PROV image via West Gate Tunnel Project

Approaching the Lower Yarra Freeway

We start on the Prices Highway way back in 1969, one mile away from the junction with what was then called the ‘Lower Yarra Freeway’.

VicRoads photo, via West Gate Tunnel Project

And the view today – the ‘Lower Yarra Freeway’ is now called the West Gate Freeway, the Princes Highway via Footscray is now the secondary route, the two lanes have doubled to four, and the Western Ring Road has been added to the junction.

And the changes can also be seen at the freeway junction itself.

VicRoads photo, via West Gate Tunnel Project

Dohertys Road over the freeway having been duplicated in 2021, with more lanes underneath to come as part of the West Gate Tunnel Project.

Google Street View

On to Williamstown Road

We now move onto this 1970 view from the West Gate Freeway at Williamstown Road – an ‘End Freeway’ sign attached to the footbridge – the West Gate Bridge having collapsed during construction on 15 October 1970, with the death of 35 workers.

VicRoads photo, via West Gate Tunnel Project

And the view today with a completed bridge, and changes thanks to the West Gate Tunnel Project – tall concrete noise walls, the Woduyullul Parring footbridge completed in 2020 to replace the previous open air footbridge; and small footprint steel monopole towers that replaced the traditional lattice towers supporting the 220 kV transmission lines.

Google Street View

Onto the bridge

No traffic in this view of the West Gate Bridge before it was officially opened.

VicRoads photo, via West Gate Tunnel Project

But the main difference today – the suicide barriers hurried erected in 2010 after years of the government refusing to do so.

Google Street View

Check out the view!

And here is the view from the top, looking over to the Melbourne CBD.

VicRoads photo, via West Gate Tunnel Project

With 40 years of development filling out the skyline.

Google Street View

And down below

Headed through Port Melbourne

We start off at Graham Street interchange in Port Melbourne, with this 1983 view looking west towards the West Gate Bridge.

VicRoads photo, via West Gate Tunnel Project

And the view today – the trees are taller and the ‘UFO’ lights are gone, and more importantly, Graham Street doesn’t traverse the bridge anymore. Instead the bridge forms the connection between the Bolte Bridge and the West Gate Freeway, with the Graham Street severed in 1997 so that construction of the CityLink project could proceed.

Google Street View

And over South Melbourne

Now we are in 1987, and it is opening day of the first stage of the elevated West Gate Freeway extension through South Melbourne to St Kilda Road.

VicRoads photo, via West Gate Tunnel Project

While the view today shows the connection through to CityLink completed in 2000, and additional lanes added in 2011 as part of the Monash–CityLink–West Gate Upgrade project.

Google Street View

Footnote: a bonus bridge

And here’s a 1971 photo of workers having a smoko beneath the Grieve Parade overpass.

VicRoads photo, via West Gate Tunnel Project

In 1991 the original bridge was widened as part of the duplication of Grieve Parade – the original two lane span being joined by another four lane bridge to the west side.

Google Street View

But the heavier trucks of today were too much for the original bridge to handle, and so in January 2021 the spans were demolished as part of the West Gate Tunnel project.

Google Street View

The eastern half rebuilt with stronger concrete super-T beams, and the earthen embankments cut back to fit more traffic lanes beneath.

Google Street View

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Moonee Ponds station opened in 1860 as part of railway line to Essendon built by the private Melbourne and Essendon Railway Company, but closed due to financial issues in 1864, reopening in 1871 under government ownership. The brick station building on platform 1 was completed in 1882.

PROV image VPRS 12800/P0001 H 4957

The next change came in 1919, when electric trains took over from steam, following the commissioning of the 1500 V DC overhead wiring.

PROV image VPRS 12800/P0003, ADV 0717

And in the years since?

Very little has changed:

• A timber shelter on the outbound platform has been replaced by utilitarian brick structure.
• Wall of billboards have given way to a multitude of smaller signs along the station fence.
• Plastic wheelie bins instead of metal rubbish bins.
• Platform edge was once bare, it now has a yellow line, and tactile guide markings are in the process of being added.
• People on the platform are nowhere near as well dressed.

And a bonus photo

Here we see a restored example of Melbourne’s 1st generation electric trains passing through Moonee Ponds in 2022.

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PROV image VPRS 12800/P0003, ADV 0478

We start off in the 1960s, when hand operated gates were still in place to separate motorists and trains.

PROV image VPRS 12800/P0001 H 2980

They remained in place until 1962, when they were replaced by boom barriers – activated automatically for citybound trains, and manually by the signal box for trains headed towards Upfield.

Google Street View 2014

In December 2014 the Victorian Government announced they would remove 50 level crossings around Melbourne, including the one on Bell Street in Coburg. By October 2018 elevating the railway line was the preferred solution, with contracts signed in October 2019, with early works starting in February 2020.

A three month shutdown of the Upfield line commenced in July 2020, to allow the construction of a 2.5 kilometre rail bridge, consisting of 268 L-beams, 53 crossheads and 49 precast piers, assembled by two 90-tonne gantry cranes. The boom gates were the first to go.

LXRA photo

With a full road closure in August allowing the bridge beams to be lifted into place over Bell Street.

LXRA photo

Trains returned to the Upfield line in November, with the new elevated Coburg station opening to passengers in December 2020.

Google Street View 2020

With the finishing touches – landscaping works – completed by August 2021.

A reverse view

Here is the opposite view of the 1962 scene, looking westbound along Bell Street in Coburg – PROV image VPRS 12800/P0001 H 2979.

And a platform related footnote

For many years Coburg was an oddity on the Melbourne suburban network – a single platform station located in the middle of a double track railway.

Weston Langford photo, 1989

Coburg station opened as the terminus of a single track railway from North Melbourne in 1884, the line being extended north to Somerton in 1889, and duplicated from the city in 1891.

It took until 1959 for the line north of Coburg to be duplicated, but only as far as Fawkner, and Coburg didn’t receive a second platform to serve it. Instead northbound trains would change onto the citybound track to use the platform on the east side, then cross back again before Batman station.

Victoria Railways signal diagram, 1972

A situation not rectified until 1995, when a second platform was built on the side of the disused goods yard.

