Old photos from September 2010

Is it the end of the month already? Here’s another of my monthly posts of photos from ten years ago… and this time they’re pretty much all transport-related.

As usual, click the photos to see them larger in Flickr.

The top of Swanston Street – the Barak Building is yet to be constructed, and the RMIT Design Hub is under construction. Nowadays this section of the street is mostly closed to traffic, with tram platform stops.

Hitachi trains were still in service. They were finally phased out in 2014.

Signage to show the XPT to Sydney would be replaced by buses. It looks a bit garish to me, but at least it grabs your attention. (As of September 2020, the XPT hasn’t run Victoria since late July due to the NSW border closure thanks to COVID-19.)

Also at Southern Cross Station, the Myki Discovery Centre – this building-inside-a-building is now a PTV Hub.

Myki hadn’t taken over on V/Line yet – this wouldn’t happen until 2013 – but Myki readers had been fitted at the main entrance to the platforms at Southern Cross in readiness (and for people making trips on V/Line within metropolitan Melbourne). The readers would later be replaced with fare gates.

As you may be able to see from this shot from above, Metcard readers remained at each platform, until Metcard was phased-out at the end of 2012.

V/Line trains had got increasingly busy after the Regional Fast Rail upgrades in the early 2000s sparked patronage growth. Even outside peak times, some trains arrived with large numbers of passengers. This photo was taken at 2:26pm on a weekday.

In recent times, only two railway stations on the metropolitan rail network have been regularly closed even while trains were running. Both, amazingly, are in central Melbourne. Southern Cross still closed overnight at weekends, including on Sunday mornings until around 6:20am. Flagstaff was closed on weekends until 1st January 2016 (though in the 80s and 90s it had been open on Saturdays).

Caulfield station’s “Metro Cafe” under construction. This was, in principle, a good idea – to encourage retail development around railway stations. I seem to recall that MTM came into Melbourne proposing a few sites for this type of development, but this was the only one that actually happened.

Since demolished to make space for underpass upgrades linked to the Metro tunnel, the Red Engine Cafe was found on most platforms at Flinders Street – a good place to find an emergency bucket of chips, potato cake or other snack while waiting for a train. Only one remains at the station, on platform 1, with most other food options now on the concourse.

In the lead up to the November 2010 State Election, the Metropolitan Transport Forum held one of its public meetings – this one was at Glen Eira Town Hall. Rob Hudson (then Labor member for Bentleigh, subsequently lost his seat) is speaking. I’m not sure who is seated next to him, but it looks like the others on stage are David Davis (now the Liberal transport spokesperson), Brett Hedger (then Greens candidate for Bentleigh) and Graham Currie (Monash University) moderating.

Richmond station – before the all-over rain coverage – in the lead up to the Grand Final, given the signage advising to use the sports precinct exit to attend Collingwood training. (This photo was from 22nd September, before the first match on the 25th, which resulted in a draw – triggering a second match on 2nd October).

On board a B-class tram. Both Myki and Metcard readers are in use. There are still plenty of these trams in service – they’ll probably be the last of the high floor trams to go, perhaps in about ten years, given the DDA deadline isn’t until 2032.