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PT to the Melbourne Show

The trains are great. Perhaps unsurprisingly the buses are meh. But it’s the trams that are a real disappointment.

After two years off, it’s Melbourne Show time again. Nine days of thousands of people converging on the Showgrounds, a few kilometres northwest of central Melbourne.

There appear to be crowd limits in place, but the first few days were at capacity, with 50,000 tickets per day sold.

As with any big busy event, it makes sense to ensure as many people as possible arrive by public transport rather than in their cars.

Catch the train

The Showgrounds has a dedicated special events railway station, and while the train service can be lacking for lesser events, when the Show is on, it runs well – every 10-15 minutes all day, taking around 15 minutes from Flinders Street.

The trains also stop at Southern Cross and North Melbourne, ensuring connections from all the other Metro and V/Line services. And the station is right next to the Showgrounds, with its own entrance.

There are some gaps of up to around 20 minutes between trains on weekday evenings which could do with improvement, but overall the service is a convenient, seamless experience – no wonder it’s used by many thousands every year.

But the trains don’t suit everyone, especially those from nearby suburbs and from the northwest, so other routes need to be available.

Video from Rowan Scott of trains at the Showgrounds station

Catch the bus

Bus 472 runs close to the Showgrounds, providing connections from nearby suburbs including Williamstown, Footscray and Moonee Ponds. It’s every 15-20 minutes on weekdays, but only every 40-60 minutes in the evenings and on Sundays.

Bus 404 is further away – about 400 metres – far enough that PTV doesn’t mention it, but The Show web site does. It only runs every 40 minutes, apart from a couple hours during the weekday peaks when it’s every 20. The last bus is at around 7pm, and it doesn’t run at all on Sundays.

Neither route gets additional services during the Show, though with the 472 getting caught in heavy traffic, you’d hope they at least deploy extra buses so other parts of the route don’t suffer from long delays.

Overall it’s probable that only a few hardy souls use the buses.

Bus 472 stuck in traffic in Fisher Parade/Langs Road during the Royal Melbourne Show
Bus 472 stuck in traffic in Fisher Parade/Langs Road during the Royal Melbourne Show

Catch the tram

What really caught my eye having a walk around the Showgrounds area was how poor the tram is. There are multiple problems.

Tram 57 runs past the Showgrounds. They sensibly run extra services from the City to supplement the regular service:

Event trams are low floor and will operate as Route 57a, travelling between Flinders Street Station and Stop 32 Sandown Road via Elizabeth Street, Haymarket and Flemington Road.

These trams run express between Stop 19 Royal Children’s Hospital and Stop 32 Sandown Road.

Yarra Trams: Melbourne Royal Show 2022

Express trams? Yes… because the long trams they use don’t actually fit into many of the tiny “safety zone” tram stops along Racecourse Road.

This presumably means you can’t change at Newmarket station to one of these trams… only to a regular route 57 service.

Unfortunately there are a few other problems with the Show trams.

Problem 1: There aren’t many extra trams. There are long gaps between the extras, and while route 57 runs every 8 minutes all day until dark, they’re only small Z-class trams, and they get quite crowded.

This means there are often long gaps between low floor accessible trams on the route. And the Sunday timetable shows none at all, just the standard 57 timetable.

Problem 2: Big low floor trams help, but the tram stops used at the Showgrounds are not accessible. They’ve got a thankfully larger-than-standard safety zone, but no platform.

So if you’re using a pram or wheelchair, even if you manage to get a low floor tram, it’s not an accessible service.

Passengers alighting the tram for the Showgrounds
Passengers alighting the tram for the Showgrounds

Problem 3: The Showgrounds tram stop has been deleted for trams from the City. The inbound one is temporarily closed during the event. This may have been due to safety concerns, but also someone’s decided the second traffic lane is more important than having a tram stop directly outside the Showgrounds entrance.

So instead of being dropped outside the gate as in the past, you’re dropped several hundred metres down the road.

The closest tram stop to the Showgrounds entrance is closed during the Show
The closest tram stop to the Showgrounds entrance is closed during the Show

Problem 4: The tram stop deletion wouldn’t be a problem if they opened the gate nearest to the remaining tram stop. But they haven’t.

The Showgrounds map shows five public entrances are used:

  • the railway station
  • the Epsom Road gate – for everyone, including tram passengers
  • the racecourse car park – clearly for those arriving by car
  • Leonard Grove – also apparently those who have parked in other nearby car parks
  • Langs Road – for motorists and the few passengers using the 472 bus. This entrance includes a special set of temporary traffic lights because they know the traffic is so bad… because of all the motorists

Could they open gate 11? Perhaps an entrance to a major venue needs a certain number of patrons to make it worthwhile. Why not rework the railway station entrance to also cater for the nearby tram stop?

Showgrounds gate 11 - the closest to the tram stop, is closed
Showgrounds gate 11 – the closest to the tram stop, is closed

Problem 5: There’s no traffic light priority for crowds from the tram stop to cross the road. At times there are so many people waiting to get out of the tram stop that it delays the departing tram (a proper platform would also help with this).

Passengers have to cross multiple roads (and if they are patient enough to follow the rules, wait for at least two traffic lights) to get to the Showgrounds entrance.

