A few things new on the trams

A decade ago route 57 was my local tram route, and one night I heard something different clattering down the road – a brand new E class tram on test.

So I got in the car and chased it down the line, snaking around the reserved track of Maribyrnong until it reached the route 82 terminus at Footscray.

A decade ago I was also still commuting to the CBD for work, when I found some brand new yellow plastic kerbing in place along the Collins Street tram tracks.

Intended to make life difficult for motorists driving over the tram tracks, they didn’t seem to deter the nuffies who drive taxis in Melbourne.

Continuing to block the tram tracks and make u-turns as they please.

A problem not addressed until 2020 when the yellow plastic strips were replaced with hard concrete ones – and reducing vehicle-to-tram collisions by around 30 per cent.

And on the trains

A decade ago a new style of door handle was first trialled on the aging Comeng trains.

Eventually rolled out to the entire fleet, but in 2024 an even more secure emergency door release system on the cusp of being rolled out – just in time for the Comeng trains to be retired!

More clueless drivers

Occasionally trams need to turn back before their usual terminus, with one of these crossovers being the Maribyrnong River crossover on Maribyrnong Road, Ascot Vale.

Unfortunately this motorist didn’t realise the tram in front wanted to come back the other way – perhaps forgivable, given it’s an infrequent occurrence.

Meanwhile this driver of a Queensland registered car didn’t know what to do on Swanston Street when the road ran out, so decided to drive along the bike lane instead.

But this taxi driver should’ve known better – the tram driver going DING DING DING but the driver still decided to sneak down the tram tracks.

And this even stupider driver deciding to driving advice from a taxi driver, and follow them.

Another ‘professional’ driver was behind the wheel of this delivery van, who also decided to drive down the Swanston Street tram stop.

But unlike all the other clueless drivers this month, they didn’t get away with it – Victoria Police officers pulled them over afterwards.

Over to Moonee Ponds

Here we see the old Moonee Ponds Junction tram stop, with route 82 passengers forced to cross multiple roads to reach the narrow ‘safety zone’ tram stop on the other side of the intersection.

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.

Also nearby I found a route bus operated by Moonee Valley Coaches.

They continued operating two bus routes from Moonee Ponds towards Brunswick until March 2024, when the routes were sold to much larger bus operator Dyson Group.

And Southern Cross Station

March 2014 saw some more retail outlets being added to Southern Cross Station – this time on the Bourke Street Bridge.

But the congestion on the streets around the station – zero attention being paid there!

Just Grand Prix merchandise stalls to make matters worse!

But this hoarding on the Collins Street concourse had something different hiding behind it.

A big hole with a massive cage of reinforcing bar at the bottom.

So what was it?

I didn’t find out until a few months later.

Footnote

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

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They might start at the Victoria Harbour terminus at Docklands.

And run down Collins Street.

But after Spring Street they don’t turn towards Wellington Parade and Bridge Road – route 48d starts following route 109 along MacArthur Street and Victoria Parade.

Until it finally arrives at Kew Depot, where route 48 and 109 finally meet again.

So why do route 48d services mislead passengers by following Victoria Street? Yarra Trams says it is a normal practice:

Hi Marcus, thanks for contacting us. Route 48d tram travels from Stop D18 Victoria Harbour Docklands along Collins Street and continues down Victoria Street to Kew depot. We hope this info helps and apologise for any inconvenience.

— Yarra Trams (@yarratrams) December 18, 2019

But I would argue the route number is deceptive and should be changed – route 109d services also run down Collins Street, on a section of track not used by normal route 109 services.

So who cares if route 48d starts down at the Docklands end of route 48, where route 109 doesn’t run – it’s far more misleading to make people think you’re going to go through Hawthorn like a normal route 48 service, but end up in Abbotsford instead!

A history of depot tram route numbers

Once upon a time trams headed for the depot were even more confusing:

The don’t show up in timetables and cannot be seen on maps.

Like the supernatural creatures after which they are named, they can be tricky to find and, on paper at least, their existence is difficult to prove.

They are Melbourne’s ghost trams, secret services that slash waiting times for passengers in the know.

They ferry passengers to a depot or another point on the network where a tram is needed. It’s just that they are unscheduled.

Adding to the mystery – or confusion – is the fact that they have their own unique route number because they service only sections of a line.

Yarra Trams says different route numbers are allocated to avoid confusion. But PTUA president Daniel Bowen said the current system was even more baffling.

“It’s good that these services run,” he said.

