Christmas Day and New Years Eve

Travel on trains, trams and buses has been free in Victoria on Christmas Day and New Years Eve for many years.

The first reference I can find is in 1999, followed by Christmas Day 2004, an ING Direct sponsorship for New Years Eve 2004, and an expansion to V/Line in 2006. 2007 marked straight straight years of free travel, and in 2009 the practice was written into the new train contract.

2008: Connex screw up

On 6 November 2008 an electrical fault brought the Melbourne train network to a halt in the middle of peak hour, resulting in Oaks Day race patrons spilling out onto the tracks.

The Age photo

With embattled Melbourne rail operator Connex then in the process of trying to keep it’s $600 million-a-year contract to run the network, they issued a desperate mea culpa, and offered free travel to anyone with a ticket to the Stakes Day race meeting held on 8 November 2008.

2009: Summer heat cripples the rail network

In January 2009 a heatwave hit Melbourne, crippling a railway network held together with duct tape and bubble gum, and leading to a week of service cancellations – culminating in 200 trains cancelled on Wednesday 28th, over 300 services on Thursday 29th, and 284 on Friday 30th. The state government’s solution – declaring 30 January 2009 a day of free travel.

2010: New rail operator, same problems

Metro Trains Melbourne might taken over from Connex as the operator of trains in Melbourne, but the network was still falling apart – an example being 27 July 2010 when a faulty overhead wire cut power between Southern Cross and Flinders Street stations, severely limiting the amount of trains that could move through that section, and causing crowds across the network.

As a result the state government decided that Friday 30 July 2010 would be a day of free travel across Melbourne.

2016: now V/Line screws up

In January 2016 V/Line discovered major issues with their fleet of VLocity trains, resulting in dozens of cancelled services each day, and the crush loading of the trains that are running. Here is a selection of photos from the period.

To compensate for the disruptions to services, in V/Line declared free travel on all services from January 23 to 31, but with no resolution in sight, it was extended another week until February 7.

2018: buying votes in south-east Melbourne

In the lead up to the 2018 state election, Premier Daniel Andrews announced free travel on replacement buses for passengers on the Cranbourne, Pakenham and Gippsland lines during first three weeks of December, while works were completed on the ‘Skyrail’ level crossing removal project.

Passengers given given ‘free travel tokens’ to identify themselves to station staff.

2019: pissed off Gippsland passengers

Level crossing removals followed by Metro Tunnel works and signalling upgrades in suburban Melbourne saw V/Line passengers from Gippsland put onto buses for months on end, so to ease the pain the government gave them free travel on the replacement buses in January 2019, April 2019, July 2019 and January 2020.

2023: we forgot to install the ticketing equipment

In April 2023 a brand new station opened at Deer Park following the removal of the level crossing, but one thing was missing – the Myki equipment!

And their solution – hand out ‘Free travel from Deer Park station until 7 May 2023’ flyers to every passenger using the station, with a second bath of flyers printed up before the Myki equipment was finally switched on from Tuesday 23 May.

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Taking a look around

The new station has two side platforms, flanking a pair of tracks.

The station itself is located on a reinforced earth embankment.

With a pedestrian underpass running through the middle.

Shelter for passengers follows the current woeful standards – a little over 60% on the citybound platform.

And stuff all on the outbound platform 2.

The approach at the city end is a now standard U-trough viaduct.

Made up of two parallel single track viaducts.

But the crossing of Mt Derrimut Road itself is a pair of single track steel spans.

Each track has a walkway on either side.

An emergency detraining walkway along the inner flange, and a maintenance walkway along the outer edge.

The walls of the U-trough combined with noise walls hide trains from down below.

And the unfinished bits

The decision was made to open the new station at Deer Park immediately after work had been completed to connect the new elevated track into the existing rail corridor, so that station building was nowhere near complete.

Passengers required to follow a convoluted route through the construction site to access trains.

The permanent ramp is currently the only way to access platform 1.

The lift incomplete, as with the rest of the station buildings.

