Regional Rail Link

Work on Regional Rail Link was well underway, with the new flyover outside Fotscray taking shape to carry the new tracks over the Werribee line.

And the cutting closer to Footscray was being widened for the extra tracks.

The new suburban platforms were also taking shape at Footscray station.

And the existing footbridge was being extended north over the future tracks.

The bridge over the low level goods lines was also being widened.

With the rail alignment outside Sunshine also ready for the extra tracks.

While at the stalled Caroline Springs station site, work had restarted – but it was only a road deviation due to RRL related road closures.

The final stage of Regional Rail Link opened in June 2016, but Caroline Springs station had to wait – it finally opened to passengers in January 2017.

And off to Ballarat

I went on a trip to Ballarat onboard a 80 year old diesel railcar.

Along the way we had to give way to some far more modern trains.

Before our arrival into Ballarat.

But there is one thing that hasn’t changed in 80 years – the diesel exhaust belching into the air at Southern Cross Station.

Protective Services Officers

Melbourne’s first group of Protective Services Officers were deployed in February 2012 to Flinders Street and Southern Cross stations, with the roll out ramping up soon after.

The limiting factor on their deployment – providing a prison cell at every railway station.

Ding ding!

A decade ago there were no accessible tram stops or low floor trams running along Elizabeth Street in the Melbourne CBD.

But there was some progress being made – the tram tracks along Elizabeth Street were being relaid.

And Yarra Trams was using their new ‘kletterweichen’ (‘climbing turnout’) to allow trams to terminate short of the works, rather than forcing passengers to walk from the nearest permanent crossover.

However the new crossover still had some teething issues, as the first tram to pass over it derailed!

Yarra Trams having to send their heavy recovery vehicle to the site, to pull the tram back onto the rails.

Meanwhile over on Swanston Street, dimwitted motorists were getting confused by the new platform stops – driving through the bike lanes.

While out at Ascot Vale motorists were inflicting more damage, this driver having impaled their ute on five metres of safety zone fence.

So what was the solution that Yarra Trams has been applying across the network?

Closing tram stops.

“A recent review by Yarra Trams and Public Transport Victoria of the environment and layout at these stops has identified an increased safety risk to passengers and pedestrians. A number of improvement strategies have been trialled with minimal success”

And on the tram stops that remain – hiding network maps behind advertising slogans.

Buses

A decade ago City Sightseeing Melbourne was running a hop-on hop-off bus services around Melbourne using a fleet of open top double deck buses.

The service was a victim of the Covid-19 pandemic, and is yet to restart operations

Another competing tourist service was the Melbourne Free Visitor Shuttle.

It was discontinued in 2017 after years of declining patronage.

Meanwhile out in Footscray, I found a colourful arrangement of Westrans, Sita and Melbourne Bus Link buses running route services.

Today they’re operated by CDC Melbourne, Transit Systems Victoria and Kinetic Melbourne, and the orange PTV livery has replaced that of the private operators.

Myki

Myki had taken over as the only ticketing system in Melbourne, with Metcard ticket machines pulled out of trams, and replaced by an extra seat.

But the reliability of the new system was somewhat lacking – I found this stack trace for ‘log4net‘ displayed on this Myki reader.

And the rest

Remember Melbourne Bike Share?

It ceased operations in November 2019.

Meanwhile over at 447 Collins Street, work was underway to reinforce the failing facade.

The marble facade panels being removed from the lower floors to avoid any further pieces falling to earth.

But it was only a temporary fix – the entire tower was demolished in 2015, with the ‘pantscraper’ known as ‘Collins Arch‘ completed on the site in 2020.

Footnote

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

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The backstory

The shutdown was announced at a Victoria Police press conference on Wednesday 15 September.

Public transport in Melbourne will be suspended for six hours on Saturday as part of a large-scale police operation to stop a planned protest against the ongoing Covid lockdown in the city.

The Victoria Police commissioner, Shane Patton, said on Wednesday that public transport – including buses, trams and trains – would be suspended going into the Melbourne CBD between 8am and 2pm on Saturday in an effort to prevent “freedom” protesters gathering in the city after thousands gathered in late August.

“We have no problem with facilitating protest when there’s a place in time for that to occur. This weekend is not the place and time for that to occur,” Patton said.