“But using unknown route numbers that nobody has ever heard of is not good customer service.

“If the service is running most of the distance of the main route they should just use the main route number … it doesn’t make sense to have so many trams running that no one knows about.

“They are not on signs, not on the web and just appear on the streets. If people knew about them they would recognise them and use them.”

The ‘ghost’ trams could be found all over Melbourne.

But that was finally simplified in 2011 when the simpler ‘a’ and ‘d’ route number system was introduced.

New tram route numbers are being trialed for altered services and services returning to the depot, from Sunday, 28 August 2011.

Mysterious route numbers such as 81, 121, 77 and 92 are being phased out to encourage more passengers to catch them to their destination.

The so-called phantom routes do not appear on the network map or timetables. They are services that are necessary to get trams to and from depots or to reposition them on the network.

Rather than running these trams empty to their destination, they still pick up passengers providing extra trips above existing timetabled services.

The new route identification format for these services will feature their parent route number and the letter ‘a’ or ‘d’.

This format means passengers will know that the “phantom route” travels along a regular timetabled and mapped route but terminates short of the end of that route or detours for part of its journey.

The letter ‘d’ means the tram terminates at the ‘depot.’

The letter ‘a’ means the service is ‘altered’ and is not running the full length of the route.

If you see a letter after the route number, check the destination display to find out where the tram is going.

So why are trams down Collins Street towards Kew Depot assigned number 48d? Back in October 2011 I photographed one such service.

But headed along Bridge Road.

As detailed by Hugh Waldron in his history of Kew Depot:

Route numbers rationalised with the abolition of intermediate route numbers. To replace the depot and infrequently used route numbers a and d letters were introduced. This resulted in the following Kew Depot route numbers being abolished:-

• 28 City – Richmond replaced by 48a via Collins St. and 75a via Flinders St.
• 29 Victoria Harbour or City to Kew Depot via Bridge Road replaced by 48d.
• 41 Victoria Harbour – Harp Road Kew replaced by 48a
• 42 Box Hill – Victoria Harbour replaced by 109a
• 47 Kew Depot via Victoria Street replaced by 109d or 31d

So maybe route 48d trams where at some point changed to run via Victoria Street, but no one thought that necessitated changing the route number route 109d?

Footnote

In 2009 Hugh Waldron compiled a full history of Melbourne tram route mumbers.

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In Melbourne you only need to look down Bourke Street of a morning towards Parliament House, and there is the sun.

And in the afternoon, look down La Trobe Street towards the West Gate Bridge, and there it is again.

However the other morning something really threw me off at the corner of William and Collins Street – the sun shining down on me from the south.

The cause of the unexpected sunbeam – light reflecting off the new Prima Pearl apartment tower at the corner of Queensbridge and Power Streets in Southbank, located directly south from me on the other side of the Yarra River.

Footnote

The long axis of the Melbourne CBD grid is orientated 70 degrees clockwise from true north, allowing the streets to be roughly aligned to the Yarra River. Most of the other major roads in Melbourne are orientated 8 degrees clockwise from true north.

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The second is realigning them so that the advertising panels are more visible to passing traffic. Before – a pair of payphones located at a 90 degrees angle to Collins Street (near Queen Street):

After – facing the same way as oncoming traffic.

For the past decade Telstra have had to deal with a massive decline in payphone usage around Australia, and have now turned to outdoor advertising to make up the shortfall, as this 2007 article from The Age writes:

Adverts to save phone booths
March 22, 2007

Superman’s preferred changeroom, the humble payphone booth, is becoming increasingly scarce, with many being removed due to low use or vandalism. But Telstra says it may have come up with an innovative way of saving them.

The telco has announced 2,000 specially designed payphone cabinets would be available Australia-wide to carry advertising, in a bid to boost revenue. Telstra consumer channels and marketing payphones director Sean Pyper said payphone use was declining due to the increased use of mobile phones.

Mr Pyper said trials had resulted in advertiser recall rates greater than 80 per cent, which was “quite outstanding”. He said growth in outdoor furniture advertising was about 10 per cent a year.

Telstra’s new payphones, to be managed by AdBooth Pty Ltd, will feature full-length enclosed panels on the rear of the cabinets.

Mr Pyper said they would be in high-traffic, high-profile locations across the capital cities and several regional centres, including Wollongong, Newcastle, the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast.

I wonder what other ways Telstra will come up with to fit more advertising in the streets?