And the set of stairs had random bits of paving removed – a victim of poor installation?

While passengers accessing platform 2 had a long walk through the construction site.

Facing multiple blind corners.

Passing under the tracks.

And then up a flight of temporary steps built of scaffolding.

Until they finally emerge on platform 2.

There is a lift shaft in place at platform 2, but it was nowhere near completed.

The reason – it was located on the alignment used by trains serving the old ground level station.

Hence couldn’t be constructed until the old station was closed.

The ‘Accessible shuttle’

With no lift or ramp allowing access to platform 2, V/Line was forced to provide an accessible shuttle to allow passengers from Deer Park to access train services.

Dysons were providing low floor buses to run the service.

With a wheelchair accessible maxi taxi also on standby.

But these shuttles has been implemented in one of the most bizarre ways possible – by backtracking halfway across the western suburbs!

If travelling on a Geelong Line train, passengers are advised to get off at Tarneit, then travel back to Deer Park on either the next train or an accessible shuttle bus.

If travelling on a Ballarat Line train, passengers are advised to get off at Caroline Springs, then travel back to Deer Park on either the next train or an accessible shuttle bus.

The weekday 4:17pm, 4:39pm, 4:58pm, 5:18pm, 5:38pm and 5:58pm Southern Cross to Ballarat trains do not stop at Caroline Springs so passengers should exit the train at Rockbank then travel back to Deer Park on an accessible shuttle bus.

The weekday 6:18pm Southern Cross to Ballarat train does not stop at either Caroline Springs or Rockbank. The next stop after Deer Park is Melton. Passengers on this service should exit the train at Melton, then travel back to Deer Park on an accessible shuttle bus.

A far more logical solution would have been to have passengers leave the train at Sunshine station, and travel via Forrest Street and Tilburn Road to Deer Park – a 6 kilometre, 10 minute drive, compared to the twice as long trip to Tarneit.

The only possible reason I can find for V/Line’s bizarre choice of alternate transport – ticketing laws are actually written in such a way that exiting at V/Line train at Sunshine is illegal.

With Authorised Officers even staking out Sunshine platform 4 to catch passengers trying to do just that.

No lighting

For some reason permanent lighting had yet to be installed across much of the station.

Temporary lighting having been installed across the platform and ramp at platform 1.

But for some reason the less finished platform 2 had permanent light fixtures installed.

The new station also had security staff keeping watch over both platforms at night, so possibly the installation of CCTV systems had also been cut in the rush to get the station opened.

No Myki equipment

Myki equipment was another victim of the hurried construction timeline.

‘Free travel from Deer Park station until 7 May 2023’ flyers being handed out by staff to intending passengers, permitting them to travel from the station while there was nowhere to touch on or topup Myki cards.

The Bunnings Warehouse special

For some reason the new Deer Park station is covered with these cheap looking steel bench seats.

I found them on the ramp to platform 1.

Midway along the convoluted walkway through the construction zone.

I also found a big pile of them sitting in the middle of the old station site.

Turns out they are Marquee brand ‘Steel Park Benches’ that are sold by Bunnings Warehouse!

Surely sourcing some proper bench seats should have been part of the project plan?

One highlight – bike parking

Surprisingly the new Parkiteer cage at Deer Park was open for use – just without a locking door to secure bikes inside.

But unfortunately it’s hidden down a walkway that weaves through the construction site.

So I also found bikes locked up the first piece of fence the owner could find.

And finally – platform screwups

The new platforms at Deer Park are longer than a 6-car VLocity train, with plenty of empty platform beyond the back of the train.

But it turns out they aren’t actually long enough for the 9-car trains currently used on services to Wyndham Vale to stop at.

The new platforms are only 215 metres long – half a carriage (10 metres) too short!

What makes this omission even worse is that V/Line just completed a week long shutdown of the Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo lines to extend the 190 metre platforms at Sunshine to 225 metres long.

And adding to the comedy of errors – some V/Line trains aren’t allowed to stop at the new station!