Further reading

• Bell Street, Coburg – Level Crossing Removal Project
• Coburg Station – VicSig
• Upfield line signalling history – Andrew Waugh

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Step inside

We start at the main entrance to the station, where a steep ramp once directed passengers down to the intersection of Irving and Leeds Street.

PROV image VPRS 12800/P3, item ADV 0597

In the years that followed shops were built either side of the station entrance, but the decrepit bridge still remained – the only changes being asphalt over the deck, and cyclone fences replacing timber.

But big changes were coming – work on a new $28 million footbridge and forecourt stated in 2009. Early works saw the shops to the eastern side of the station demolished.

Making way for the “Colander Bridge” – unlike the old bridge, it had lift access and a roof, but poor design meant that it let in rain every time it rained!

But the flawed bridge had another problem – it was in the way of the new Regional Rail Link tracks that were about to be built through Footscray, so the northern end had to be demolished – a temporary staircase being provided when work started in 2013.

Eventually leading to the stairs, escalators, ramps and lifts found at the current iteration of the station, completed in 2014.

Heading down to the platform

Now we’re atop the footbridge, looking down on what was then called platform 3, as passengers from a St Albans train head up the ramp.

By 2009 the decrepit looking footbridge was still there but the timber handrails had been replaced by cyclone fencing, and now led to platform 2 – in 1974 platforms 1, 2, 3, and 4 were renumbered as 4, 3, 2, and 1.

The Colander Bridge replaced the ramp with a set of covered stairs.

But they didn’t even last three years – the Regional Rail Link project turned them into rubble, replacing them with a brand new set of stairs at the same location, just a smidge wider and with a new hat.

Down on the platform

We’re back at ground level on the central island platform, which was then numbered 2 and 3.

PROV image VPRS 12800/P1, item H 2253

Completion of the Colander Bridge in 2010 changed the scene, the tubular footbridge much larger than the rickety timber structure that came before.

And Regional Rail Link changed it further, adding ramps and escalators between bridge and platform.

And finally – under the bridge

The footbridge looked even more rickety when viewed from down below on what is today’s platform 4.

PROV image VPRS 12800/P0007, item C 0424

So the completion of the Colander Bridge in 2010 was welcomed, despite the leaks.

But the biggest changes came with Regional Rail Link in 2014, which rebuilt the existing track pair.

And constructed a second pair of tracks between Footscray and Sunshine, separating suburban and V/Line trains.

Footnote – those stupidly placed escalators

You might be looking at the escalators that serve Footscray platform 4 and 5, and think “why the hell is the path to them so convoluted?”

Pissy poor planning is to blame – the designers of the original Colander Bridge didn’t plan for escalators to be included, so when the Regional Rail Link project went to retrofit them, there wasn’t enough room between station building and bridge to fit them.

As a result they had to the moved to the opposite side of the footbridge, with users having to make a 180 degree turn upon reaching the top, and then walk back to the bridge proper. As a result, the stairs are more popular than the escalators, as they are the most direct route.

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In the early years the level crossing was protected by a set of hand gates, opened and closed by a staff member for every passing train, and spending their downtime in the small cabin beside the tracks.

Mark Strizic photo, SLV H2008.11/960

In 1956 they were replaced by Victoria’s first set of boom barriers, operated automatically by the passage of trains.

PROV photo VPRS 12800/P5 unit 27, item S0299

In 1970 the South Eastern Freeway was extended east to Toorak Road in Kooyong, where it ended at a set of traffic lights. The “missing link” between the South Eastern Freeway and the Mulgrave Freeway was eventually opened as the “South Eastern Arterial Road Link” in 1988, but in a nod to freeway objectors, was built with traffic lights at intersections instead of flyovers.

The traffic lights with the Southern Eastern Freeway at Toorak Road was replaced by a full interchange in 1996, with further freeway upgrades completed in 2000 when the CityLink project widened the road to three lanes in each direction between Toorak Road and the city, and in 2010 widened again to four lanes in each direction.

As for the level crossing, it took until February 2019 for the grade separation of Toorak Road to be announced as part of the Level Crossing Removal Project. Contracts were awarded in June 2019.

Major works started in September 2019, with a new rail over road bridge built on the west side of the existing tracks at ground level.

With trains using the new bridge from April 2020, following a nine day shutdown.

Completed bridge over Toorak Road

Footnote: hand gates elsewhere

Hand gates at Melbourne level crossings survived a surprisingly long time – the Upfield line was full of them until an upgrade of the line in 1997.

This left the heritage listed gates at New Street on the Sandringham line in Brighton hung on even longer.

They were “temporarily” closed in 2007, closed for good in 2010, until eventually replaced by boom barriers in 2013.

Other level crossing protection

The first automated level crossing warning system on Victoria’s railways was a ‘wig wag’ signal installed at Amess Street, North Carlton in 1923, with further 31 subsequently installed around the state.

They were followed by the first set of flashing light signals installed at the Warrigal Road level crossing in Mentone in 1932.

And those big tanks

Those big round tanks behind the level crossing – they’re called gasometers and were once used to store gas, until they were made made redundant by the rollout of natural gas – but that’s a story for another time.

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At the station

We start in 1960, with Weston Langford standing on platform 2 and 3. Cars still had to use a level crossing, but a timber footbridge allowed pedestrians to avoid waiting for passing trains.

Weston Langford photo

The Hampshire Road overpass was completed in 1961, but the scene at Sunshine staying much the same for decades – this was the scene in 2012 when my heritage train passed through on the way around the suburbs.

But the Regional Rail Link project changed it up again, replacing the pedestrian underpass with a massive new overhead concourse, and adding an additional platform for the use of V/Line trains.

And the HV McKay Footbridge

In this 1977 Weston Langford photo the view south from the footbridge was sparse – railway sidings for the Sunshine Harvester Works dominating the foreground.

Weston Langford photo

But following the closure of the factory in the 1990s central Sunshine was redeveloped, and in my 2010 view gum trees had taken over the George Cross reserve on the other side of the tracks.

But Regional Rail Link also changed this scene – a new footbridge, and two new tracks beneath it for the use of V/Line trains.

And the next chapter?

