In the beginning

Back in the “good old days” paper tickets ruled the railways, each one of them individually numbered, and sold for a specific combination of origin and destination.

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As you might expect, that added up to a lot of tickets.

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Which took up a lot of space in a ticket office.

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The poor ticketing clerk being surrounded by them!

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So the Victorian Railways separated out the ticket offices at major stations – for example Spencer Street had separate ‘suburban’ ticket offices.

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And Flinders Street Station directed country passengers to a single ticket offices at the ‘Centre’ entrance opposite Degraves Street.

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Times change

By the 1980s reforms to suburban tickets saw a new system introduced – first the ‘Neighbourhood’ paper tickets, followed by zone based “Scratch” tickets, massively reducing the number of tickets to be sold.

Scan via Reddit

And then cut back even further with the introduction of Metcard, and the on-demand encoding of pre-printed tickets by automated machines.

V/Line also went through a similar modernisation, switching to tickets printed on-demand by a computer terminal.

And then in 2013 something resembling a unification of the two systems, when Myki was rolled out to the V/Line network, as “one system to rule them all”.

But with one exception – the rollout of Myki to long distance V/Line services was dropped, leaving them using the legacy paper ticket system, which need to be issued via a computer system dedicated to the task.

And today

Southern Cross Station still has separate suburban and country ticket offices – Metro Trains Melbourne runs ticket offices on the Collins Street and Bourke Street concourses.

While V/Line runs their ticket offices at the Spencer Street entrance to the station, and beneath the Bourke Street Bridge.

Flinders Street Station also splits the ticket offices – there is a V/Line ‘Regional Tickets’ window beside the Metro Trains Melbourne ‘Customer Service’ counter.

Melbourne Central has a V/Line branded ‘Regional Trains’ window at the Swanston Street end of the station.

Oakleigh has a wooden door with a ‘Country / Interstate Booking Office’ sign on it.

And back to what triggered this post – Box Hill station has a little V/Line branded room beside the ticket office.

Footnote: printing paper tickets

As you might have guessed, selling each passenger a paper ticket every time they travelled used up a lot of paper – a million tickets a week.

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So the Victorian Railways ran their own printing works on Laurens Street, North Melbourne.

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And then sent them to a room at head office – 67 Spencer Street.

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Where staff would stamp the unique serial number onto each ticket blank.

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Footnote: a weird franchise fact

With suburban trains being operated by Metro Trains Melbourne and country trains by V/Line, the franchise agreements need to specify who is responsible for what. First, V/Line trains need access to Metro stations:

Schedule 7
Interoperator Agreements
Part 1 Mandatory Interoperator Agreements
1 Access Agreements
(a) The V/Line Passenger Access Agreement.
(b) The Station Access Agreement – NSW TrainLink for access by NSW Trains (ABN 50 325 560 455) to tracks leased by the Franchisee from PTV.

And V/Line has to have access to the ticket offices located in stations managed by Metro.

– The Sublease for the ticket office box at Flinders Street Station dated 20 November 2009 between the Franchisee and V/Line.
– The Station Agreement for access by V/Line to stations leased by the Franchisee from PTV.

Sounds like the only winners are the lawyers paid to write up these agreements.

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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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Farewell to Metcard

The Metcard ticketing system in Melbourne was switched off on 29 December 2012.

Myki having taken over.

But the machines still advertised descoped features, like short term tickets.

And printed out credit card receipts that included the full name of the card holder, nine digits of their credit card and the card’s expiry date.

January 2013 saw that vulnerability fixed, but the “print a receipt even if I don’t want one” bug wasn’t addressed until June 2019.

Trams go ding ding

A decade ago passengers at the Toorak Road terminus of route 58 had to play frogger between four lanes of traffic.

It took until 2015 for VicRoads to cave in and allow Yarra Trams to build a safer tram stop, at a cost of $3.8 million.

Meanwhile at Domain Interchange intending tram passengers just had a few shelters in the middle of St Kilda Road.

It was replaced in 2013 by a four track, four platform tram stop, which was itself demolished in 2018 to make way for the new Anzac station as part of the Metro Tunnel project.

Trams heading along Queens Bridge also used to get stuck behind queued cars.

This was eventually fixed in 2015, when the shared bus and tram lane along Queensbridge Street was extended the short distance over the bridge to Flinders Street.

