Fri 15 August 2008 - Some things never change II
Where is that damn train?
Flinders Street Station, 1920s (or maybe 30s?)
(From the Public Record Office Victoria)
Flinders Street Station, 2007
Yeah the angles don’t match, but I reckon it’s not bad given that I took the new picture last year, before seeing the older one.
AND it’s exactly the same platforms in shot. AND in both there’s a train on platform 9.
(As far as I can tell, the old picture, being from before 1955, is out of copyright. Anybody in the know — and a few who have that knowledge lurk here, I know it — care to confirm or deny that, before I get into trouble?)
August 15th, 2008 at 8:41am
Although the loop was not built until the 1970s, there were calls for an underground railway of some sort for years before. That image shows the main drivers for the those calls - overcrowding at your choice of 1 of 2 whole stations to board for your journey home. This was made even worse by the class system on suburban trains, which was not abolished until around 1958 and passengers pushed through to find a second class compartment on the Swing door or Tait trains.
I’d be interested to see the St Kilda or Port Melbourne trains on platform 11 in one of these old images.
August 15th, 2008 at 8:47am
At least now we don’t get poked in the eye by a hat very often.
August 15th, 2008 at 9:04am
Where is the train? “Connex apologises for any inconvenience caused.” Oh what a familiar catch phrase you hear when waiting on the platform.Crowded trains, fewer services, get rid of connex.
August 15th, 2008 at 10:25am
Great comparison photos!
The PROV states they own the copyright on all content on their website
August 15th, 2008 at 12:22pm
Don’t forget to email them a copy of your photo for their records as a sweetener!
August 15th, 2008 at 12:39pm
I’ve come to the rather cynical conclusion of late that the reason Connex never offers explanations for service disruptions is that a) there are no reasons or b) the reasons are so puerile, an eight-year old could disprove and rebuke them.
August 15th, 2008 at 1:32pm
Andrew S: Interestingly, one of the big motivators for building the loop was to help with pedestrian flows, not train flows.
PlatiNumEuro: Connex isn’t the problem. To a large extent they’re playing with the cards they’ve been given. Lack of willpower and leadership from the government is the problem.
Jayne: I’ll check it out with People Who Know, but it appears at first glance that the copyright text is a default template, as the Copyright web site is pretty clear that for a photograph that old, copyright has expired.
August 15th, 2008 at 4:58pm
OK, as a PROV employee, let me chime in here - PROV owns copyright to our website, not to all material provided via our system which is a) a public record and b) out of the copyright period. We do administer Crown Copyright on records where it applies. The rule isn’t quite as simple as what you state - it’s not just 50 years anymore - but that notwithstanding, I’d say you’re pretty safe. (Bearing in mind that I am not a lawyer, of course …)
August 15th, 2008 at 6:12pm
The hat trade seemed to be roaring back then - no wonder skin cancer is on the rise!
August 15th, 2008 at 6:20pm
Australian Fair Use laws
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1968133/s41.html
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1968133/s42.html
I’m sure you’d get away with using this photo because you are comparing it to another photo and there is no other possible way to do that comparison so it is considered fair use in the same way that images on Wikipedia are used.
August 15th, 2008 at 11:03pm
ok im wrong- not removed from http://www.keepingmelbournemoving.com.au/vision.aspx - but still it goes to show that times don’t change when it comes to our transport problems!
August 16th, 2008 at 10:11am
Re comment 7 - I was talking passenger volumes actually - the crowded platform images speak volumes.
However reagrding train movements there would have been peak hour problems too - there are more lines east of Flinders Street than west so running through the city alone was never going to get trains through effectively peak hour pre loop days - reversing of trains from the east would have been inevitable. Today however supplementing loop trains with straight through ones would help capacity beyond that of the four tunnels.
August 16th, 2008 at 11:00am
That’s rather spiffy. I’ve got nothing to add to the discussion, it’s just a cool (if somewhat sad) comparison.
August 17th, 2008 at 3:52pm
Great comparison. Still doesn’t look as crowded though, but I guess that’s not considering all the people waiting at the other loop stations.
…and there is still a hat store in Flinders Street just next to the clocks.