Work is about to start on the Melbourne Airport Rail Link, with some changes coming for Sunshine – a tangle of new track between Sunshine and Albion, and a new station concourse at the city end.

A shadow of the ‘super hub’ once promoted by the State Government, but change none the less.

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Early years

The first tram routes predominately followed the main roads of Melbourne.

Image via Wikipedia

But the tramway board was responsible for more than just the tracks.

When the tramways were first laid they followed . The Melbourne and Metropolitan Tramways Board has the obligation to construct the road along the tracks, and for 18 inches outside each outer rail, as well as to illuminate certain of the tramway routes at night.

The smooth road surface proving tempting for motorists.

Road construction and lighting have been carried out by the Board in a manner which has encouraged other wheeled traffic to follow the same route as the tramway. The result has been that vehicular traffic has become accustomed to using the tramway streets in travelling between the suburbs and city where they are connected by tram tracks.

So as early as the 1920s, sharing the road wasn’t working.

In streets on which tramways are laid, the peak vehicular traffic is coincident with the heaviest tramway loading, and only a limited use can be made of the tramway tracks owing to the frequency of trams. In the City streets, where the need for additional road space is greater. vehicular traffic is almost wholly precluded from using the space occupied by tramways.

In 1929 the Metropolitan Town Planning Commission’s ‘Plan of General Development’ report recommended trams and motor vehicles should be segregated – either by new roads.

In the majority of cases the expense and difficulty involved in widening streets in which tramways are laid would impose too great a financial strain upon the community. Although in certain cases there is no satisfactory alternative, the Commission has planned its main road proposals so as to remove, as far as possible, the “through” vehicular traffic from the tramline streets. A system based on these lines will considerably relieve the congestion on these routes because it will leave the tramline streets principally for tramway services and local and business traffic.

Physical separation.

Where tramways are located or are proposed in streets of 99 feet width or more, excepting in the City business area, the Commission considers that the tramway should be given the exclusive use of its track and separated from other traffic by lawns or plantations. In addition to segregating the traffic, the plantations provide continuous safety zones, thus permitting safer and faster movement of all traffic along the road and for pedestrians crossing it. Incidentally, tramway track construction and maintenance will be less costly.

In many cases in its recommendations which follow, the Commission has adopted a width of 100 feet for main roads in order that future development along these routes, other than in the city proper, shall be so guided as to permit of the parking of the existing or probable future tramway.

Or parking restrictions.

The fact that the great bulk of the “peak” hours traffic in the morning is inward to the central business area and outward during the afternoon, offers an excellent measure of lief in congested streets by temporary prohibition of parking on the particular side of the street on which this volume of traffic is passing. The extra lane thus made available, especially in the case of tramline streets. would increase the efficiency and capacity of those streets in which a prohibition operated.

But in the years that followed, little progress was made on this front.

Weston Langford photo

Finally – some action

It took until 1970s for the first moves to separate road vehicles from the tram tracks.

The Board’s early 1970s reports urged traffic segregation and complained that it’s vehicles were severely hampered by motor traffic.

The established “vicious circle” of longer journey time, slower trip, unhappy passengers, more crews doing less work, greater cost, fare increase, less passengers, etc., was officially highlighted again.

Painted lines being the first attempt.

The Board endeavoured to speed its tram services by painting clearance lines along most of its trackage. A withdrawn passenger tram was fitted with spray painting equipment and has marked most of the system, commencing in 1973. Although reasonably effective, some motorists do not heed these lines, and the only truly satisfactory solution is physical separation.

Using a dedicated tram.

MMTB photo

Followed by an attempt at physical separation of trams along Bridge Road in Richmond, only to be rejected.

During the reconstruction of tram tracks in the very wide thoroughfare of Bridge Road, Richmond, during April to June 1975, the Richmond City Council refused to allow the Tramways Board to place low profile kerbing adjacent to the new tracks to create a reserved right of way for the trams.

Despite the road being wide east of Church Street.

The volume of citybound trams using it.

And the number of motorists u-turning over the tracks.

But the tramways board had more success on route 96.

Permitted to install physical separation – but only on one side of the street!

Fitzroy Council agreed to allow the Board to place low profile kerbing along Nicholson Street, along the eastern tram track, from Victoria Parade to Alexandra Parade, on a trial basis. Nicholson Street is the municipal boundary and Melbourne City Council refused permission for like treatment along the western tram track.

The kerbing was installed during October and November 1975, with safety zones at all stops, and have proved successful. Road traffic has not been hindered and tram running times have improved considerably, especially at key intersections.

Early in 1978 the project was extended northwards to Park Street, North Fitzroy, while the MCC relented somewhat to allow the section from Victoria Parade to Alexandra Parade to be fitted with jiggle bars along the western track. Safety zones were also incorporated into both of these extensions.

These half done concrete kerbs were still visible decades later.

Until the 2018 rebuild of Nicholson Street saw taller kerbs provided on both sides of the track.

Tram ‘Fairways’

In 1983 the ‘Fairway’ program was launched to speed up trams.

Which featured a package of upgrades.

• separation of trams from other vehicles on a full or part time basis using lanemarkings and signs,
• tram activated phases at traffic signals,
• minor road widening to provide safety zones at tram stops,
• changes to Road Traffic Regulations to give preference to trams over other vehicles .

Seen as a cheaper solution to speed up trams, given the lack of success implementing physical segregation.

The RTA Fairway project is a conscious departure from the more traditional traffic management techniques and seeks to develop and implement low cost, innovative measures that assist tram operations at high delay sites. The requirement that Fairway treatments are low cost is based on the fact that as the major proportion of the tram network is located in the older, established
inner and middle suburbs of Melbourne, opportunities for larger scale improvements are generally not economically justified nor socially and environmentally acceptable.

The most visible change being yellow lines along major roads, indicating that motor vehicles cannot enter or turn across the tram tracks.

Which were surprisingly successful, given it was just paint.

The Fairway on the North Balwyn Route has been a qualified success given that details of traffic volumes and any redistribution of traffic along the route have not yet been analysed.