“It’s really interesting that this whole cohort of people who are about freedom don’t seem to respect the freedoms of others and anyone coming in here places those freedoms at risk.”

Two thousand police officers will be on hand as part of the operation to stop the protest and bollards will be erected with traffic management points and roving patrols. Only essential workers with valid permits will be allowed into the city centre.

Public Transport Victoria began publicising the disruption that evening.

Public transport will not run through the CBD on Saturday 18 September at the direction of @VictoriaPolice.

This will impact all metropolitan and regional train services, trams and buses from 8am.

For more information, visit https://t.co/DkIl2uYJy5 pic.twitter.com/kRVHM80bLS

— PTV (@ptv_official) September 15, 2021

“Trains terminate at suburban stations” was the initial message from Metro Trains.

Metro train services will not run through the CBD on Saturday 18 September 2021 between 8am and 2pm.

City-bound train services will terminate at suburban stations.

For more details: https://t.co/QIXfjoLnf8 pic.twitter.com/9GEoYeNAIC

— Metro Trains (@metrotrains) September 16, 2021

And “no trams in the city” the message from Yarra Trams.

No trams are running in the city on Saturday from 8am – 2pm, by police request. Trains and buses are also affected. Details: https://t.co/OOUQ7TOVba pic.twitter.com/iQfX9r1HHU

— Yarra Trams (@yarratrams) September 17, 2021

But by Friday 17 the extent of the shutdown of public transport was made clear, when Public Transport Victoria published maps of the services that would be running.

At the request of Victoria Police, public transport will not run through the CBD on Saturday 18 September 2021.

This will impact all metropolitan and regional train services, trams and buses from 8am to 2pm with services expected to take some time to resume to regular timetable.

Major road closures on thoroughfares into the CBD will also be in place. Significant delays are expected on roads leading to the CBD. CBD access will only be granted at roadblocks to those travelling for essential work, healthcare or to attend a vaccination appointment.

Metropolitan train services will terminate at suburban stations, where can effectively turn around and continue to provide services away from the city.

Tram routes and bus routes that normally travel into or through the CBD will now terminate at stops, some distance outside the CBD boundary and turn around. Some tram and and bus routes will not run at all, while others will run to a reduced timetable.

No trains within 10 kilometres or so of the Melbourne CBD.

Trams terminating at the fringe of the inner city.

As were Transdev buses.

Due to a @VictoriaPolice request, routes 200, 207, 216, 220, 234, 235, 236, 250, 251, 302, 304, 905, 906 & 907 will not run through the CBD on Saturday 18 September from 8am to 2pm. See website for details: https://t.co/hzm77gJOU2 pic.twitter.com/KYu4OirvZ8

— Transdev Melbourne (@Transdev_Melb) September 17, 2021

And alternative transport for the vast swathes of Melbourne beyond the CBD, left without public transport – nothing.

The Public Transport Users Association said the Victorian government needed to do more to minimise any disruption to workers relying on public transport.

Spokesperson Daniel Bowen said the impact on commuters would be severe.

“It’s unprecedented to shut down the entire inner part of the public transport network, not just in the CBD, but also the inner suburbs,” Mr Bowen said.

“The shuttle buses they’re putting on won’t stop at intermediate points along the route to the city, so there’s going to be lots of areas in inner suburban Melbourne and around the CBD that will just have no transport options.”

The only public transport operating to the CBD was a half-hourly shuttle bus service, running express from the suburbs to a CBD drop-off point.

Those people undertaking authorised travel with permits are urged to allow plenty of extra time for their journeys. They must carry identification and proof of their reason for travel, such as an authorised worker permit, or vaccination booking confirmation.

As a last resort for authorised travellers, two shuttle buses per hour will run from the nine suburban railway station termination points (see list below) to key drop-off points in and around the CBD. Passengers will be required to complete their journey by walking to their location from the CBD drop off points.

Victoria Police officers and PSOs will be checking proof of reasons for travel prior to allowing people to board shuttle buses.

On the day

On the morning of Saturday 18 September I went for a walk down to Sunshine station, to see how things were going. On the station concourse there was no signage informing passengers of the service disruption – just two blank lines on the next train display, where citybound services would normally be listed.

