Old photos from February 2012

More photos from ten years ago – this time from February 2012

The Metcard to Myki transition was well underway, and Metcard machines were increasingly being removed and replaced.

Some Myki card vending machines however were still not vending cards.

This Metcard machine at Flinders Street was presumably in the process of removal. Note the MX free newspaper dispenser at left.

Not sure what was happening here – but it’s unlikely those charges of $1,053 were actually for travel.

Fare gates, originally introduced for Metcard but with add-ons to make them work with Myki, did not seem to be working terrifically well. (Bonus: people handing out MX.)

One effect of the slow gates and growing train patronage was people queuing on the road to enter Flinders Street Station.

Checking Myki Pass prices and discovering that they are rounded up to the next ten cents when bought through a vending machine. Note the lack of colour contrast – in recent years the so-called “Zoom” option (which actually switched to high contrast white on black) has been used as the default colour scheme.

This was an unusual sight, even in 2012: three people using a bank of pay phones. (They were eventually made free of charge in 2021)

Selfie at Walhalla while camping.

Flyers appeared around Bentleigh station, protesting at the railway crossing not having been removed (it eventually was, in 2016 as part of Labor’s big removal program) and train crowding.

The old Myer facade – during construction of Emporium.

Click to read the tale of the Metro emergency gate that wasn’t.

Out on Swanston Street, the City Square tram platform stops were taking shape.

Waiting for a train at Flinders Street Station one evening.

The State Coalition had gone to the 2010 election with a policy of putting Protective Service Officers onto railway stations. Some of the first appeared in February 2012.

And finally, an encounter one evening at Armadale station with the singing group Men In Suits. I don’t remember exactly what they sang, but it may have included, as reported by The Age: ‘their unofficial Metro hymn of mourning to late and cancelled trains – with lines such as ”Let us remember the 10.53 from Epping which never made it through.” ‘