Average journey times during the AM peak period have reduced from 36.6 minutes to 34.6 minutes (i.e. 5.5% reduction). More importantly for tram operations, variations in running times have reduced by 20%, and Average Maximum times have reduced from 44.9 minutes to 39.8 minutes.

Into the modern era

You’d think speeding up trams would be a high priority – but it isn’t.

Consider this irrationality. About 200,000 passengers a day catch a tram along St Kilda Road. That’s about as many people as drive over the West Gate Bridge each day.

If there’s an accident on the bridge and the freeway is blocked for a few hours, politicians and commentators line up to argue that we urgently need to spend a lazy $18 billion on another east-west freeway.

And yet the city’s busiest tram corridor doesn’t even have enough separation with general traffic to stop a delivery van driver shutting the whole thing down by doing an ill-timed U-turn in front of a moving tram.

It took until 2011 for something to happen, thanks to the renewal of aging tram tracks along Spencer Street.

Over the Easter and ANZAC Day long weekend Yarra Trams replaced 740 metres of double track along Spencer Street between La Trobe Street and Flinders Street and on the Spencer Street Bridge.

The project renewed tracks which had first been installed in 1951 and introduced measures providing segregation between trams and traffic to improve safety and tram service reliability along one of the busiest sections of Melbourne’s tram network.

The new tracks were raised above the roadway.

Leading to a massive drop in the number of collisions.

There were 11 tram-on-car collisions on Spencer Street last financial year between Bourke and Collins streets, compared with 76 in the three previous years. ”It’s been very effective on Spencer Street,” said Clement Michel, Yarra Trams’ chief executive.

But unfortunately they’re not enough to stop determined dumbarses from driving over the top.

Rebuilding tram tracks is expensive, so in 2014 Yarra Trams tried something cheaper – bolting down yellow plastic kerbing beside the Collins Street tram tracks.

In an attempt to fix the worst street in Melbourne for tram to vehicle collisions.

Collins Street has had raised safety kerbs installed in an effort to increase safety by improving separation between motorists and trams.

Yarra Trams and Public Transport Victoria has installed the bright yellow kerbs along Collins Street, with the work completed two weeks ahead of schedule to be finished before the Grand Prix.

At the launch of its ‘Drivers Beware’ rhino safety campaign last year, Yarra Trams data showed that spots on Collins Street near the intersections at Elizabeth, Russell and Spencer streets were among the top 10 locations for tram to vehicle collisions.

Data recorded in the first month after the campaign launch showed a 19 per cent reduction in the number of tram to vehicle collisions on the network compared to the same period in 2012.

The network wide trend shows a reduction in collisions since 2010, but an increase in the proportion of incidents occurring in Collins Street.

The most common causes of collisions, which the raised kerbs aim to eliminate, are motorists performing U-turns or right turns in front of trams.

The new safety kerb, which is 50mm high and 350mm wide, will improve the safety and reliability of trams by deterring motorists from illegally driving across the middle of the road into the path of trams.

The statistics being quite shocking.

Year	Total tram to vehicle collisions	In Collins Street	Percentage in Collins Street
2008	944	44	4.66
2009	905	38	4.20
2010	836	54	6.46
2011	983	48	4.88
2012	892	49	5.49
2013	844	49	5.81
2014	162	6	3.70

To 8 March 2014

But at 50mm high and 350mm wide, the new kerbs didn’t have much success with deterring taxi drivers from making u-turns across the tracks.

Using the tracks to overtake stopped vehicles.

Or just generally blocking up the whole joint.

And if the kerbs come loose – they can derail trams.

On Friday 11 May 2018, early in the morning, a tram was being transported out of service from Essendon Depot to Brunswick Depot. As it travelled outbound in Sydney Road at Moreland Road, the tram derailed as it was turning left into Moreland Road.

The morning of 11 May had been wet, with 18.6 millimetres of rainfall recorded. The investigation found that a yellow plastic dividing strip, presumably dislodged by a passing vehicle, had been washed onto the tram track and become submerged in water. The strip subsequently became wedged in the front bogie.

Yellow plastic strips are frequently dislodged on the network, with our Track Maintenance Crew collecting on average one or two strips a day to return to the road authority.

Under the Road Management Act Code of Practice for operational responsibility for public roads(dated May 2017), the maintenance of plastic dividing strips is in most cases a duty of the relevant responsible road authority, typically the Department of Transport or local government, because they are constructed separately from the tram tracks.

So in 2015 tougher bluestone kerbing was installed at the Docklands end of Collins Street between Spencer Street and the Victoria Harbour tram terminus, at a cost of $316,000.

One street down, how many to go?

And a way forward

After decades of attempts at segregating trams from traffic, in 2016 Yarra Trams reported they had discovered a way to accelerate the process.

Improving tram priority and fully separating trams from other traffic are considered to be critical elements in moving the tram system to a modern light rail service so that it becomes the best way to move around the inner suburbs of Melbourne.

Recognition and acknowledgement of the importance of taking opportunities for the reallocation of road space to prioritise public transport movement and access is particularly relevant to tram track renewal works.

Using the example of the Spencer Street track renewal.

A large and established tram network such as Melbourne’s has an ongoing series of infrastructure renewal works taking place in order to maintain our assets to the latest standards necessary. These infrastructure renewal programs as well as other internal and external upgrade projects present potential opportunities to enhance and upgrade the operating environment to assist with its envisaged transformation.

Identifying opportunities for either undertaking network improvements as part of track renewal works or implementing changes to assist with achieving desired outcomes at a later date is a key opportunity that has been progressed where possible.

The primary opportunities associated with track renewal include consideration of improving tram right of way by achieving effective physical separation from vehicle traffic where road conditions allow. This could either be by raising the vertical level of tram tracks higher than adjacent roadway carrying traffic or by installation of other effective separation measures such as barrier kerbing or bollards.

Recent completed examples of this approach and application include Spencer Street and Fitzroy Street track works where tram tracks were raised by 120-150mm and established a significantly enhance tram right of way; separated from conflicts and delays caused by traffic which was previous able to encroach onto the tram track.

The recent rebuild of the tram tracks along William Street is another example of this new philosophy.

And in 2018 Yarra Trams completed a business case for the rollout of concrete kerbs across the network.

