I’m a few days late with this, but here are some more old photos from ten years ago: July 2011.
Halfway through installing Myki barriers at Southern Cross Station for the V/Line platforms.
Also at Southern Cross, in the Myki centre (now the PTV Hub), was this interesting sight. It’s just a Myki Machine isn’t it? No – it’s actually a Tram Myki Machine, one of few seen in the wild. The solid handles were so people using the machine could steady themselves on the moving tram. This was just after the then Baillieu Government had made the decision to scrap machines on trams and not introduce single use tickets.
Some photos in the fog at the old Bentleigh station
Also at Bentleigh, Metro decided to display some art. Foolishly they positioned it so it wasn’t directly visible from the staffed booking office…
Within 24 hours it was extensively tagged by unofficial “artists”. Shortly after that, it was removed. Happily, the mural at Patterson Station, installed around the same time, has been more resilient to vandalism.
Then Channel 7 State Political Reporter Brendan Donohoe interviews a possum in the Flagstaff gardens
Surrealist tram
Not a great photo (the phone I had then, an HTC Desire S, had problems with low light), but we went to see Pulp at Festival Hall with all the common people. It was great.
These Dare coffee ads at Richmond station referenced other stations along the line.
Obviously in this case, the Passenger Information Display’s brain did get off somewhere else.
This bank of CRT PIDs at Flagstaff station was eventually upgraded to flatscreens and placed right above the entrance, more visible as you go through the gates. I think I snapped this photo because the Sydenham screen had been switched off during closure for Regional Rail Link works… at the time they were incapable of displaying bus replacement information.
A visit to the farm: the chooks, all lined up for some reason.
CBD tram crowding existing before the Free Tram Zone – though the FTZ made it a lot worse, and now there’s crowding through more of the day. This is evening peak on the 96.
The Elizabeth Street tram terminus. Frustratingly it remains one of the last non-accessible tram stops in the CBD.
Finally… if you want everybody to drive to your shopping centre, and thus put a limit on how many people can go shopping at once, do what Fountain Gate did: treat bus passengers with contempt and make their bus interchange a complete dump. (And that’s on top of the appallingly infrequent bus service)
3 replies on “Old photos from July 2011”
Thank you again for your memories of 10 years ago.
It would be great, now I trust you have photos dating back 20 years, to compare things across the decades. That is, 20 years ago against a photo of the same thing 10 years ago, and perhaps something from today also of the same location??
I must provide the following feedback on the Fountain Gate stop as it is my local center.
They did upgrade the Fountain Gate bus stop,I forget when, but looks like it is since what your image is showing. It is still a dump, at the same location. At least, it is near the door, that is very much at the half way point of the shopping center.
They could now build the stop closer to that door, given, at the time of your photo, the local council chambers where blocking the way. Those chambers have since moved to that Bunjil Place nearby. I guess it is time to move the bus stop?
And yes, the bus service is shit, including that between there and the nearby Narre Warren station. Urgently needs an upgrade also.
Has it been less than ten years since the Sunbury electrification or was Flagstaff behind? (It was my destination station back then but I can’t remember!) They would’ve been running trains to Flemington Racecourse so maybe they couldn’t show on the Sydenham screen. I do remember Flemington Racecourse being shown on the destination board at some stage. I think at times I took the train to Flemington and then the 472 bus to Droop St rather than the three-vehicle trip to West Footscray (train to North Melbourne – as the board shows for Werribee/Williamstown – then train to Footscray, then bus to West Footscray).
@Steve, that’s true, the Sunbury extension would have been underway at this point. It opened in 2012.
But this was Regional Rail Link works… they had to move much of the line between Footscray and Sunshine over by a few metres to fit the extra tracks in.