Here’s another of my monthly posts of photos from ten years ago – this time it’s October 2014, fast approaching the November state election.
This was some unconventional advertising for the election – the “Southern Express” spruiking the Coalition government’s upgrades on the Frankston line.
The unions meanwhile were lying in wait outside the station.
On the station was this government advertising. Little did they know that the station was about to be transformed beyond all recognition – the Coalition would go on to lose the 2014 election, and as a result within two years it would be completely rebuilt – a key Labor promise.
Elsewhere on the public transport network, advertising adorned the cafe building at Caulfield station…
…as well as the trains themselves. Thankfully ads on Metro train windows would later be banned, but it continues to be an issue on trams, buses and V/Line.
Armaguard has been illegally driving through the Bourke Street Mall for decades. At least now they’ve stopped parking there. (No, they don’t have an exemption. That’s a rule in NSW only.)
In Seddon I found this, portraying some of the history of railway sport Trugo, and the local tram network.
The notorious Bourke Street tram stop near Southern Cross station. Since this photo was taken, they’ve added extra exits, and even removed one car lane (replaced by a bike lane and widened footpath)… they’ve done everything except widen the platform and the exit and reprogram the traffic lights… and so it still gets jammed with people.
Also the same now as ten years ago: the Sunbury line’s hopeless 40 minute Sunday morning frequencies, resulting in crowding. It’ll likely get fixed on that line when the Metro tunnel opens, but no news on them fixing the others.
I am trying to remember what this document was. Some kind of bus service expansion proposal. I don’t think it was an official document. Maybe BusVic? Does anybody recognise it?
In Richmond, the Dimmeys building was undergoing renovation.
And finally, some glimpses of the truly massive “If you see something, say something” national security hotline campaign that ran across the public transport network that month.
The concourse at Flagstaff station I thought it went just a little bit over-the-top…
…At least one person thought it was unwarranted.
5 replies on “Old photos from October 2014”
Not much hasn’t changed in that 2nd photo, in the last 10 years, but I’m happy to report I got dinner from Wongs Noodle Bar last Saturday, and it’s as good as it’s ever been!
What café building at Caulfield Station? If there is one, I’ve not noticed it.
I think it is arguable that it is more important to keep tram and bus windows clear of advertising ahead of trains.
I hated those Armguard vehicles and their illegal parking. Even now the staff will park a van next to Maples Cafe in Footscray where people are sitting outside and disappear somewhere, leaving the noisy diesel engine idling away.
I wonder if it will be a ten minute daytime service to Sunbury. Every second train could terminate short of Sunbury. I really hope not.
I am amused by Flagstaff Station and I quite agree with defacer of last sign. I wonder if the national security hotline phone number still works? I just tried it, and it does.
@Andrew, there was a cafe there when I was studying at Monash University (2009-2010), but I think it is no longer there (the building may be phyiscally there, but it may be something else there now. Haven’t been in the area for a long time, so I wouldn’t know. Sorry I can’t help you any more on that front.
@Andrew, in the part about the posters, the Liberal Party (who commissioned the posters that Daniel put up in the article) are fast becoming the party of fear and not hope (the rot within the Liberal Party begun under Howard at the Federal Level after September 11 and it has gotten worse at the Federal Level under Dutton), and often resort to things like “If You See Something, Say Something” because:
1) the Liberal Party has nothing to offer people, and they basically need to distract the populace from the fact that they have nothing to offer.
2) it is easier to control people if they are scared, but if people are not scared, then it is difficult to control (it’s basically Psychology 1A).
3) it is easier to control people if the education system is constantly underfunded, especially if the school happens to be a public school, which gets almost no funding (and forced to do fundraisers to keep the library open, or to do urgent works such as replacing a broken window), while the exclusive private schools in places such as Kew gets a second, or even third, wellness centre or a theatre that puts Her Majesty’s Theatre to shame funded by taxpayers who have no chance in hell of ever going to these schools (as highlighted in the moving billboard in the second picture).
The Caulfield “Metro Cafe” branding on the building doesn’t really match the current use, which (going by a Google Maps image from 2022) is a Chinese restaurant. https://maps.app.goo.gl/AzeuFBPuGDG4d9pC9