Trams would be protected by raised kerbs on either side of tracks under a $42 million proposal to decrease the number of collisions between cars and trams.

Concrete and bluestone kerbing could be installed on tram tracks along busy CBD streets and inner-city arterials, blocking motorists from crossing the tracks.

About 38km of track have been identified as suitable for greater separation in a business case commissioned by Yarra Trams. The business case by GHD Advisory found the rollout would cost $42.7 million. Maintenance of the kerbs would cost $5000 per year compared with $17,000 for the plastic yellow strips that now separate tram tracks from cars.

The business case was included in a Yarra Trams submission to a Victorian parliamentary inquiry investigating ways to reduce the amount of fatalities on the state’s roads.

Trams and cars have collided about 1000 times for every one of the past five years, at an average of three incidents every day.

Yarra Trams said about 10 trams were out of action and under repair each day due to crashes with cars, meaning a reduction in incidents could improve reliability on the network by keeping more trams in service.

More than 95 per cent of tram accidents are caused by motorists. The most common manoeuvres that led to accidents are drivers performing U-turns across tracks, the sudden stopping of vehicles on tracks and cars driving over tracks to get around parked cars or stopped traffic.

Tram crashes decreased by 25 per cent when hard kerbing was installed on Docklands tram routes.

The business case proposing segregation of the following sections of tramway.

Route 96
• Nicholson St segment (Terminus to Gertrude St)
• Bourke St (Spencer St to Spring St)
• Nicholson St (Bourke St to Victoria St)
• St Kilda segment (Fitzroy St to Acland St)

Collins St
• St Vincents Plaza to Spring St
• Spring St to Spencer St

Elizabeth St
• Flinders St to Queen Victoria Market
• Queen Victoria Market to Haymarket
• Haymarket to Flemington Rd/Abbotsford St
• Haymarket to Flemington Rd/Racecourse Rd
• Haymarket to Royal Pde/Brunswick Rd

La Trobe St
• Docklands (Harbour Esp to Spencer St)
• CBD (Spencer St to Victoria St)

William St
• Flinders St to Dudley St

Racecourse Rd
• Flemington Rd to Ascot Vale Rd

Bridge Rd
• Church St to River St

Flinders St
• Spring St to Exhibition St
• Exhibition St to Spencer St

St Kilda Rd
• Federation Square to St Kilda Junction

Commercial Rd
• St Kilda Rd to Punt Rd

Clarendon St
• Whiteman St to Market St

Other short segments:
• Epsom Rd
• Sturt St
• Danks St
• Route 57 (through North Melbourne)
• Westgarth (Merri Creek Bridge)
• Wellington Pde
• Brighton Rd
• Fitzroy St
• Smith St, Caulfield
• Burwood Hwy
• Sydney Rd (north of Bell St)
• Clarendon St south and Canterbury Rd

Almost a hundred years since the issue was first identified, and yet we’re still waiting.

Sources

• Metropolitan Town Planning Commission Plan of General Development (1929)
• K.S. Kings 60 Years of the M&MTB (April 1980)
• D.J. Howie and K.F. Daley Managing road space in Melbourne – the fairway system (1984)
• M.R. Daff and W.H. Saggers Spatial segregation of trams in Melbourne (1984)
• K.F. Daley Public Transport and Traffic Engineering (1987)
• Yarra Trams Separation and Tram Safety – Detailed Report (December 2019)
• Yarra Trams Tram Lane Upgrade – Preliminary Business Case (November 2018)

Footnote – painting the lines

The linemarking tram was W2.233 – converted for the job in 1973, having been retired from normal services in 1970.

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South Kensington – Footscray railway quadruplication

In 1973 work on this project was already underway.

The western suburbs of Melbourne are serviced by the electrified suburban railway lines to St Albans and Williamstown / Altona. They have a common section from Footscray to the City, a distance of 5.5 kilometres. These lines also carry passenger and freight traffic for the country rail services to Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo.

The existing route from the City has six tracks to North Melbourne (junction for the Broadmeadows and Upfield lines) and four tracks to South Kensington. The remaining two kilometres to Footscray have double tracks. This section of double track line crosses the Maribyrnong River and is a bottleneck for the traffic to the western suburbs with trains in each direction converging from two to one track , only to diverge again a mile further on.

The project is to quadruplicate the remaining section of double track between the City and Footscray.

Work was completed on the project in 1976, with track capacity between the City and Footscray expanded to six tracks in 2014 by the Regional Rail Link project.

Caulfield – Mordialloc Railway third track

At the time of the report, the Frankston line was something of a basket case.

The railway between Caulfield and Frankston provides a passenger service for residents on the eastern side of Port Phillip Bay. The line also carries limited passenger and freight traffic from the Mornington and Stony Point Lines.

At present the electric suburban services suffer from congestion in peak hours resulting in little travel time advantage from the operation of express trains. Although the capacity of the present line between Caulfield and Mordialloc can be increased by improved signalling, there would still be delays to the peak hour trains serving Mordialloc to Frankston.

The project is based on the provision of a third track signalled for two-way operation, between Caulfield and Mordialloc. This would provide significant benefits from improved travel times, and express and local services would be more efficiently combined. The peak hour express trains between Caulfield and Cheltenham/ Mordialloc would save up to six minutes travel time per trip.

The project would involve construction of 15.5 kilometres of single-track railway, together with the installation of associated signalling and electrical equipment. The capital expenditure on the project would occur between 1973 and 1976 for Caulfield to Cheltenham, and 1976 and 1978 for Cheltenham to Mordialloc.

But work on a third track was slow to start – by 1981 the the scope cut back to just Caulfield-Moorabbin – a distance of 6.5 kilometres. The project was given the go ahead by then Transport Minister Steve Crabb in 1984, and took until 1987 to be completed. It also also done on the cheap, with level crossings instead of grade separations.

Sunshine-Deer Park West Railway

Rail services to the west have long lagged the west of Melbourne, with Deer Park especially forgotten.

The Melbourne western suburbs of Ardeer, Deer Park, and Deer Park West are served by bus routes of the Melbourne and Metropolitan Tramways Board, as well as by private operators. All of the bus routes serve Sunshine Station, where a bus-rail interchange is proposed to replace the existing limited bus terminal facilities. The “TB bus routes at present continue on to the city but function mainly as a local bus service, because the Sunshine to the City running time by bus is 17 minutes longer than by train.

