Here’s another in my series of ten year old photos, this time from September 2014. We were now fast approaching the November 2014 state election, as you’ll see in some of these snaps.
Flinders Street Station’s clocks – if you look closely you’ll note some line names were modified as late as the 1990s (Cranbourne) but not since (St Albans, Broadmeadows).
From this angle, Ikea at Springvale looks pretty impressive.
What’s worse than an ad covering the windows? An ad covering the windows that’s irrelevant to the audience.
The entrance to Bentleigh station – structure dating from the 1980s when the third platform was built, and presumably the old sign is the same vintage.
In 2014, trains were packed every weekday. In 2024, some business types think CBD office workers have all forgotten about this, and are willing to go back to commuting five days a week.
Labor was going full steam ahead on its election campaign, with level crossing removals a key promise. On this morning, I found soon-to-be Premier Daniel Andrews (with then shadow PT minister Jill Hennessy, shadow roads minister Luke Donnellan and local candidate Nick Staikos) promising removal of the crossing at Bentleigh. (Read my blog from the time)
On the same day, it was time for dozens of government reports to be released en masse at Parliament.
I found what I was looking for: the PTV Annual Report, which highlighted something we see less of nowadays, a big increase in services. The momentum towards a “turn up and go” network has been put on pause. Time will tell if this gets back on track in 2025 when the Metro tunnel opens.
Spotted in the wild: the ill-fated SuitJet premium commuter bus.
This was a bit of a rarity I think? Siemens train with ex-Connex seat covers.
Many Siemens trains at the time looked more like this: plain blue seat covers, and walls covered in graffiti.
A sign of times gone past: the old Open Door button and indicator on a Z-class tram.
Many people remain angry about the near-$1 billion of taxpayer funds paid by Labor not to build the East West Link. But as this MX story from 30 September 2014 reminds us, it was compensation set up by the Coalition before they lost government (what we now know as the side-letter) – but they refused to tell us at the time.
While the Coalition wasn’t talking about their East West Link contracts, they were happy to advertise the rest of their infrastructure agenda – in some cases to almost ridiculous lengths.
A windy day, a bad day for umbrellas.
4 replies on “Old photos from September 2014”
I think the post highlights the hypocrisy of the Liberal Party, who call for transparency in regards to Suburban Rail Loop (and calling for its axing), but weren’t transparent themselves when it came to East-West Link, and even booby-trapped the Labor Party by signing a contract in caretaker mode (which I believe is illegal) so Labor would have to pay for what the Liberals did. But no doubt the Liberal front that is the Herald Sun loves the punters to have a short memory. And we talk about the Suburban Rail Loop going over budget, many of the projects the Liberals wanted to implement were not costed and were prone to cost blowouts as well (which to be fair is common for everything, even building a house can result in cost blowouts and delays, so the latest cost blowouts are pretty much pack and parcel of anything being built anywhere in the world).
Technically they didn’t sign the EWL contract within the caretaker period… and my reading of it is it’s a convention rather than a legally defined rule.
https://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politicians-reluctant-to-twiddle-thumbs-in-caretaker-periods-20141110-11jlko.html
But yes, signing this type of contract, with such a huge compo clause, shortly before an election where they knew the other side had pledged to cancel the project, was definitely not in the spirit of things.
If I recall correctly, the Coalition government provided the “side letter” because, with an election looming, the ALP opposition had come out against the project, and the construction consortium was threatening to walk away from the project unless it got a guarantee of compensation.
So, has this PTV livery of today, been around for 10 years. I am going by the bus stop sign shown above.
That must be a record, for us to have the same livery for 10 years? I guess only the old VR and MMTB had theirs for longer, although VR where never uniform across their fleet. Metro and Vline respectivley are.
And, the PDIS screens and Flinders Street.