Route 75 trams used to travel from Flinders Street along Spencer Street to the Remand Centre.

A few months later the southbound tram stop at Spencer and Bourke Street was closed due to a “increased safety risk to passengers and pedestrians“, and in 2014 the city terminus for route 75 was moved to Docklands.

W class trams on the free City Circle service used to be painted maroon, to distinguish them from the green W class trams used on regular tram services.

A distinction no longer needed – W class trams were withdrawn from route 30 and 78 in December 2014, and the introduction of the Free Tram Zone in 2015 meant every trams in the CBD was free. The remaining W class trams are now painted green, following the W8 class tram modernisation project.

On my lunch break I often saw the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant making it’s way around the Melbourne CBD.

But they no longer run – withdrawn by Yarra Trams in 2018 due to concerns they didn’t meet modern crash safety standards.

But the one thing that hasn’t changed – trams covered with advertising for the Australian Open.

The 2023 iteration of this tradition is already on the tracks.

Old clunkers on the bus network

A decade ago high floor buses still popped up on bus routes across Melbourne.

Thankfully that is a thing of the past, but on the tram network not so much – we have squandered multiple opportunities to acquire low floor trams, with the 2032 deadline for an accessible network unlikely to be achieved.

Closed for the weekend?

Closing a railway station on the weekend sounds stupid, but we used to do that at Flagstaff station.

A situation not fixed until 2015.

Reworking Footscray for Regional Rail Link

2013 saw work on Regional Rail Link kick off at Footscray station.

Land cleared ready for the extra two platforms to be built at the station.

But they were also demolishing a footbridge only completed two year earlier.

Thanks to the bridge being too short to span the additional tracks.

Fail to plan, plan to fail.

Trucks versus low bridges

In January 2013 an over height truck took out the tramway overhead at the intersection of King and Collins Street, stranding trams throughout the Melbourne CBD.

Mechanics having to push trams by hand.

So they could get their recovery truck into position, and push the trams to a section of track still with power.

The Craigieburn line couldn’t get a break either, with a truck striking the low bridge on Racecourse Road at Newmarket station, and cooking itself on the live tramway overhead.

Some things never change.

Footnote – something a little different

January 2013 was also the tail end of my month long rail trip across Europe.

Where I travelled 8,898 kilometres six countries, ten cities, three rail gauges and 15 rail operators.

Along the way I also transited via Qatar.

And missed my connection back to Australia, giving me an unplanned 24 hour stopover in Doha.

The end result – my spin off blog Euro Gunzel – An Australian railfan in Europe.

Footnote

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

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Sparks to Sunbury

We start the month at Sunbury station, which was in the final days of being a station only served by V/Line trains.

Upgraded as part of the Sunbury Electrification Project, the new overhead wires had been installed, but Metro Trains had yet to take over the operation of the rail service.

But at Diggers Rest station the toilets were locked up tight – a ‘closed due to staff shortage’ sign a forerunner of the complete abandonment of the station building when it was handed over to Metro.

The first electric trains carried passengers to Sunbury on Sunday 18 November 2012, with the country platforms at Southern Cross receiving ‘Sunbury trains depart from platform 11’ signage to redirect passengers who previously had to catch V/Line services.

However Sunbury passengers were still allowed to use V/Line trains to travel to Melbourne, as an exception to usual V/Line travel rules, which was withdrawn in 2015, only to be backflipped on soon after.

Forgotten trains

One warm autumn evening I captured a Hitachi train heading through Ascot Vale bound for Craigieburn.

It took until December 2013 until the last one was finally withdrawn from revenue service.

And on a hot Sunday afternoon I made my way to the dustbowl that was the old Rockbank station…

Waiting for sixty year old V/Line locomotive A62 to lead a 10 car long train of similarly aged carriages from Melbourne to Bacchus Marsh, ready to form two commuter trains the next morning back to Melbourne.

These now 70 year old locomotives were eventually retired from V/Line service, but the carriages are still in use today, including occasional trips to Shepparton, Warrnambool and Swan Hill thanks to incompetent V/Line management.

But one upside – Rockbank got a modern new station in 2019.

The Myki rollout drags on

My 10 years ago series keeps on bringing up the extended saga that was the Myki rollout, and this month is no different.

