Another in my regular series of posts of photos from ten years ago: covering November 2013.
Train patronage was surging at this time, and it was obvious to passengers, with overcrowding at peak times.
So with the crowding in mind, what was this new development at Flinders Street station? Additional capacity by reinstating platform 11? No. Building a bar/restaurant, now called Arbory.
Not every train was busy, and this shows the Siemens trains were still problematic for cleanliness. Eventually a refurb, new seat cushions and crucially, a new cleaning contract fixed it.
On the trams, “bum rack” seating was rolling out on the B Class fleet. I still think this was a bad idea – they’re just very inefficient in terms of space.
The then new E Class fleet was hitting the rails. Although a pretty good tram design, the door close to the front of the tram was confusing – as shown by this signage. The G Class tram has a passenger door at the front instead – much better.
A Napthine promotion of their transport projects to residents in the Kingston and Glen Eira areas. The text is all about local projects, but the graphic is all about their signature project, East West Link – it’s very difficult to see how that would have benefitted or affected most people in the area – and of course it had numerous other flaws. Thankfully EWL was cancelled.
I thought this was an odd subject for Australia Post to focus on for stamps. The use of Christmas Island for immigration detention meant that for some there it wasn’t very merry.
Perhaps even odder when viewed through a 2023 lens (with wars currently in Ukraine and Gaza): department store Myer using a tank for a promotion.
Up on the in-laws farm, I was setting fire to my car. Or at least, using the car to get to where we needed to help with the burn off.
Meanwhile in Swanston Street, yet another car ignores all the signage and goes the wrong way.
The PTUA started the Paul Mees Award after his passing in June 2013. This was the very first: to the South Morang and Mernda Rail Alliance. L-R are Trevor Carroll (SMMRA), Tony Morton (PTUA), myself, and Darren Peters (SMMRA).
One reply on “Old photos from November 2013”
The newer bum racks on the B classes are absolute rubbish, they sit a mile out from the wall wasting even more space than a row of sideways folding seats would have. The older Apollo design had smaller bum racks, the same as per the C class fleet, and are flush against the wall allowing for at least ten more passengers to fit compared to the newer design.