Here’s another of my posts of old photos from ten years ago – this time from November 2009.
Let’s start with some art.
…and now some art on the train. (I think a few of us with an interest in railways know the Bromage family.)
Flinders Street Station’s Elizabeth Street entrance used to close at 10pm. This is how some people got around that.
One of those mistimed captions on the news.
Remembrance Day outside Flinders Street station.
A new Passenger Information Display (PID) being installed at Richmond station
…and one of the new displays actually working:
Is your weekend bus crowded? It could be because most of the fleet is resting in depots.
The old (rebuilt in 2016 when the level crossing was removed) Ormond Station, with its station code OMD on the top. (Pic from Nearmap, which at the time offered free access for personal use – now it’s only $$$ for corporates.)
The level crossing at Ormond caused problems from time to time. On this day, a fault closed North Road, sending thousands of vehicles detouring via side streets and the nearby but narrow Dorothy Avenue underpass. This is the normally quiet Woodville Avenue.
The level crossings also used to cause impacts for the Bentleigh Festival, so the closure of Centre Road to traffic was done in two separate halves.
More seriously, emergency vehicles used to be delayed by trains at the crossings. Of course this still happens in other parts of Melbourne, and is one reason the level crossing removal program is so beneficial.
A rally in Footscray against the then-proposed “Westlink” freeway, the Labor’s proposal at the time for a freeway connection from Sunshine to connect with Citylink at West Melbourne. I remember speaking at this, rambling about how the nearby new Edgewater Estate was served by a new bus route, but it only runs every 40 minutes – even in peak.
Why catch a train to within half a block of the football, when you can park two blocks away instead? Little Lonsdale Street near William Street.
I daily walk past this intersection, which is rife for Rule 128 violations. But in 2009 it wasn’t really on my radar – I appear to have snapped this one accidentally. Note the Owen Dixon East building at right, then under construction.
In public transport land, Myki equipment was being rapidly installed around the network and tested.
Originally it was expected that smart (but disposable) short term tickets would be offered alongside Myki. These got cancelled by the Baillieu government when they decided to keep Myki but reduce the scope of the system in 2011.
November 2009 was notable for the end of the tram and train contracts. Tram operator TransdevTSL and train operator Connex/Veolia (now part of Transdev) finished up. Connex threw a big shindig for its employees and a few stakeholders. They were a French company, so that was the theme. Everyone got given a beret. (Marcus Wong has a blog post all about the last days of Connex)
Start day for the new train and tram operators, MTM (Metro Trains Melbourne) and KDR (Keolis Downer Rail, for Yarra Trams). It didn’t save John Brumby (centre of picture) from electoral defeat a year later.
4 replies on “Old photos from November 2009”
Ah Mr Ballieu, you don’t look quite so rich and white in your photo. You didn’t do much at all for public transport.
Regarding level crossing removals. The emergency vehicles could just be stuck in the induced traffic, that resulted from the level crossing being removed. So there may be no benefit at all, a lot of the time.
@Jeremy, certainly some crossing removals have resulted in heavier (induced) traffic – for example Gardiner.
But emergency vehicles can get priority through traffic. They can’t go past closed boom gates, and boom gates can be closed for unpredictable and lengthy amounts of time.
I remember, as a Connex newsletter subscriber, getting two tickets to a Christmas drinks function at a fancy club in Little Collins St. The Connex PR lady told me that 3 per cent of customers who fill in the feedback form on their website give compliments.