One morning I was greeted by every single Myki gate at Flagstaff station being completely dead, forcing passengers to trudge through the pair of remaining Metcard ‘Frankenbarrier’ gates.

Defective Myki readers onboard trams were an even more common sight – this one was stuck in a reboot loop, giving a stack trace from the open source ‘log4net‘ library.

But still the rollout pressed on – ‘Myki Mates’ deployed to CBD tram stops to assist passengers making the switch from Metcard.

And ‘Myki is the only ticket you can use from 29th December’ posters covered the public transport network.

Thankfully in the decade since these drams are mostly forgotten, as the system “just works”.

Ding ding on the trams

I paid a visit to Preston Workshops, where I found an aging W class tram parked outside the sheds.

The entire complex has since been redeveloped as New Preston Depot to run services on route 11, 86 and 96; but the W class trams haven’t been as lucky – they’ve just been dumped in a paddock at Newport Workshops.

I also wandered down to Ascot Vale for Stakes Day at Flemington Racecourse, and found a row of stabled trams at ‘Showgrounds Loop’, awaiting the flood of drunken racegoers wanting to kick on in the city.

Special trams continue to service major events at Flemington Racecourse and the Melbourne Showgrounds, but the service levels leave something to be desired.

Meanwhile on Sydney Road I found a pitiful scene – a high floor tram on route 19 stuck behind slow moving cars, fenced in by parked cars, a ‘dooring zone’ bike lane, and no platform stops.

The only difference today is you might find a low floor tram along Sydney Road – but with no platform stops on the 5.5 kilometre stretch between Brunswick Road and the Coburg North terminus, the service is just as inaccessible as ever.

And something different

Who remembers Melbourne Bike Share?

After years of little love from the public, it finally closed down in November 2019.

And finally, we close the month with a train ride on this dinky little train.

It’s running on the Kerrisdale Mountain Railway, a 2ft narrow gauge tourist railway running up a hill in the Tallarook Ranges outside Seymour.

Footnote

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

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Building it up, tear it down

We start off in the Melbourne CBD, where the Emporium Melbourne shopping centre was emerging inside the gutted facade of Myer’s Lonsdale Street store.

The complex opened a few years later in April 2014.

Over at Royal Park the old Royal Children’s Hospital was being demolished.

Opening up a view towards the CBD.

The expansion of Royal Park onto the site was completed by December 2014.

And out in Truganina I photographed the trashed gatehouse at the abandoned Truganina Munitions Reserve on Palmers Road.

Abandoned for years, it eventually bulldozed in 2020 so the road could be widened.

Building Regional Rail Link

In October 2012 work on the Regional Rail Link was well underway, with the west side of Sunshine station cleared to make room for two new V/Line platforms.

The car park off Irving Street at Footscray station was also closed for good, to make way for two new suburban platforms.

Work to widen the rail corridor towards Middle Footscray about to begin.

And out in the back blocks of Truganina a number of minor roads were about to be permanently closed, so that work on the new Regional Rail Link route between Deer Park and Werribee could start.

The new platforms at Footscray were first to open in January 2014, followed by the new platforms at Sunshine in April 2014, the new tracks between South Kensington and Sunshine in July 2014, and finally the new route via Tarneit in June 2015.

Myki replaces Metcard

The Metcard magstripe ticketing system was scheduled to be switched off at the end of December 2012, so the switch to Myki message was everywhere, including the soon to be removed ticket machines onboard trams.

At Flagstaff station the Metcard barriers were being replaced by new Myki gates.

Allowing the decommissioning of the 1990s-era ‘Barrier Lane Control’ computer that controlled them.

The Metcard gates were then disassembled.

With the ‘frankenbarrier’ conversion kits removed.

I assume the old ticket gates were sent back to Metcard operator OneLink, while the Myki readers were sent go back to their owner – Kamco.

Scenes that are gone

One morning I was out at Sunshine, where I found two V/Line trains running parallel towards me.

It was a little unusual back then, but it’s impossible now – Regional Rail Link converted the tracks to two single directional tracks, removing flexibility if a broken down train blocks one line.

On a quiet weekend I found dozens of Melbourne Bus Link buses stabled for the weekend at their Footscray depot.