A Watergardens-bound train departed the ‘wrong’ way out of platform 1, proceeding through a crossover to get back onto the left hand track.

A pair of Protective Services Officers were twiddling their thumbs down on the station platform for the next train to terminate.

Down in the station car park was a Victoria Police car.

And at the rail replacement bus stop were another six Protective Services Officers, checking the credentials of passengers intending to board the shuttle bus to the CBD.

Eventually a bus turned up.

With ‘Authorised Worker Shuttle’ and ‘Express between Flagstaff and Sunshine’ signs on the front windscreen.

A few minutes later it departed for the city, with about a dozen passengers onboard.

The shuttle buses continuing to run until 2pm, when normal services started running to the CBD again.

Public transport services have resumed running through the CBD after an earlier @VictoriaPolice request.

Services are expected to take some time to resume to regular timetable. Thank you for your patience. For more information visit https://t.co/elfmyj8EIP pic.twitter.com/QG4qYuta4f

— PTV (@ptv_official) September 18, 2021

So did it work?

It appears the shutdown of public transport didn’t make any difference to the protest – they moved their rally to outside of the CBD!

Anti-lockdown demonstrators met in Richmond at around 12:00pm on Saturday, ignoring authorities’ pleas for them to stay home.

Police surrounded the protesters on Bridge Road, where multiple people were arrested.

The several-hundred-strong crowd then moved down Burnley Street, with police appearing to use capsicum spray on some members.

Authorities said 235 people were arrested in the protests, 193 for breaching CHO directions and several others for a range of offences including assault police, riotous behaviour, weapon and drug offences.

Footnote: how were the termination points chosen?

Trams and trains aren’t like a car – you can’t just pull up anywhere, do a u-turn, and head back the way you came – you need to change tracks.

In the case of trams, there are crossovers all over Melbourne, giving trams the flexibility to terminate and return at places that aren’t the usual end of the line.

But for trains it is trickier – as well as crossovers, trains also require a signalling configuration that permits a train to proceed along the ‘wrong’ track towards the crossover, and a safe location for the train driver to change ends from the front to rear cab.

This is why the Glen Waverley line had to terminate at Darling instead of Burnley, Craigieburn trains could not terminate at Kensington, Sunbury trains could not terminate at West Footscray, and Werribee trains could not terminate at Footscray.

Sources

Public Transport Victoria disruption notification:

• No public transport into the CBD between 8am and 2pm on Saturday 18 September
• Metropolitan and regional train service termination map
• Tram service termination map

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‘See you at 6pm’ and ‘Safety you can see’ are the taglines of the campaign, with advertising space purchased on the JCDecaux digital screens found at railway stations.

In JCDecaux poster cases.

And the side of trains.

Stickers have been added as you walk into railway stations.

The poster cases usually used to host PTV promotions have been taken over.

And the previously anonymous PSO pods now feature a marketing spiel.

But Footscray station is ground zero for the campaign.

Stickers cover the stairs leading up to the footbridge.

‘Safety you can see’ billboards beside walkways.

The ‘See you at 6pm’ message looming over the main walkway.

‘Safety you can see’ stickers in front of the ticket gates.

And yellow and blue police tape applied to CCTV cameras.

Not just one, but all over the station.

Along with more police tape down the station walls.

And a big ‘CCTV cameras operate 24 hours a day’ sticker on the concourse floor.

It’s going to be a long election campaign.

Footnote

September 2 saw the announcement that PSOs would now start patrolling trains, expanding their area of operation from their previous posting at railway stations. Coincidence, or something more?

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The miniature police stations in question are the blue and white “PSO pods” that have appeared at railway stations across Melbourne. Used by Protective Services Officers once they start duty at 6 PM every night, the buildings house a desk, kitchenette, and holding cell.

At St Albans station the PSO pod was located in the middle of platforms 2 and 3.

But with the rebuilding of the station as part of the Main Road level crossing removal project, the PSO pod had to be moved. First the services were disconnected.

Then the foundations were dug out.

A massive crane was brought in.

And the building was deposited on the opposite side of the tracks.

Leaving a hole where it used to sit.

Similar works were required at Gardiner station as part of the grade separation of the Burke Road level crossing. The PSO pod was originally located on platform 2.