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One of around 1,200 panels that clad the building, thankfully no one was injured when it fell to earth around 11am, with the plaza being relatively empty at this time of the morning. This photo below (by Andy Park of The Age) shows the resulting rubble that covered a large area of the plaza, the panel having been propelled away from the wall on impact with the balustrade on the level below.

Photo by Andy Park of The Age, January 31 2012

In the aftermath of the fall the City of Melbourne issued an Emergency Order requiring the surrounding pedestrian areas to be cordoned off.

Within a few days temporary fencing had been erected along the footpaths surrounding the entire building – occupying the city block bounded by Collins Street, William Street, Flinders Lane, and Market Street.

With the main entrance on Collins Street closed, all tenants of 447 Collins Street have had to access the building via the Market Street carpark driveway.

The Emergency Order also required a structural engineer to inspect the building to determine what remedial works may be needed. From February 1st abseilers were inspecting the side of the building, checking up on each of the facade panels to see if any more were loose.

Along the Flinders Lane frontage much more intensive work has been undertaken, with all of the exterior windows being covered with plywood sheets.

With the windows here being flush with the marble panels, the workers have been gaining access to the facade with scissor lifts, bolting ‘top hat’ steel channel running between the vertical window mullions, which provides a base for the plywood.

I’m not sure what purpose the plywood is intending to achieve, but a number of marble panels on the Flinders Lane frontage have been removed. Perhaps they don’t want the abseilers bashing their feet on the windows all day?

By February 10 some remedial work has also commenced on the upper levels of the building, with scaffolding being bolted over a selection of facade panels, presumably to hold them in place after the inspection works found they were loose.

Access to the panels on the upper levels is achieved in two ways: workers walking along the exterior balconies, and abseilers handing down from the roof.

Two weeks after the panel fell, I am now wondering how long the rectification works will take, and whether more permanent gantries will be erected over the surrounding footpaths to restore a bit of normality to the area.

Further reading

• Tenants yet to get compensation guidance after emergency closure of Collins Street office building, an article from ‘Property Observer’ by Alistair Walsh.

June 2012 update!

The 22 June 2012 edition of The Age had an article titled ‘Sky-high cost for falling marble facade. It now appears that the rectification works have been completed, with about 40 per cent of the facade now clamped to the building to avoid further marble panels falling. In addition tenants have been slowly moving out of the building, with the last to leave by mid-2013, allowing the owner ‘Industry Super Property Trust’ to carry out permanent repair works without disruption.

May 2013 update!

It appears that the permanent repair works are the installation of steel mesh sheets to each of the marble panels, in order to contain any future loose debris. Work has started on the north-west corner of the building.

February 2014 update!

Two years on, and it looks like demolition awaits the building:

The owners of the former Suncorp office building on Collins Street have applied for a permit to destroy the 27-storey tower, which has sat empty since 2012 when slab of the building smashed to the ground of the forecourt.

A council report to be tabled next week has called for the permit to be approved, despite the fact they have previously recommended the site for heritage protection. That advice was rejected by Planning Minister Matthew Guy last year, subject to further review.

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It’s the intro to a Channel 9 newsbreak, with the sponsor being National Mutual. The full name of the company was “The National Mutual Life Association of Australasia” and as a mutual insurance company, they had no shareholders, being entirely owned entirely by their policyholders.

The company was formed in 1869 by actuary John Montgomery Templeton, and was continually headquartered in Melbourne, with their final head office being National Mutual Plaza at 447 Collins Street. Construction commenced in 1960 on the 24 story tower, built in International style with an open plaza to Collins Street, a 3-story podium to Flinders Lane, and wrap-around balconies and marble clad finishes to the exterior walls.

As well as their office building dating, by the 1990s the concept of policyholders owning a company was also becoming old hat in the eyes of some. Many financial wizards pushed mutual insurers to “demutualise” – offering policyholders cash or shares in the company, allowing it to be listed on the share market. The list of Australian companies that have demutualised is long, and contains many familiar names:

1. AMP Limited
2. Colonial Mutual
3. NRMA Insurance
4. St.George Bank

National Mutual was demutualised in 1996, with French firm AXA purchasing 51 percent of the shares, and renaming the company to AXA Asia Pacific in 1999. The new company remained in their Collins Street building until 2009 when they moved into a new building at Docklands. Today National Mutual Plaza is occupied by another insurance company: Suncorp.

You can find a longer history of the company in this article on “The AXA Collection” held by the University of Melbolurne.

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