Melbourne Bus Link was replaced by Transdev in 2013, who were then replaced by Kinetic in 2022; and the depot in Footscray closed in 2016, replaced by a new depot at Sunshine West.

At Moonee Ponds Junction I found tram passengers playing frogger while trying to change between route 59 and route 82 trams.

The mess of an interchange was rebuilt in 2016, providing a slightly nicer experience for passengers.

And finally, I spotted one of the seven surviving Hitachi trains in Melbourne running a Belgrave train at Southern Cross.

It took until December 2013 until the last one was finally withdrawn from revenue service.

Footnote

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

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Down by the tracks

We start this month down at the west end of the Melbourne CBD, where the apartment blocks of Docklands towered over wasteland of railway sidings.

In 2015 the rail freight terminal was relocated to make way for the ‘E-Gate’ urban renewal project, but it was not to be – Transurban came along with their unsolicited West Gate ‘Tunnel’ idea, and now the land is being covered with a tangle of elevated roads forming the Wurundjeri Way extension.

Next stop, over to Murrumbeena and Hughesdale.

The tracks used to be down at ground level, surrounded by trees.

But the entire section is now parkland, the railway line being elevated onto the ‘skyrail’ viaduct in 2018 to remove multiple level crossings.

Next stop, Coburg station.

That station building is still there today, but the tracks are not – a new elevated station was built on the site in 2020, removing the Bell Street level crossing.

And finally, the complex mess of cars, trams and trains crossing Burke Road at Gardiner station..

The railway lines was placed beneath the road in 2016, removing the 30 km/h speed restriction for trams and trains.

Metcard vs Myki

The rollout of Myki to trams in Melbourne was underway, with the “you don’t need to touch off on trams” message struggling to get out.

Diehard Metcard users still pumping coins into the ticket machines onboard trams.

Railway stations also still had their 1990s-era ‘Booking Office Machines’ used to issue Metcards.

And crowded Myki gates at railway stations was still an issue.

Overflow gates having been installed in an attempt to handle crowds, but often went unused.

Ding ding

In recent years many Melbourne CBD tram stops have closed – the one at the corner of William and Lonsdale Street is one of them.

A decade ago, the work on the platform stops along Swanston Street was still getting dragged along.

The corner of Swanston and Collins Street a construction site for months.

As was the tram stop at Swanston and Bourke Street.

It took until July 2012 for them to finally open to passengers.

Also this month the ‘H’ crossing at the intersection of Victoria and Peel Streets was being renewed.

Fresh tram track being installed where routes 58 and 57 intersect, during a weekend shutdown of the complete intersection.

On the buses

A decade ago Melbourne’s bus operators still had their fleets painted in their own corporate livery – Ventura in two-tone blue with yellow highlights.

Driver Bus Lines had white with blue and teal stripes.

And Grenda had red and yellow stripes.

Ventura still operates bus services in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, but the routes once operated by Driver Bus Lines were acquired by CDC Melbourne in 2013, and the Grenda brand has now been absorbed into the Ventura Group.

Construction

Work on Regional Rail Link was quite disruptive through Footscray, as the rail corridor was expanded to fit two new tracks.

The first section of the new Nicholson Street bridge in place.

Ballarat and Bendigo trains started using the new tracks from July 2014, with Geelong trains following from June 2015

Also in the west the expansion of Highpoint Shopping Centre was underway, tower cranes at work on a $300 million extension featuring a David Jones store.

Which wasn’t a successful move for the high end department store – in 2021 they shrunk the store to a single floor, to make way for Kmart!

While over in Ascot Vale, the abandoned Racecourse Hotel had been set on fire.

After laying empty for many years.

The site was cleared soon after, and after many years of planning objections, the 22 storey ‘Only Flemington‘ apartment tower was eventually built on the site.

And everything else

While passing through West Footscray I found the infamous Sims Supermarket – known for their ‘The Price Crusher’ slogan.

The small supermarket chain went into administration in 2017, and the store is now an IGA.

On the subject of supermarkets, I found two Coles stores across the street from each other in Coburg.

One of the stores has always been as a Coles, while the other was a rebranded Bi-Lo store, trading beside each other until one was closed in 2021 and turned into artist studios.

I also found a Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car.