But to make room for the new station, the pod was moved across the tracks to platform 1.

Are they prefabricated?

The fact that PSO pods can be picked up in one piece and relocated is interesting, given they are not prefabricated – each pod is built on site.

Lifting big things around active railway tracks is an expensive and disruptive operation – for this reason I’m willing to assume that building each PSO pod in situ is cheaper than shutting down a railway line to lift a prefabricated building into place.

Footnote

Looks like not all PSO pods are being moved when level crossing works come their way – at McKinnon they just put an excavator through the building and turned it into a pile of twisted scrap metal.

PSO pod at McKinnon – going, going, gone. https://t.co/NA4okwyjEw pic.twitter.com/lDRssmCX8m

— Marcus Wong (@aussiewongm) April 1, 2016

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The other week on Reddit a poster had this to say about their run-in with a PSO at their local station:

My finance was leaving Ashburton Railway Station yesterday evening and saw a PSO walking around the parking area’s noting down registration numbers of all of the cars parked there for the day. She was a little off-put by this so approached the officer and asked if she had anything to be concerned about.

The PSO replied that they take down all of the registration numbers and then go inside and run them through their computer. Any car that comes up with suspended registration/license will have a patrol car waiting for them to drive off when they get in their car.

Relying on random internet scuttlebutt is a good way to make yourself look stupid, so I went kept an eye out next time I caught a train after 6 PM.

You’d think Sunshine is a place where Protective Services Officers should be keeping an eye out for delinquents, yet both the station platform and concourse were empty.

But when I looked out over the car park, I saw the two PSOs wandering past the rows of cars, scribbling down something in their notebook.

I paid a visit to Footscray station at the tail end of evening peak, and saw the same thing taking place.

When then Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu made the promise to introduce Protective Services Officers, he had the following to say:

”We’ll turn stations from places of fear into places of safety,” Mr Baillieu said.

”We want anyone – a young girl, an elderly woman – travelling home on the train at night to do so with confidence and not with fear.”

In reality Baillieu’s promise was targeted at namby-pamby Liberal voters who are afraid of youths and anyone who isn’t white, but it does raise the question – how the hell is hunting down deadbeats with unpaid fines making the rail network safer for passengers?

On a serious note

So far I’ve only spotted PSOs jotting down the details of parked cars at the start of their shifts – possibly it is their first task of the night after clocking on, before heading to the station proper when darkness falls.

As for the dragnet being thrown over railway stations, in April 2013 The Age ran a piece on PSOs ‘asking too many questions’ – over the course of a year they took down the names and date of birth of 29,000 people, resulting in the arrest of over 500 people for outstanding warrants.

In the end, we are on a slippery slope towards a police state – someone with unpaid fines might be the same kind of person responsible for actual criminal activity, but in order to take them off the streets, is it worth losing our freedom to use the rail network without being needlessly questioned by the authorities?

Footnote

I’ve pushed this post out earlier than planned, after The Age published a piece on the topic on February 17, in which they speak to spokespeople from Victoria Police and Liberty Victoria:

“As part of their daily duties, ​Protectives Services Officers regularly check car parks,” police spokesman Inspector Darren Cooper said.

“PSOs will be checking for stolen vehicles, outstanding warrants, outstanding whereabouts, unlicensed and unregistered drivers,” he said.

“The car park is part of a normal, designated patrol area for PSOs, and by doing these checks, it allows them to further ensure safe travel for those using the public transport system, as well as aiding in Victoria Police’s commitment to road safety.”

Liberty Victoria spokesman George Georgiou said the policy represented a significant overreach of police powers, and was an unnecessary intrusion into the privacy of Melbourne’s commuters.

“Whilst we understand that there is be a need for police to deal with persons avoiding their responsibilities to pay fines, register their cars and the like, we see this move to use PSOs in the manner described in the article as overstepping the legitimate functions of PSOs and unnecessarily encroaching upon the right to privacy and freedom of movement of all Victorian commuters,” he said.

My concerns exactly.

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A look inside

This presentation from the ‘Department of Transport Planning and Local Infrastructure’ (DTPLI) given an inventory of what is inside the average Protective Services Officer office.

First off they have a desk and a phone for completing paperwork.

