Lots of construction

On the Craigieburn line, a new $38 million railway station was taking shape at Coolaroo.

While at Craigieburn the second platform was being prepared for the use of suburban trains.

Both projects were originally intended to be part of the Craigieburn Rail Project completed in 2007, but descoped to a lack of funds.

Down on the Werribee line the $92.6 project to add a third platform to Laverton station was well underway.

The old ramp was ready to be demolished.

To be replaced by a steep set of stairs, and unreliable lifts that are too small to take an ambulance stretcher.

Work was also well underway on the new footbridge at Footscray station, with the site cleared.

And the first bridge span waiting to be lifted into place.

And a short distance away at Sunshine a different rail bridge was under construction.

Costing $15 million, the 8 span 220 metres long ‘Brooklyn Sunshine Triangle Bridge‘ enabled freight services from the north and west of Victoria to pass through Melbourne, removing the need for trains to stop at Tottenham Yard and reverse direction.

Regional Rail Link kicks off

August 27 saw the media circus roll into Southern Cross Station, as state and federal politicians turned the first sod for the Regional Rail Link project.

The crowd of minders having arrived an hour earlier, including a construction worker charged with making sure the pile driver was spotless.

The politicians and media scrum had to make their way through the old Spencer Street subway.

Where they emerged at the future platform 15/16.

Victorian Premier John Brumby, Federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese and Victorian Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky were there.

Where they slowly raised and lowered a pile driver head.

I also headed out to Wyndham Vale, where a long empty strip of land marked the site of the future station.

Dennis Family Homes, developer of the Manor Lakes estate, couldn’t believe their luck – their advertised ‘transport link’ was actually happening.

The new line opened to passengers in June 2015.

Around Melbourne and Geelong

At first glance Southern Cross Station didn’t look that different, with promotional stands blocking the main entrance.

But from up top the view was different – one could enjoy a drink in the bar, as late evening commuters trickle in.

The bar and food count on level 1 of the Collins Street concourse closed in 2011, replaced by a Woolworths supermarket.

Out in the boondocks of Campbellfield I crossed over the Western Ring Road onboard an Upfield line train.

The freeway has gone from six to eight lanes, upgraded by the ‘Tulla Sydney Alliance’ in May 2013 but the railway line is still single track, despite the removal of the nearby Camp Road level crossing in 2018.

While on the western edge of Geelong I drove out to the newly developed ‘Highview Estate’ in Highton, where houses were taking over the Barrabool Hills.

Today the fields are covered with houses, with many of the residents probably driving to Melbourne for work via the recently completed Geelong Ring Road.

And a few trains

August 2009 saw me take a ride around suburban Melbourne with Steamrail Victoria, with our seam train visiting Cranbourne, Upfield, Craigieburn and Williamstown.

I also followed a Connex Melbourne train through the open countryside of the Ballarat line.

The train was bound for the Alstom Ballarat workshops for upgrades to the passenger information and CCTV systems.

Also in Ballarat I found two accident damaged Comeng suburban trains.

Both have since been scrapped – carriage 1109T having been damaged in the 2002 Epping collision while carriage 553M was destroyed by fire in 2002.

And to finish – we see the Maryvale paper train waiting at North Dynon, before another trip east.

And another load of grain headed west from Geelong, with a rainbow overhead.

Footnote

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

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It seems that every month sees me start in Geelong, where this time around I photographed a boring blue bus at Geelong station.

The ‘GTS’ stood for Geelong Transit System and was the operating brand for public transport in Geelong between 1983 until 2000, when it was replaced by a mishmash of bus operator branding. Today no sign of it remains, Myki being the ticketing system, and the Public Transport Victoria livery has been applied to buses.

I also took at look at progress on the Geelong Ring Road through the Barrabool Hills.

Barrabool Road had been slewed to one side, allowing construction of the bridge over the future freeway to be carried out without interference with traffic.

Excavation work on the long cutting towards Waurn Ponds was well underway.

As was the massive climb uphill from the Barwon River.

Another ongoing theme is the decline of rail freight – I found a rake of redundant superphosphate hopper wagons in storage at North Geelong Yard.

As well as a rake of much older cement hoppers.

Both were destined for the scrap yard – the superphosphate traffic was completely lost to rail in the early 2000s, but cement traffic was still barley holding on but in smaller volumes, hence the retirement of older wagons.

But there was one new traffic that rail won – the transport of containerised mineral sands from the Iluka Resources processing plant outside Hamilton to the Port of Melbourne for export.

The service was run by small operator El Zorro, with the transport of the mineral sands between mine and processing plant also moving to rail in 2011.

And another success was the transport of Geelong football fans to Melbourne, where they would see the Cats get thrashed by Hawthorn in the 2008 AFL Grand Final.

A number of special 8 car trains ran between Geelong and Richmond during the finals seasons, with one of the trains on grand final day wearing a special ‘Geelong Cats’ headboard on the lead locomotive.

Up in Melbourne I took a walk through Flinders Street Station, where Connex had opened a new customer information booth on the main concourse.

The booth still exists today, just rebranded for Metro Trains Melbourne.

I also photographed the ‘split flap’ Solari boards hidden on the main concourse, which once listed train departures for each line.