The custom registration plates indicating it was part of the Victorian Government’s five year ‘Electric Vehicle Trial‘ launched in October 2010.

While a mid-term report was published in 2013, the final report of the trial has not been published.

I also went past the Port of Melbourne to photograph some container ships.

A location now inaccessible following the expansion of the Swanson Dock container terminal.

And finally, I went for a walk over the surprisingly leafy looking Western Ring Road.

At the Craigieburn Bypass interchange.

But a decade on, the same scene is covered in concrete – the recently completed M80 Upgrade added additional lanes between Sydney Road and Edgars Road at a cost of $518 million.

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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Farewell to Metcard

Ten years ago the old Metcard magnetic stripe ticketing system was on the way out, replaced by new Myki smartcards.

The old ticket machines being removed from stations.

But ticket gates at stations weren’t fast enough to handle the new tickets.

And the requirement to ‘touch off’ after a train journey created massive queues at railway stations in evening peak.

The government’s solution – a ‘Touch. Hold. Go’ re-education campaign.

‘Don’t swipe’.

‘Don’t wave’.

But the eventual solution was throwing more Myki readers at the problem, and replacing them with faster ones.

Rail scenes that are gone

I headed out to brand new station of South Morang, which a decade ago was the end of the line.

An empty trackbed leading north towards the current terminus of Mernda.

At Greensborough the old manual safeworking system was still in use – station staff handing over a metal baton to the driver, indicating that it was safe to proceed into the single track section.

At Heidelberg there was still a single track towards Rosanna.

Bell station was still at ground level.

The last few Hitachi trains were still in service.

The heritage listed timber gates at Ballarat station were yet to be destroyed by a runway train.

And something a little different – a passenger train stopped at Lal Lal station, midway between Geelong and Ballarat.

It was there to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the railway being completed.

Regional Rail Link

At Footscray demolition of shops along the Nicholson Street bridge was completed.

With work underway on the signals below.

Ding ding on the trams

The tram tracks along Elizabeth Street were being relayed, requiring an array of excavators to break up the old concrete.

While the newly established Public Transport Victoria was doing what Victoria does best – removing the branding that came before them.

And something else familiar was the “When the Tram Stops, You Stop” campaign found on the back of trams – a half-arsed attempt at addressing the spate of motorists driving past stopped trams and hitting passengers.

But a decade later such campaigns have made no difference – tram passengers ending up in hospital after being hit by hit-run drivers – the only solution is physical separation.

Forgotten bus liveries

A decade ago the Public Transport Victoria livery was yet to be rolled out bus fleets, with Davis Bus Lines in Ballarat still having their brown livery.

Benders Busways in Geelong still had buses in green.

And McHarry’s was still using the “Geelong Transit System” livery, rolled out way back in 1983 as the first attempt to unify public transport in Geelong.

And some other bits

Another update from the Myer Lonsdale Street site – demolition was done, and tower cranes were being lifted into place.

And a fad from a decade ago – ‘My Family’ stickers.

By 2014 the backlash was well underway, and now they’re just a memory.

Footnote

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

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Myki

The transition from Metcard to Myki as the ticket to travel on Melbourne public transport was well underway.

But plenty of passengers were resisting the new system.

But Metcard ticket machines were starting to be withdrawn.

Bold red ‘Myki is coming’ stickers placed on the soon to be removed machines.

But the new Myki system wasn’t fast enough to handle the number of passengers using it – resulting in long lines at stations during busy periods, a problem that became even worse as the decommissioned of Metcard continued.

Hitachi trains

The old non-air conditioned Hitachi trains were still running around Melbourne.

I was at Flinders Street Station one evening with some spare time when a Hitachi train turned up.

So I jumped onboard.

And went for a ride out to Williamstown.

And around the stations

Back in 2012 was was well underway to cram more shops into Southern Cross Station.

Management calling it a ‘new retail experience’.

But it was just more shops jammed whether they could, even if they blocked the path towards trains.

Meanwhile over at Flinders Street Station was a different kind of commercial promotion.

A mist cooling system being installed on platforms 2/3 and 4/5 as part of a Lipton Iced Tea promotion.

The system was removed soon after.

New tram stops

Outside Parliament station on Macarthur Street was a new ‘drive over’ platform tram stop.