Passengers wait to cross Epsom Road to get to the Showgrounds, after alighting the tram
Passengers wait to cross Epsom Road to get to the Showgrounds, after alighting the tram

Problem 6: There’s no signage near the tram stop pointing you to the Showgrounds entrance. I saw some people head towards the closed gate before twigging they were wasting their time.

The only wayfinding signage I could see was for people wanting to catch a tram, pointing you to the tram stop.

A crowd of tram passengers walking along the road to find the nearest open Showgrounds entrance. Some people are heading to the (closed) gate 11.
A crowd of tram passengers walking along the road to find the nearest open Showgrounds entrance. Some people are heading to the (closed) gate 11.

Plenty of room for improvement

Showgrounds trains have a long history, and the passenger experience is good enough that people use it year after year.

Not so for the trams. There was a time when a lot of resources were put into trams for nearby events. In fact there’s a (rare) three-track section of tram track in Union Road to provide space for stabling extra trams for Showgrounds and Flemington Racecourse events.

It’s clearly not what it once was.

Some of these problems are trivial to fix. Some are a bit harder.

A bigger longer term boost for the tram would be extending the 57 perhaps to the soon-to-be-built Keilor East railway station, as well as providing bigger low floor trams (enabled by the new depot construction at Maidstone).

Apart from the carrot of public transport improvements, a little more stick is probably required. Dare I say there might be too much parking around the Showgrounds?

Traffic queuing in Langs Road during the Royal Melbourne Show
Heavy traffic in Langs Road, as motorists queue for parking

Tram access to the Showgrounds will never shift as many people as the trains, but it’s important for Showgrounds public transport to provide plenty of good quality options, to cater for as many people as possible.

Right now, for trams and buses, they’re barely even trying. No wonder the whole area has traffic snarls while the Show is on.


Notes

  • It’s also been noted that the Showgrounds provides zero bicycle parking for patrons
  • Even if coming in on the Craigieburn line, it’s probably quickest and easiest to change to a Show Train at North Melbourne and double-back. As noted above, the tram option from Newmarket isn’t great – especially the tiny narrow safety zone stops in the middle of heavy traffic.
  • A real test for arrangements will be on Saturday 1st of October, when a race meet at Flemington means the racecourse car park will not be available for the Show – stand by for even worse traffic.

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.

9 replies on “PT to the Melbourne Show”

The idea of express trams must have been an invention by the Keolis Downer management. Same for.the MCG trams not serving the Simpson St. stop when they have to shunt there anyway.

Interesting about 1 October. As a racegoer I don’t recall there being a clash before. Have they extended the Show? This will be either the biggest or second biggest meeting at Flemington outside Cup Week, so it will be interesting to see how the train copes – I can’t see traffic coping at all.
I assume that all trains will stop at the Showgrounds then head to the racecourse?

@SuburbanTraveller, yes it looks like the same trains will serve both the Showgrounds and the Racecourse, except for the first few services in the morning and the last few in the evening – these will serve the Showgrounds only.

Trains will be about every 10 minutes, but there must be a bit of tight timetabling to make it work, given the Showgrounds only has one platform.

One idea I’ve had is to permanently split the Route 57 Tram (similar to splitting the 112 tram back in the day)

Have the current route 57 tram running throughout the entirety of Flemington Road skipping the stops in the North Melbourne area.

Then create a new route. For this comments sakes let’s call it the Route 56. That route can go start at the current Royal Children’s Hospital stop that the current route 57 stops at (next to the petrol station on the corner of Flemington Road) and go to Elizabeth Street like the route 57 tram currently does.

The difference?
Those travelling to and from Maribyrnong will have a quicker trip to and from the city and it reduces the crowds on the number 57.

The only trouble. Finding enough trams to operate 2 separate routes.

North Melbourne shuttles have operated before, as route 50. The only difference from Anon’s suggestion is route 57 also operated via North Melbourne, so tram deployment shouldn’t be an issue.

As a local resident, I can say this is the worst year ever. That’s not only my view, but also of neighbours who’ve lived in the area much longer than I have.

Langs Road is two lanes (although not marked). In previous years, the left lane would bank up but the right lane could be accessed and move more freely for locals. I think this is the first year they have used one lane for disabled parking for the show. Perhaps this has contributed to the traffic issues. Accessibility is supremely important, but I think the RASV needs to reconsider this – perhaps a shuttle solution.

There has been zero traffic management. We are all used to events and it’s part of what we love about the area, but we do want an attempt at traffic management. None by the RASV. And drivers will not leave any space for us to exit our driveways, as they’ve been sitting in frustrating traffic for too long.

Gate 11 has been open in previous years. This is the first time I recall it closed.

It seems the RASV has tried to cut costs (see also; terrible lines to collect prepaid ride tickets) but it has gone way too far.

(The tram stop closest to the Showgrounds has been closed for ~3 years. I don’t know why.)

I think the Show might actually be a little bit later this year than previously – doesn’t normally run into October?

We’ve taken the 472 from Footscray previously – was a pretty good option I think. Although I think we drove the last couple of times and parked at the Racecourse – cheaper compared to a family of four on PT.

Bring on the new trams for the western suburbs! I assume they come with infrastructure upgrades as well? Could they also run trams from Footscray to the Showgrounds? Although it would probably still be quicker to get a Showgrounds train at North Melbourne for anyone coming from the west via Footscray.

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