Sunshine is at the junction of the main Ballarat and Bendigo railway lines. The Ballarat line is single track with a station and crossing loop at Deer Park. This station is served by only a limited number of short distance country trains.

The project is to duplicate and electrify the existing railway to Deer Park West, and to introduce a suburban passenger service. This would involve the construction of a second track for about 7 kilometres and electrification of 14 track kilometres. New stations would be built at Ardeer and Deer Park West and the existing station at Deer Park would be rebuilt.

Two evaluations were completed. The first included the immediate electrification as well as the duplication. The second was on the basis of immediate duplication of the track, but deferment of electrification for ten years. The initial service would be provided by a shuttle service, using reconditioned railcars, between Deer Park West and Sunshine. This service would be supplemented by the existing Melton/Bacchus Marsh commuter trains.

The duplicated line opened to trains in 1976, in addition to the rebuilt Ardeer station, but no extra services were provided – something not addressed until the opening of Regional Rail Link in 2015, and the opening of Caroline Springs station in 2017.

As for electrification – 18km of track was duplicated between Melton and Deer Park West in 2019, but we’re still waiting for electric trains.

Macleod-Greensborough Railway Duplication

The Hurstbridge line was another goat track in need of upgrading.

The Hurstbridge Line is an electrified suburban railway in Melbourne serving the north-eastern suburbs of Ivanhoe, Heidelberg and Eltham, and the Diamond Creek valley to Hurstbridge.

The line is double-track for the first 16.5 kilometres to Macleod, except for single-track sections across the Merri Creek Bridge (Clifton Hill-Westgarth) and Heidelberg-Rosanna. Beyond Macleod the line is single-track for the remaining 20.5 kilometres with crossing loops at Greensborough, Eltham and Diamond Creek. The basic service is for alternate trains to Eltham and Hurstbridge, with extra trains to Heidelberg and Macleod during peak hours.

The numerous sections of single track, particularly between Clifton Hill and Eltham, considerably constrain the frequency of service which can be provided on this line without incurring excessive delays at crossing loops. The project is to extend the double track from Macleod to Greensborough, a distance of about 5.5 kilometres. The Merri Creek Bridge and Heidelberg-Rosanna single-track sections are expensive to duplicate and have not been included in the project.

In 1979 the line between Macleod and Greensborough was duplicated, with the ‘too expensive’ sections also tackled in recent years – Clifton Hill – Westgarth in 2009, and Heidelberg – Rosanna in 2018.

Electrification of Newport-Werribee Railway

Once upon a time Werribee was a country town and not a suburb of Melbourne, and had a rail service to match.

The Geelong railway provides services for the Western Suburbs of Melbourne. The services to Altona and Williamstown operate over the electrified section between Altona Junction/Newport and the city. A diesel service operates to Werribee.

The population in the area between Newport and Werribee is growing rapidly and so is the demand for suburban rail travel. The project provides for the electrification of the 18.5 kilometres of double track between Altona Junction and Werribee, allowing the service to be integrated with the electrified suburban system.

The project would be commenced in 1973 and would be completed by the end of 1974. New stations are proposed at Newport West and Tarneit at an estimated cost of $100,000 each.

It took until 1983 for electric trains to start running to Werribee, with services rerouted via Altona from 1985 following the completion of a new railway via Westona to Laverton.

However the extra stations proposed in the 1970s were never built, and instead two stations were closed – Paisley in Newport South and Galvin on the northern edge of Altona, made redundant following the rerouting of Werribee line services via Altona in 1985.

Capacity on the rail corridor was expanded in 1995 following the opening of the parallel standard gauge Melbourne-Adelaide track in 1995, and expanded again in 2015 following the diversion of Geelong line services to the new Regional Rail Link route via Tarneit.

Frankston Railway Resignalling

Track amplification on the Frankston line already appeared in the report, but the life-expired signalling elsewhere on the line was also in need to replacement.

The Frankston Line provides a passenger service to the residents on the eastern side of Port Phillip Bay. The line also carries the limited passenger and freight traffic from the Mornington and Stony Point lines.

The present signal capacity on the Caulfield-Frankston section of this line is only sufficient to carry the existing number of peak hour trains, The double line block telegraph system of signalling is still in use between Glenhuntly and Bentleigh, and between Highett and Frankston, a distance of nearly 27 kilometres. This system is labour intensive and is not readily modified for the close headways usually required on urban railways.

The project would be the replacement of the existing double line block telegraph system between Frankston and Mordialloc to increase track capacity and improve reliability. The minimum headway would be reduced from 6 minutes to 3 minutes.

Thankfully this these upgrades happened much quicker than the track implication works – Glenhuntly to Bentleigh was upgraded in 1974, followed in 1976 by Carrum to Seaford and Carrum to Chelsea.

The last examples of double line block safeworking were replaced on the Williamstown line and Upfield line in the 1990s, and on the Bendigo line in 2005, leaving just the Seymour line.

Signal Improvements – Oakleigh Station

Way back in the 1920s Oakleigh station was rebuilt as the terminus for suburban services from Melbourne, but by the 1970s it had been left behind by post-war suburban sprawl towards Dandenong.

The Dandenong Line is one of a number of railway lines serving the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The line also carries the Gippsland rail traffic.

Oakleigh is the mid-point of the line, being 15.5 kilometres from Flinders Street Station ad 14.5 kilometres from Dandenong. During the peak hours, additional trains are run between the city and Oakleigh to supplement the Dandenong trains. Adjacent to Oakleigh Station there is a small goods yard and stabling facilities for suburban trains.

At either end of Oakleigh Station there are manually operated signal boxes. These control the section through Oakleigh Station, this being the only remaining section of manual signalling between Caulfield and Dandenong. These signal boxes also control entry of trains to the goods yard, suburban trains storage sidings and the movements of terminating suburban trains.

The project would replace the two existing signal boxes with one consolidated box within the station building. The design of the new signal box would be compatible with the proposed third track between Caulfield and Huntingdale.

