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Photos from ten years ago

Old photos from May 2010

Here’s one of my regular posts of photos from ten years ago.

Back when nobody had heard of social distancing, on State Budget day 2010, we all crowded around to do the post-budget media scrum, where stakeholders queue up to give comments for the cameras and microphones. That year included the E-class trams, and new outer-suburban railway stations. Hmmm my summary also notes funding for more Premium Stations – I assume those got rolled-back by the Baillieu government.

The back of State Parliament

There was a push at the time for Clearway hours to be extended. The Bridge Road traders weren’t happy about this, though I’m not sure why they protested opposite Flagstaff Station. Perhaps it was linked to the adjacent Federal Court. That’s future Liberal member for Prahran (2010-2014) Clem Newton-Brown on the right.

Bridge Road traders protest against Clearways - May 2010

A Metro poster for timetable changes which took effect in June 2010, and cleaned up a mess of stopping patterns, making better use of track capacity.

Metro promotional poster, May 2010

Some people didn’t like that the changes removed two express trains from Bentleigh, though in the longterm it doesn’t seem to have harmed patronage.

Bentleigh timetable rebellion

The Melbourne Bike Share scheme started in May 2010. It lasted not quite 10 years, shutting down in late 2019.

Melbourne Bike Share station, St Paul's

Brake problems were still an issue with the Siemens train fleet. Part of the response, until they finally got it sorted out some years later, was speed restrictions approaching level crossings.

Siemens speed limit

Little Bourke Street – note the Myer building renovations in the background. As part of Myer vacating Lonsdale Street, they demolished the art deco Lonsdale House to build Emporium.

Little Bourke Street, May 2010 - Emporium under construction

Footscray station’s then new overpass – before they realised it didn’t have space for the two additional Regional Rail Link tracks, so partly demolished and rebuilt it.

Footscray station bridge (before modification for RRL) - May 2010

Footscray railway station footbridge in May 2010

The “Transit Lounge” at the bus interchange at Chadstone. They didn’t go out of their way to make it inviting, did they. Not the most pleasant place to wait for a bus, but out of the weather at least. It’s since been replaced by the new bus interchange opened in 2015.

Chadstone "Transit lounge" - May 2010

By Daniel Bowen

Transport blogger / campaigner and spokesperson for the Public Transport Users Association / professional geek.
Bunurong land, Melbourne, Australia.
Opinions on this blog are all mine.

5 replies on “Old photos from May 2010”

Fun fact: the Transit Lounge at Chadstone was originally constructed as a small-format Kmart Garden Centre that connected with the main Kmart store (located under the adjacent Coles) via an internal staircase for customers.

About the people unhappy that express services were removed in favour of more stopping all stations. I get that express trains give the feeling of getting somewhere faster but for suburban services, I feel that more frequent services that stop all stations will probably get more people home faster than a few expresses.

arfman: its a little complex and changes depending on how frequently services are run. Skipping stations does get passengers shorter travel times, and used en-mass would save time for the vast majority of travellers:
https://meltdblog.wordpress.com/2017/11/11/faster-trains-by-skipping-and-closing-stations/
Bentleigh is one of the stations that is so close to its neighbours, closing it would improve transport times overall. Existing passengers would only be inconvenienced a small amount of time by getting to/from the next nearest station. While every other passenger on the train has to sit through the train slowing down, pausing at the platform, and accelerating again (around 2 minutes of total time added per stop) for a small number of passengers.

Amazing the number of things built in 2010 that have since been demolished. So much for planning!

@meltdblog, I don’t think any government would be brave enough to start closing railway stations (in contrast they are happy enough to close tram stops when consolidating them in the name of accessibility).

A stop skipped generally saves about one minute on Metro services. You can see this when comparing timetables of Dandenong trains between Caulfield and South Yarra (7 minutes express) compared to Frankston trains (11 minutes, stopping at four intermediate stations).

Two minutes might be more typical of V/Line due to generally higher speeds and slower acceleration.

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