Upon advice of V/Line Network Engineering, Sprinter railcars will NOT be permitted to stop at Deer Park station. Any Sprinter railcars will be required to run express through Deer Park station.

The operating restriction will apply until further advised due to clearance issues between the Sprinter railcar and the new platform when the doors are in the open position.

The reason – Sprinter railcars have outward plug doors that are lower than the floor level of the train, increasing the risk of getting stuck on a higher than normal platform.

What a comedy of errors!

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Down on Spencer Street

For Melbourne Open House 2010 CitiPower opened ‘JA’ zone substation – a key part of the power supply to the Melbourne CBD.

For historical reasons the substation was divided into two – the State Electricity Commission of Victoria who generated electricity controlled the 66kV input.

While the Melbourne City Council Electrical Supply Department (MCCESD) controlled the 11kV output to consumers.

The operations of the substation were merged following the breakup of the SECV – generation, transmission, distribution and retail being the current segments of the electricity industry.

Outside the substation was a big hole – the site of the former Spencer Street Power Station.

Ready for the ‘Upper West Side’ development, which had already erected an elevated display suite.

The heritage listed cast iron water tank being the only remnant of the old power station.

The $550 million development was completed in 2016, containing 2,207 apartments across four towers.

Trains around Melbourne

Metro Trains Melbourne was busy promising more staff on the network, with ‘despatch paddles’ rolled out at City Loop stations during morning and afternoon peak to indicate that the doors were clear.

But the experiment was short lived – abandoned by 2012.

On 27 July a faulty overhead wire cut power between Southern Cross and Flinders Street stations, severely limiting the amount of trains that could move through that section, and causing crowds across the network.

As ‘compensation’ passengers were given a free travel day on Friday 30 July.

Since then, only the 2016 V/Line VLocity train issues have result in free travel as compensation to passengers.

A happier note was early works for Regional Rail Link, with construction of Southern Cross Station platforms 15 and 16 moving along slowly.

2020 marks five years since V/Line trains from Geelong started using the completed corridor.

And out at the Yarra Valley Railway was an even happier day, with local MP Ben Hardman and Minister for Tourism and Major Events Tim Holding attending the launch of regular heritage train services on the line.

Since then the railway has gone from strength to strength, with government grants allowing the line to be progressively restored from Healesville to Yarra Glen.

V/Line services extended to Maryborough

July 2010 also saw the ribbon being cut on the extension of V/Line rail services from Ballarat to Maryborough. The project was announced in December 2008 as part of the Victorian Transport Plan, at a cost of $50 million.

Public Transport Minister Martin Pakula, Premier John Brumby, and Member for Ballarat East Geoff Howard rode the first train.

Creswick was the only station to be reopened in this first stage, with a new platform constructed opposite the heritage listed buildings.

Clunes following in December 2011.

And Talbot in December 2013.

As part of the project flashing lights and boom barriers were installed at level crossings.

And level crossings on minor roads were closed.

The increasing size of trucks presenting difficulties at other level crossings.

But one unwanted ‘upgrade’ was the removal of passing loops at Sulky, Tourello and Talbot – leaving a 60 kilometre long section of single track between Ballarat and Maryborough, and crippling the ability to run freight services along the corridor.

The recent Murray Basin Rail Project attempted to rectify this at a cost of $440 million, but has left the corridor in even worse condition.

Rail freight

On the standard gauge mainline between Melbourne and Adelaide, a new passing loop was being built outside Lara.

Giving a slight reduction in travel times and increase in efficiency for freight trains on the corridor.

However plenty of freight trains were still being hauled by 60 year old antique locomotives.

Such as those moving grain from the wheat belt.

To the Port of Geelong

The intent of the Murray Basin Rail Project was to convert Victoria’s orphan broad gauge network to standard gauge, allowing the use of locomotives from anywhere in Australia, but with the project stalled, today broad gauge freight services still rely on similarly aged rolling stock.

Finally, I headed out to Waurn Ponds, where loaded cement hoppers were sitting in the sidings ready for despatch.

Alongside B-double cement trucks.