In 1975 the new signal panel replaced the aging mechanical signal boxes, but in the years that followed the reason for it existing has disappeared. The first casualty was the goods yard which was removed in 1984, followed by the stabling sidings in 1995. A turnback platform was built at Westall in 2012 removing the need to use Oakleigh for the purpose, with the signal panel abolished in 2018 following the opening of the Dandenong Signal Control Centre to control the entire line.

As for the third track from Caulfield – we’re still waiting. The idea was revived in 2006, but the elevated tracks from Caulfield completed in 2016 only have space for two tracks.

Melbourne Train Replacement

In the 1970s Melbourne rail travellers with still stuck onboard old ‘red rattlers’.

The Victorian program for 1973-74 includes $10.7m for replacement trains. The cost of the trains has increased 7 per cent since 1972.

In view of some adverse press comment about seating on the one new train which has come into service since the 1972 evaluation, it is noted here that a sensitivity test of the evaluation was made in which passenger benefits were halved.

However, in response to the press criticism the Victorian Minister for Transport now has arranged for improved seating to be incorporated in the new trains.

The stainless steel ‘Hitachi’ trains were constructed between 1972 and 1981, remaining in service until replaced by the current Siemens and X’Trapolis trains in 2003–2004. The last Hitachi train carried passengers in 2014, with the last set moving on the Melbourne rail network in 2015.

Melbourne Eastern Railway – Stage One

Photo by Philip Mallis from Melbourne, via Wikimedia Commons

The 1970s saw yet another proposal to build a railway to Doncaster.

The section of the Eastern Freeway at present under construction is between Alexandra Parade, Collingwood and Thompsons Road, North Balwyn. This section of the freeway provides a central reserve for the proposed Eastern Railway. The railway would link Doncaster and Templestowe with central Melbourne.

The railway is planned to be constructed in two stages.

Stage One would construct the railway a distance of 8.5 kilometres to a station near Thompsons Road, Bulleen. The railway would branch from the Hurstbridge and Epping Lines at Victoria Park and use the railway reserve provided by construction of the Eastern Freeway. The only station on the new line would be at Bulleen, where interchange facilities would be provided for buses and cars.

Stage Two would extend the railway from Bulleen through Doncaster to East Doncaster.

In 1977 the Eastern Freeway opened to Bulleen Road, being extended to Doncaster Road in 1982 and Springvale Road in 1997, but today we’re no closer to a Doncaster railway.

Melbourne Bus Replacement

MMTB Annual Report 1979

Buses – the forgotten mode of Melbourne’s public transport network.

Of the 260 buses operated by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Tramways Board (MMTB), 135 are over 20 years old. It is intended to purchase 30 buses in 1973-74 to replace an equal number of 22 year old AEC Regal Mk I11 buses. The MMTB believes the new vehicles – integral construction National buses fully imported from UK – would have an economic life of approximately l5 years. Accordingly, the evaluation assumes a project case of replacing the 22 year old Leyland buses in 1973-74, followed by 15 year replacement cycles thereafter

And the story isn’t any different today – some Melbourne bus operators kept buying high floor buses despite the availability of accessible low floor models, and today we’re still buying old fashioned diesel buses instead of hybrid or 100% electric buses.

Melbourne Tram Replacement

Weston Langford photo

W class trams might be a Melbourne icon, but they served as everyday public transport for far too long.

The rolling stock of the MMTB consists of 696 trams of which 70 per cent were built before 1939. The MMTB have indicated that over the next five years they intend to purchase 205 new trams, of which 100 have already been ordered.

The first ‘modern’ tram was the 100 Z1 class trams that entered service in 1975 – 1978, followed by 15 Z2 class trams in 1978 – 1979, and 115 Z3 class trams in 1979 – 1984.

However this was not enough to send the aging W class fleet to the scrap yard – it took the arrival of 28 A1 class trams in 1984 – 1985, 42 A2 class trams in 1985 – 1986 to finally kill them off, with the last W2 class tram carrying paying passenger in December 1987.

Ringwood Corridor

Back in the 1970s the railway east to Ringwood was the ‘darling child’ of the Melbourne suburban network, but was still not up to scratch.

The Box Hill-Ringwood Railway is the main railway serving the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. There are four tracks over the first 4.5 kilometres to Burnley, the junction of the Glen Waverley Line. The next 10.5 kilometres to Box Hill has three tracks, allowing express trains to operate on this section in peak hours. The remaining 10 kilometres to Ringwood is double track.

Ringwood is the junction for the electrified service to Lilydale (13 kilometres) and Belgrave.(l6.5 kilometres). Ringwood is also an important terminal station for peak hour trains. The Lilydale line is single track except for the section Croydon-Mooroolbark (3.5 kilometres). The Belgrave line is also single track except for double track between Bayswater and Ferntree Gully (5 kilometres). There are crossing loops at Upper Ferntree Gully and Upwey.

The railway continuing beyond Lilydale to Healesville (25 kilometres) has an infrequent diesel rail car service which connects with the electric suburban service at Lilydale. The railway beyond Belgrave is the narrow gauge (0.76 metre) ‘Puffing Billy Tourist Line.

The railways beyond Ringwood were originally built in the 1880’s as low capacity branch lines. They were electrified in the 1920’s. The recent growth of the Melbourne urban area into the area served by the lines has increased the demand on the rail service. The improvements are designed to upgrade the railway lines to meet projected demand.

The proposed improvements are as follows:

(i) Ringwood Station: Third Platform. The improvement is the provision of a third platform. The estimated cost is $0.7m, which includes associated resignalling.

(ii) Ringwood-Bayswater: Duplication of 5 kilometres. This would complete the duplication between Ringwood and Ferntree Gully. The estimated cost is $1.3m.

(iii) Ringwood-Croydon: Duplication of 5 kilometres. This would complete the duplication between Ringwood and Mooroolbark. The estimated cost is $l.1m.

(iv) Signalling Croydon-Lilydale and Bayswater-Ferntree Gully. The existing signalling on the two existing double track sections is Double Line Block Telegraph System. The single track section between Mooroolbark and Lilydale uses the electric staff system. It is proposed to replace these systems with power signalling at an estimated cost of $1.3m.

