Old photos from Nov and Dec 2015

I’m a bit behind posting my ten year old photos, so here’s a batch from November and December 2015.

We had a trip to Sydney – Central Station’s concourse always looks a bit more appealing to me than those at Southern Cross or Flinders Street.

Museum Station in Sydney has that 1920s aesthetic

Sydney was in the process of switching to Opal cards.

We were up in Sydney for a Doctor Who event, including photos with Malcolm Tucker, The Doctor, Peter Capaldi!

Back at home… salami tactics with road building. First build a narrow road extension with a suspicious lack of exits/entries. Then widen it (shown here) from one lane to three lanes each way. Don’t be surprised if in the future they decide it should be a fully-blown freeway.

Flinders Street Station… in Lego!

On board a busy but not crowded train home.

This one was rather more packed.

Different day, another packed train.

Also packed: the Degraves St/Campbell Arcade exit of Flinders Street Station. These days it’s got more ticket gates and more space through the exit.

Nearby… remember when this section of Elizabeth Street had so many delivery motorbikes parked on it that people used to walk on the road? Completely backwards. Thankfully they’ve banned motorbike parking on this section of footpath since then.

At Southern Cross Station, they allowed the entire station to be adorned with advertising for public transport’s main competitor – cars.

Meanwhile, cars continued to do their best to ruin the CBD. Here we see no less than five motorists flout rule 128 and drive into the intersection when it was blocked. Of course most of the people they’re delaying are in other cars.

Tram superstops need to be designed and located with vehicle turning circles in mind. But drivers of large vehicles have to take responsibility too. Here a coach has become stuck trying to make a turn.

PTUA’s Annual General Meeting that year featured a speech and Q+A from then Transport Minister (now Premier) Jacinta Allan. To keep the things moving and get through as many questions as possible, we got audience members to write their questions on cards, which I read out. One guy wrote on a card that his question was too long to fit on a card. Yeah – sorry mate – that was the point.

Myki readers had been installed on trams around 2010-2012. By 2015, they were being replaced. These ones lasted until 2025-26 – they’re now being replaced by the following generation (which will allow bank card fare payments).

Ugh. All-over-advertising on a W-class tram. Heritage? What heritage?

All-night weekend public transport was about to be introduced, having been promised at the 2014 election. It quickly got made permanent, and one side-benefit was that it fixed the terrible late start for trains on Sundays (though service frequency leaves a lot to be desired).

And finally…
As of 2025, the Metro Tunnel has just opened (more or less), but back ten years ago it was in its infancy.