Installed in the 1990s, the screens were decommissioned in 2007 but remained in place for a few years, hidden by advertising.

Over at Southern Cross Station I followed a speedy piece of construction – a new loading ramp at the north end of platform 1.

Built to enable the provision of motorail services on The Overland between Melbourne and Adelaide, two weeks later it was virtually complete.

The first cars were loaded onto The Overland in February 2009, but today the ramp stands unused – the motorail service was withdrawn in November 2015.

Finally, we end this month with a trip to Ballarat.

In the small township of Millbrook I came across a level crossing on Old Melbourne Road, protected by bells and lights but no boom barriers.

VicTrack funded a upgrade of this level crossing during the 2012/13 financial year, but the railway line is due to be closed in a year or two time, made redundant by the Ballarat Line Upgrade.

On the shores of Lake Wendouree is the Ballarat Tramway Museum, where I photographed tram 33 departing the St Aidans Drive terminus.

While a short distance away I paid a visit to the future Wendouree station site.

The railway past the station was still being used by trains to Ararat, so the tracks were slewed away from the platform, allowing construction to be completed without delaying V/Line services.

I also had a look at the Alstom workshops at North Ballarat, where the sidings were full of abandoned trains.

I found Comeng carriages 1109T and 533M showing plenty of accident damage; as well as classmate 671M stored in a stripped condition, minus windows, doors, cab front and who knows what else.

Comeng carriage 671M was eventually made part of a new MFB training facility at Craigieburn in 2014, while 1109T and 533M were scrapped in 2010.

I also found Hitachi carriages 204M and 203M.

Both scrapped in 2010.

But there was also signs of new life – Hitachi carriage 225M was under refurbishment.

It reentered service soon after, remaining in service until 2014.

Along with a number of Great Southern Rail carriages being upgraded for use on the Indian Pacific and The Ghan services.

They also saw use on the ultra expensive Southern Spirit service that operated between 2010 and 2012.

But we end some something I just stumbled upon – the abandoned Joe White Maltings factory at Wendouree.

The factory itself had already been demolished, with the silos meeting the same fate in 2010. Houses now occupy the site.

Footnote

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

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Eurotram

The first example of a foreign tram on trial in Melbourne was the Bombardier manufactured Eurotram in 2003.

Photo by Jcornelius, via Wikimedia Commons

Normally used on the Porto Metro system in Portugal, Porto tram number 018 spent a few months in Melbourne during 2003, where it spent seven days running shuttles to the Australian Open tennis, and three days transferring Grand Prix patrons to and from Albert Park.

Combino Plus

In 2007 Siemens decided to send one of their Combino Plus trams to Melbourne.

Photo by Jcornelius, via Wikimedia Commons

More at home on the Metro Transportes Sul do Tejo network in the Almada and Seixal municipalities of Portugal, tram number C008 spent March to June 2007 running route 16 services, as well as running shuttles to the Grand Prix at Albert Park.

Flexity Classic

Bombardier appears to be a company keen to demonstrate their trams in Melbourne, because in 2007 they let us take a Flexity Classic for a spin.

However for this demonstration, the tram didn’t have far to travel – newly built tram #111 was delivered by ship to Appleton Dock then spent a few days running around the streets of Melbourne minus passengers, before being sent by road to Adelaide, where it entered service on the Glenelg Tram.

Why?

So why would a private company spend millions of dollars loading trams onto ships, and send them to Melbourne so that we can give them a test drive? The simple answer – because they wanted us to buy them!

To understand this, we need to go back to the early-2000s. Melbourne’s tram network had just been chopped in half and franchised to a pair of private operators, who were obligated under their contract with the government to purchase new low floor trams. Yarra Trams opted for Alstom Citadis trams from France, while M>Tram went for the Siemens Combino trams from Germany, leaving major tram manufacturer Bombardier on the outside.

In the years that followed, patronage on the Melbourne tram network grew, but the government didn’t have a real plan to expand the fleet – but the global rolling stock manufacturers were ready for the day when a tender for new trams arrived at their door, so tried to keep their relationship with Melbourne warm.

Eventually that day came in July 2009, when the Victorian Government called for expressions of interest for the manufacture and supply of 50 new trams. In October 2009 manufacturers Alstom and Bombardier were shortlisted to bid for the contract, based on their experience overseas and their local manufacturing capabilities, with Siemens being left on the outer.

Bombardier won the bid in September 2010 with their variant of the Flexity Swift tram, with the first E class tram finally making it onto Melbourne streets in 2013.

A few more photos

Vicsig has photos of the Eurotram in Melbourne, as well as the visiting Combino Plus.

As for the Adelaide Flexity tram running around Melbourne – photos:

• a few glances on La Trobe Street by Peter Bruce,
• cruising the streets and at the terminus by Kym Smith.

While the Bombardier Eurotram also visited Sydney in 2002 – photos by Matthew Geier.

And a reverse example

Before it was delivered to Melbourne, Siemens sent a D2 class Combino tram to the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung, where it was used during January 2004 on a temporary track to demonstrate the concept of light rail. Unfortunately for Siemens, the demonstration didn’t sway the city of Kaohsiung, who decide to purchase trams from Spanish firm CAF.

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