And a kitchenette.

So PSOs posted to the middle of nowhere can have a warm cup of tea on a cold Melbourne night?

Then to the side, an internal door leading to what is officially known as the ‘handover room’.

In reality the ‘handover room’ is a holding cell where Protective Services Officers lock up the people they arrest, until a sworn Victoria Police officer is able to attend. They are easy to spot from the outside – the same style of ‘NO ENTRY’ sign appears on each one.

Now I’ve just got to travel around Melbourne and collect them all!

They can try and hide them by painting them different colours.

By cladding them in weatherboards and adding a gabled roof to the top, when a railway station is heritage listed.

Retrofitting them into existing heritage structures.

Or inside 1980s brown brick abominations.

But if you know what to look for, they stand out like dogs balls.

Construction cost

Originally $17 million was allocated in May 2012 to fund the construction of facilities for Protective Services Officers at 66 railway stations around the network, at an average of $268,000 per station.

The 2013 budget allocated an extra $67 million in funding to build another 149 structures, with the average cost rising to $455,000 per station.

$2.5 million has also been allocated each year in cleaning expenses – around $12,000 per pod per year, and the toilets aren’t even open for the public!

And graffiti removal

Turns out putting a symbol of ‘The Man’ at every railway station attracts vandals – according to The Age around 20 of them are graffitied every month.

On the nickname

I’m a fan of the ‘Baillieu Box’ nickname – it commemorates Ted Baillieu, the former Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu who decided that putting two ‘almost’ police officers on every railway station after 6 PM would win votes for the Liberal Party.

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With 207 stations to be guarded between 6pm and last train each night, a total of 940 officers have to be recruited and trained to meet the target date of November 2014 – so how is the program actually tracking?

Background

The idea of Protective Services Officers at railway stations was first proposed by then-opposition leader Ted Baillieu in November 2009, as part of a pledge made in the leadup to the 2010 Victorian State Election.

Originally costed at $200 million over four years, by 2011 the cost of the program had increased to $212 million, as well as an additional $85 million to provide upgraded facilities at each railway station to house the deployed PSOs – $18 million in the 2012/13 State Budget, and $67.8 million for 149 station refits in the 2013/14 State Budget.

Another money pit for the program is advertising – in January 2013 a three month long marketing campaign costing $2.7 million was launched to help recruit additional PSOs, which followed $2.67 million spent on advertising in 2012, as well as $1 million in fees paid to recruiters.

The advertising

So what did over $5 million worth of marketing get us?

Television commercials that make catching a train look more dangerous than it actually is:

Advertisements in the newspaper:

Billboards beside freeways:

Posters onboard trains:

And trams:

And even recruitment booths outside railway stations during the evening peak:

How is the rollout tracking?

Melbourne’s first group of Protective Services Officers were deployed on February 22, 2012 to Flinders Street and Southern Cross stations, with other stations on the network following.

I’ve been tracking the rollout across Melbourne with a spreadsheet – the government usually issues a media release each time PSOs are deployed to a new station, mentioning the current number of officers across the network, as well as the number of stations covered.

The result is this graph showing the number of Melbourne suburban railway stations that have PSOs deployed to them. Note the 207 stations to be covered by the target date of November 2014:

A second graph shows the current number of PSOs deployed across the network – again note the target of 940 officers and the upcoming November 2014 deadline.

Looks like Denis Napthine’s Liberal Government are going to have throw some big money at the program if they want to meet their November 2014 targets!

Raw data

Here is the raw data in Google Spreadsheet format – inside you will find the date that PSOs were deployed to each station, the number of active PSOs across the network on that date, and the original source of the data.

More sources

• Baillieu pledges police at every station: November 9, 2009
• Just a shot in the dark, but train travel can’t be that dangerous: September 27, 2011
• More than $85 million to be spent for toilets and workspaces for protective services officers: May 12, 2013
• $2.7m pledge to recruit more PSOs: January 20, 2013
• $2.7m police ad blitz to recruit protective services officers: January 09, 2013

February 2016 update

On 24 February 2016 the Victorian Auditor-General’s released their report Public Safety on Victoria’s Train System – with Appendix A featuring a list of PSO deployment dates – the first 177 stations up until June 2015.

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