The third platform at Ringwood, the track duplications, and the signal improvements are proposed for commencement in 1973 and completion during 1975. Additionally, it is proposed to build a third track from Box Hill to Ringwood between 1975 and 1978 at an estimated cost of $7.2m.

The first change to occur was the closure of the line to Healesville in 1980.

As for duplication, it had to wait – Ringwood to Bayswater completed in 1982, followed by Ringwood to Croydon in 1984.

The third platform at Ringwood – that didn’t happen until 1999. And a third track from Box Hill to Ringwood – the Middleborough Road Project of 2007 left space for it, but subsequent upgrades have kicked the idea off into the never-never.

Huntingdale-Ferntree Gully Railway

The government wanted funding to reserve land for a railway to Rowville.

The Melbourne Metropolitan Transportation Plan provides for the eventual construction of a railway line between Huntingdale and Ferntree Gully. As residential development is now proceeding along the alignment of the proposed route, the Victorian Government desires to make the land acquisitions necessary for an eventual construction of the railway.

The most recent feasibility study was completed in 2012-14 but we are still no closer to building it.

Frankston-Lyndhurst Railway

Another proposed cross-country railway line was one from Dandenong to Frankston.

The Melbourne Metropolitan Transportation Plan provides for the eventual construction of a railway between Frankston and Lyndhurst to improve public transport services between Frankston and Dandenong. As residential development is now proceeding along the alignment of the proposed route, the Victorian Government desires to make the necessary land acquisitions.

But the only progress in the years since was the extension of suburban services to Cranbourne in 1995, using the existing railway from Dandenong.

Additional Melbourne Railway Stations

Melbourne has a long history of building new ‘infill’ stations on existing railways, and the 1970s was no different.

The Melbourne Metropolitan Transportation Plan proposes the construction of a number of additional railway stations.

Where these coincide with other rail improvements for a corridor the cost of providing additional stations .has been included in the corridor evaluations.

There are six additional stations which are not associated with corridor improvements of which two are planned for construction in 1973-74 at an estimated cost of $0.2m.

In 1975 two new suburban station opened – Kananook outside Frankston, and Yarraman outside Dandenong, followed in 1982 by a third – Ginifer station south of St Albans.

Melbourne Station Rebuilding

By the 1970s suburban sprawl had seen what were once country railway stations absorbed into suburban Melbourne, and passenger were finding the facilities lacking.

It is proposed to reconstruct 50 Melbourne suburban railway stations. These stations are timber structures more than 60 years old, many of which were designed to handle peak traffic volumes much less than current day levels. The reconstruction would be designed to complement, where appropriate, modal interchange improvements, and alterations to platforms and facilities required for the provision of additional tracks.

So in the years that followed aging timber buildings were replaced by brown brick bunkers, a process which continued until a growing interest in heritage saw them restored instead of demolished.

Scorecard

The report listed 16 public transport projects – so how many actually happened?

• completed on time: 5
• completed, and subsequently improved further: 2
• completed, but with scope cut: 2
• delayed but eventually completed: 2
• delayed and completed after scope cut: 2
• never started: 3

And a surprising outcome – completed on time, and improved further in the years that followed: 2.

Footnote: public transport patronage in the 1970s

The 1970s was a time of falling rail patronage – cars had already taken over the streets of Melbourne.

In Melbourne the share of journeys to work taken by private vehicles climbed from 19% in 1951 to 69% in 1976. That’s more than a threefold increase in share over 25 years.

On the other hand, public transport’s share of work trips plummeted. It fell from 57% in Melbourne in 1951 to 24% by 1976; walking also halved, from 14% to 6%; and cycling was virtually wiped off the map, collapsing from 9% to 1%.

So the improvements listed above were a belated attempt by the railways to make themselves relevant to the modern world.

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West of Elizabeth Street is a cobblestone ramp leading up to the ‘Milk Dock‘ – the western end of Platform 1 that handled milk and parcels.

PROV image VPRS 12800 P3, item ADV0602

Milk would arrive from the farms on country trains, while parcels were transported around Melbourne by dedicated electric trains.

State Library of South Australia photo B 41019/163

Decades later, the ramp up to the Milk Dock is still there.

But the milk and parcels are gone – replaced by a pile of rubbish bins removed to fight terrorism.

Electric vehicles used to deliver dodgy dim sims to the platform kiosks.

New signage waiting to be installed.

And the closest thing to a train – a trolley load of rubbish.

Further reading

• Our Station Flinders Street – Parcels and Milk Dock

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John Henry Harvey photo, SLV image H92.150-302

And today.

West Richmond station opened on 21 October 1901, along with the line from Princes Bridge station to Collingwood. However this section of railway is a little different to much of the Melbourne network…

The track

The first railway in the area opened in 1888, linking Victoria Park (then named Collingwood) and Heidelberg on what is now the Hurstbridge line.

However the route towards the city was different to today – trains had to take the ‘Inner Circle‘ towards Royal Park, where the joined the Upfield line.

A year later in 1889 a second railway opened from Victoria Park, running north to Whittlesea along the route now taken by the Mernda line. In the years the followed the railway to Heidelberg was extended north – to Eltham in 1902 and Hurstbridge in 1912.

The locomotive

The steam locomotive in the photo is a Victorian Railways M class – a 4-4-0T tank locomotive designed for hauling suburban passenger services.

The first example was acquired in 1879 from Beyer, Peacock & Co, with a further 21 locomotives built by the Phoenix Foundry of Ballarat between 1884 to 1886. Their coal bunker capacity limited their usefulness, so they were rebuilt at the Newport Workshops as 4-4-2T locomotives between 1901 and 1905.

However electrification of the Melbourne suburban network commenced soon after, sounding the death knell for the M class locomotives, the last of which was scrapped in 1922.

And what came later

With steam locomotives gone, electrification triggered new growth – the wires were strung as far as Reservoir and Heidelberg electrified by 1921, and extended to Eltham in 1923 and Hurstbridge in 1926. Further extensions were completed to Thomastown in 1929, Lalor in 1959, Epping in 1964, South Morang in 2012, and finally Mernda in 2018.

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