In the end the trucks almost won, with the final cement train ran from Waurn Ponds in December 2015 – but in a surprising move, Qube Logistics returned cement traffic to Victorian tracks in September 2019.

And road freight

‘High Productivity Freight Vehicles’ became widespread at the Port of Melbourne in 2010.

These ‘super’ B-double trucks took the place of port rail shuttles, a project forever proposed but yet to be implemented.

These new bigger trucks serve container parks in the western suburbs of Melbourne, with projects such as the $48.5 million Kororoit Creek Road duplication project in Altona North making road transport more convenient.

Work on the project was completed in December 2011, including the removal of a level crossing on the Werribee line.

Another gift to road freight was the $200 million Anthony’s Cutting upgrade on the Western Freeway between Melton and Bacchus Marsh.

Requiring a massive cutting west of Bacchus Marsh, and new bridges across Djerriwarrh Creek.

The upgraded freeway opened in June 2011, making it even easier for trucks to replace trains on the Melbourne-Adelaide corridor.

One step forwards, two steps back?

Footnote

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

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Photo by Ken Fielding, via Wikimedia Commons

Freddie was visiting his estranged wife and their son, Little Freddie, in Miami at the beginning of March 1982. As he had done countless times before, he asked the British Airways office manager in Miami for a first-class ticket home. Since his last trip, however, the world has changed for Freddie.

Top men in most of the world’s airlines have reciprocal arrangements to pick up free first-class air tickets as and where they want them. When Laker Airways has passed into receivership, on 5 February 1982, Freddie had lost this entitlement – in theory, anyway. But by March Freddie was already proclaiming plans for a new ‘People’s Airline’. And this, as he told BA’s Miami office, should have kept him on the free travel list.

There followed a frantic exchange between the office manager and BA’s brass at Heathrow. It seemed there were going to be quite a few economy-class passengers on the same flight who had each paid a normal fare and then been asked for an additional £130 by BA. The normal fare, unhappily, had been paid to Laker Airways: they were among the 6,000 tour and charter passengers stranded abroad by the collapse.

BA was caused some embarrassment by the whole incident. In the end, Freddie got his free first-class ticket; but it was quickly made clear that it would be his last from BA.

Free first-class tickets anywhere in the world sounds like quite a deal, and the above story is corroborated by this article from the March 6, 1982 edition of the New York Times.

For Sir Freddie Laker, Still Another Blow
By Albin Krebs and Robert McG. Thomas

First Sir Freddie Laker lost his Laker Airways to bankruptcy and receivership, and now comes what may be the unkindest cut of all: He’s also lost his right to ride free on other airlines.

It has been the policy of British Airways, and other airlines, to accord heads of competing airlines the privilege of riding free, but a spokesman for B.A. said in London yesterday that since the Laker line was no longer in operation, it was withdrawing the courtesy in Sir Freddie’s case.

Spokesmen for other airlines said they would follow suit. “There is no reason to suppose he will ask for, or will be granted, this facility again,” said the British Airways spokesman. On Tuesday, Sir Freddie rode British Airways on a free $1,935 first-class ticket from Florida to London. Twenty other Britons stranded in Miami when his airline collapsed last month were also on board the flight, in tourist class. They had paid $238 each for their tickets.

Since his 4-year-old son, Freddie Jr., lives in Key Biscayne with Sir Freddie’s estranged wife, Sir Freddie has flown frequently to Florida.

Fast forward to today, and the I wonder if the gentleman’s agreement still exists between airline CEOs – I find it hard to imagine Michael O’Leary, controversial CEO of super low cost airline Ryanair, being given a free ticket for the super plush ‘The Residence’ first-class suite with Etihad Airways!

Back in the real world

Reciprocal travel privileges for airline staff still exist today, and it isn’t just for the men in suits – officially known as interline travel, it is governed by the Zonal Employee Discount (ZED) multilateral agreement, which covers around 180 airlines around the world.

Further reading

• List of ZED MIBA forum member airlines
• Interline Staff Travel Agreement from the ZED MIBA Forum

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