Another instalment in my photos from ten years ago series – this time it is April 2012.
Farewell to Metcard
Ten years ago the old Metcard magnetic stripe ticketing system was on the way out, replaced by new Myki smartcards.
The old ticket machines being removed from stations.
But ticket gates at stations weren’t fast enough to handle the new tickets.
And the requirement to ‘touch off’ after a train journey created massive queues at railway stations in evening peak.
The government’s solution – a ‘Touch. Hold. Go’ re-education campaign.
‘Don’t swipe’.
‘Don’t wave’.
But the eventual solution was throwing more Myki readers at the problem, and replacing them with faster ones.
Rail scenes that are gone
I headed out to brand new station of South Morang, which a decade ago was the end of the line.
An empty trackbed leading north towards the current terminus of Mernda.
At Greensborough the old manual safeworking system was still in use – station staff handing over a metal baton to the driver, indicating that it was safe to proceed into the single track section.
At Heidelberg there was still a single track towards Rosanna.
Bell station was still at ground level.
The last few Hitachi trains were still in service.
The heritage listed timber gates at Ballarat station were yet to be destroyed by a runway train.
And something a little different – a passenger train stopped at Lal Lal station, midway between Geelong and Ballarat.
It was there to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the railway being completed.
Regional Rail Link
At Footscray demolition of shops along the Nicholson Street bridge was completed.
With work underway on the signals below.
Ding ding on the trams
The tram tracks along Elizabeth Street were being relayed, requiring an array of excavators to break up the old concrete.
While the newly established Public Transport Victoria was doing what Victoria does best – removing the branding that came before them.
And something else familiar was the “When the Tram Stops, You Stop” campaign found on the back of trams – a half-arsed attempt at addressing the spate of motorists driving past stopped trams and hitting passengers.
But a decade later such campaigns have made no difference – tram passengers ending up in hospital after being hit by hit-run drivers – the only solution is physical separation.
Forgotten bus liveries
A decade ago the Public Transport Victoria livery was yet to be rolled out bus fleets, with Davis Bus Lines in Ballarat still having their brown livery.
Benders Busways in Geelong still had buses in green.
And McHarry’s was still using the “Geelong Transit System” livery, rolled out way back in 1983 as the first attempt to unify public transport in Geelong.
And some other bits
Another update from the Myer Lonsdale Street site – demolition was done, and tower cranes were being lifted into place.
And a fad from a decade ago – ‘My Family’ stickers.
By 2014 the backlash was well underway, and now they’re just a memory.
Footnote
Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.
Very interesting – although, one of those photos have featured one of the Comeng class leaders 301M-1001T-302M which was the oldest running sets before they were retired in August last year, transferred to North Shore before being already vandalised, then again to Bendigo for scrapping. Sad sight.
Good spotting! They were sent for scrap just a few weeks ago.
McHarrys still don’t use PTV livery.
I also remember the similar Bendigo GoBus livery from the 80s.
McHarry’s is a weird one – they dropped the government’s Geelong Transit System livery and replaced it with their own corporate brand, while almost every other Victorian bus operator has moved from corporate brand to PTV.
The reason for that is not far to seek. McHarry’s Buslines has resisted adopting the PTV bus livery because, I’m told, it would mean restricting the area of a bus that can be covered with vinyl wrap advertising. McHarry’s part-owns a company that provides that advertising.
http://bussignage.com.au/about.html
Interesting – although CDC Geelong also runs bus advertising with ‘GoTransit Media Group’.
https://www.gotransit.com.au/
CDC obviously aren’t as recalcitrant as McHarry’s!
The original GTS contracts stipulated that bus companies had to use the GTS livery to be part of the system. With the renewal of contracts in about 2010, that requirement was removed and Benders was quick to revert to company livery. McHarry’s has a much bigger fleet and were slower to complete that change.
It seems obvious that the current contracts don’t require PTV livery, but CDC has made a corporate decision to use it. In the early days of the PTV bus livery, I was told that a bus sporting PTV livery could only have advertising on the centre third of the side of the bus, and that tended to be the case at that time.
If that restriction existed, it has either been dropped or is not being enforced, although McHarry’s buses are far more likely to have an all-over wrap than CDC ones. It has been a source of complaint from bus passengers.
Marcus, great shots from yesteryear. Now slightly off topic, but I was in Frankston during the week and I photographed the Long Island steely as it rolled off the new viaduct over Dandenong Rd. I was somewhat surprised to see B80 providing backing power to G521! Good to see the old streamliners in regular traffic.
Thanks!
B80 shows up from time to time – I last caught it along with B74 on the steel train back in January 2022.
Marcus, a couple of things. I noticed that when the Comeng trains are towed to Ballarat for scrapping, they weren’t between match wagons. The other thing is I would like to get my hands on some Comeng bits and pieces namely LED marker lights and switch panels from the cab. What happens to these parts when trains reach End of Service Life status?
No need for a match wagon because they have transition couplers to join the Comeng train scharfenberg to the standard knuckle coupler.
It’s actually Bendigo, McIntyre and Newport where the Comeng trains get scrapped.
From what I’ve seen they really only strip a handful of useful components to reuse, the glass windows for recycling, then crush the bodyshell seats and all – you’d thinking selling off bits to gunzels would be a good moneyspinner, but it’s all just going through a shredder.