 4 construction site, but was soon gone, deconstructed piece by piece.

Also gone is Melbourne Bike Share – the service was wound up in November 2019.

On Ballarat Road in Footscray I found this still functioning neon sign at Douglas’s Service Station.

And something new for the time – my first sighting of a 1AA-1AA series registration plate, which had been launched in August 2013 along with the ‘Vic – Stay Alert Stay Alive’ slogan.

The new number sequence is estimated to be provide enough combinations to last for 50 years, but the slogan was dumped for ‘Victoria – The Education State’ in October 2015.

And a steam train

I made the trip out up north to Castlemaine on a Steamrail Victoria special.

The selling point being the side trip along the Victorian Goldfields Railway.

Where the train would stop in the middle of nowhere to let passengers exit.

Then line up in the forest.

To photograph the train passing us by.

Known as a ‘photo line’ it has been a traditional part of steam train excursions in Victoria since the 1960s, when esteemed tour organiser Eldon Hogan would bark directions to waiting photographers with his Hogaphone.

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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Trains

We start the month at Footscray station, back when there were only four tracks – not six.

The reason for my visit – DERMPAV were due to pass through with their 1920s railcar RM58.

I also made a trip out to Eltham to capture Steamrail Victoria running steam trains for the Hurstbridge Wattle Festival.

In what was the last final days of the 100 year old manual signalling system in place between Greensborough and Hurstbridge.

Something old but not quite as old was the 1990s ‘Concession travel is only for concession card holders’ billboard at Melbourne Central station.

But something new for 2012 but seems incredibly dated today is this massive billboard covered in late-2000s internet memes, promoting the then-new free Wi-Fi service at Flinders Street Station.

With mobile data so cheap, does anyone even use free wi-fi connection today?

And something gone completely is mX staff having out their free newspaper.

The last issues was mX was published in 2015.

Meanwhile at Southern Cross the advertising that covered the station was a little different – a travel agency placing infrared heat lamps above their sign promoting summer holidays.

And the Red Rooster advertising screen beside the next train displays was also displaying a live countdown of the next trains to depart.

This was a time before live departure information available to the public, with even the official PTV app relying on timetable data, so seeing realtime information on an advertising screen was quite incredulous.

Finally, I paid a visit to the construction site of the future Williams Landing station.

And the extension of Palmers Road north from the Princes Freeway towards Truganina.

Palmers Road opened first, followed by Williams Landing station in 2013, but the road has already – upgraded from two to six lanes as part of the Western Roads Upgrade project in early 2021.

Trams

I was passing through Moonee Ponds Junction, a decade ago just some bus shelters sitting in the middle of a sea of asphalt.

The route 82 terminus located across multiple lanes of traffic and three pedestrian crossings from the bus interchange and route 59 tram stop.

The tram stop was eventually rebuilt in 2016, with route 59 and 82 trams sharing a new accessible platform stop, next to the bus interchange.

Around the Melbourne CBD

Who remembers the Melbourne Bike Share service – a source of free helmets for cyclists all over Melbourne.

Their bikes were blue, but they had a handful of one-off coloured bikes in the fleet.

The service was eventually shut down in November 2019, overtaken by a wave of venture capital-backed ‘dockless’ bike share services, and now e-scooters and e-bikes.

Something else on the way out back in 2012 was the original 1960s Royal Children’s Hospital building.

Demolished following completion of the new hospital next door.

The land returned to Royal Park, as compensation for the land used to build the new hospital.

But something I didn’t expect to see disappear was the cupcake fad.

Somehow the internet hasn’t killed seedy adult cinemas, but you’d be hard pressed to find a specialist cupcake store these days – burgers are now the big food fad.

And finally, something that you’d think would be gone but keeps sticking around is Telstra payphones.

Back in 2012 Telstra was moving them for maximum advertising exposure, but in recent years they’ve gone even further, turning them into massive digital advertising screens.

And a trip out east

For something different, I went on a road trip out to Gippsland, making a pit stop at the Longford Gas Plant, receiving point for oil and gas output from Bass Strait.

And home of the helicopters used to resupply the 23 offshore platforms drilling for oil and gas.

I also stumbled upon the Bairnsdale Power Station as I drove further west – one of a number of gas fired power stations in Victoria.

So what was my destination? Australia’s highest airport, Mount Hotham Airport!

I waited around for hours in the snow.

Until it finally arrived.

One of a handful of QantasLink flights that served the skifield.

Footnote

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

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As times goes on, some stations start to collect bicycles, like this one down at Docklands.

Others stations in busy locations (like Federation Square) see a mix of incoming and outgoing riders.

While stations like this one never see people drop off bikes – riding to the top of the hill is too much work!

The solution to the problem is a fleet of staff to shuffle bicycles around the city.

They visit the docking stations with too many bikes, and load up their ute.

Then ferry them to locations lacking bicycles.

Further reading

Last week Gizmodo ran an article about the science behind reallocating bicycles in bike share systems – inspired by a journal article by Chelsea Wald titled ‘Wheels when you need them‘.

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On August 8th I spotted a yellow bike – supposedly it was a one-off painted in celebration of Cadel’s victory in the Tour de France:

Last week on August 21st I found another non-standard bicycle – this time coloured green:

I wonder how many more one-off colours the Melbourne Bike Share bicycles appear in?

Postscript

The coloured bikes score a mention on the Facebook page for Melbourne Bike Share, as this post from July 2012 illustrates:

Looking for our coloured bikes? Here’s where they are
Yellow – Docked in station ACCA (Australian Centre of Contemporary Art)
White – Docked in station Sandridge Bridge Southbank
Polka Dot – Docked in station Docklands @ NAB – Harbour Esplanade / Bourke St.
Green – having a checkup, back on the streets shortly

Someone also managed to photograph all four of them in one place! Presumably to achieve this they went around Melbourne and hired each one, riding them back to a central location. As for me, it is a case of two down, two to go!

Bicycle number three

Only a day after I published this entry I found bicycle number three – Polka Dot:

How long until I find the last one?

September 2012: Bicycle number four

Two weeks after my last find, we have the last one – plain white.

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