While on Swanston Street work on the long awaited platform stops was about to start – lengths of brand new rail laid out at Flinders Lane.

Over one weekend the tracks were lowered for the new tram stop.

But the work was nowhere near completed – it took months for the tram stops themselves to be ready for use.

Meanwhile on Plenty Road in Preston, new part time tram lanes had been installed.

LED signs being installed before 12 part time tram lanes between Dundas Street in Preston to Albert Road in Reservoir, directing motorists off the tram tracks during peak times, in an attempt to speed up route 86 services to Bundoora.

But their effectiveness seems doubtful – each of the tram lanes ended before intersections, allowing right turning cars to still block trams.

And forgotten trams

Who remembers tram route 24?

It was a peak-only service from North Balwyn to La Trobe Street via Kew, which was discontinued in July 2014 as part of a simplification of tram routes.

And a decade ago Z1 class trams were still in service.

First delivered in 1975, the bulk of the Z1 class fleet was withdrawn following the introduction of the low floor C and D class trams in 2001/02, but 15 remained in service until 24 April 2016, when the delivery of more E class trams allowed them to be withdrawn. The similar looking high floor Z3 class trams remain in service today.

Demolishing Myer Melbourne

Demolition of the former Myer Melbourne store on Lonsdale Street was kicking along.

The building hollowed out.

With just a façade left.

Haled up with a web of scaffolding.

Cantilevered over the street below.

And 447 Collins Street falling apart

In January 2012 a chunk of 447 Collins Street fell to earth.

The area beneath the building was sealed off, and engineers were sent abseiling down to inspect the remaining facade panels.

Tap tap tap on each, to see if they were loose.

Scaffolding was soon erected to prevent any more panels from falling.

Permanent repairs were later completed, but it was for nothing – demolition of the building was given the go-ahead in 2014, with the 42 storey tall ‘Pantscraper’ (officially Collins Arch) now occupying the site.

And hard rubbish

The early 2010s was a peak time for CRT screen TVs in hard rubbish, but this month I found a different obsolete technology out on the nature strip – photo processing chemicals.

I only started taking photography seriously after I switched to digital, but for many photographers they still enjoy the process of film.

Footnote

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

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Like most months we start down at Geelong, where I paid a visit to Marshall station. There I found a locomotive hauled train running around the carriage set, ready to form a new service back to Melbourne.

And a few kilometres away I captured a V/Line service from Warrnambool headed through the paddocks outside Waurn Ponds.

The scene at both stations is now completely different – the empty paddocks are now covered with houses, Waurn Ponds station having opened on the site in 2014, and VLocity railcars now run the bulk of services on the Geelong line.

On the other side of Geelong, track duplication work 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.

On the drive up to Melbourne, I spotted a Qantas jet taking off from Avalon Airport, the pilot in training performing touch-and-go landings.

Today it’s more likely to be bound for long term storage.

I also found some American visitors on the apron at Melbourne Airport – Boeing E-4B 747-200B #31677 and Boeing C-32 757-200 #90004, bringing United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Australia on an official visit.

I can’t see any state visits by foreign officials happening any time soon.

Ding ding! Outside Flemington Racecourse on Melbourne Cup day I found six trams sitting in the siding on Union Road, waiting to take patrons home after the big race.

This year – empty stands.

Back in 2010 Metcard was still the ticket to use to travel by train.

They were eventually replaced by Myki in 2012.

A more random visit was the Bradmill factory beside the West Gate Freeway in Yarraville.

Back then it was just another factory, but in the decade since it has became an urbex hotspot.

With another changed industrial scene being the Melbourne Steel Terminal, located in the shadows of Melbourne Docklands.

Once used to ship steel products down to Hastings, the terminal closed in 2015 to make room for the ‘E’ Gate development, but was instead taken over by the West Gate ‘Tunnel’ project for a tangle of freeway ramps.

Finally, I made my way out to Melbourne Airport by bus, where the route 901 ‘Smartbus’ stopped out in the middle of nowhere.

It’s a little easier to find these days – the Terminal 4 transport interchange.

But my destination was elsewhere.

Hong Kong.

During my two and a bit week long trip I had a monkey around with my Myki on the Octopus card readers.

And I took thousands of photos, of which 2,391 of them eventually made it online.

Footnote

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

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