Old photos from April 2010

Another of my monthly posts of old photos from ten years ago.

Rudd’s apology to the Stolen Generations, on a building in Little Bourke Street…

…alongside Canadian PM Stephen Harper’s similar apology. (Both since removed)

A rather more pedestrian view nearby: a few months before the Lonsdale Street bus routes got a shake-up with the introduction of Smartbus services, an outbound bus waits for departure adjacent to the remains of the former Age building.

Also nearby: Skybus boarding at Southern Cross Station. Since then they’ve ditched the bendy buses (at least for their main City to Airport route) in favour of double deckers to increase capacity.

The view over Docklands, featuring Etihad Stadium (now Marvel Stadium), the Wheel after it had been pulled apart but before they rebuilt it, and not as many buildings as today.

Myki had launched on trains in December 2009. It would launch on buses and buses trams a few months after this photo, in July 2010.

Back then some of the Myki readers were not spectacularly reliable. They’ve thankfully improved a bit over the years.

The 703 bus boarding at Bentleigh station in evening peak hour. Lots of people use buses to get to railway stations, yet ten years on, the weekday service on this route hasn’t changed. Still very poor after 7pm, which undermines its usefulness even for city commuters. In the last Federal election, there was a Coalition pledge to upgrade the car park instead, with no explanation as to where extra spaces would actually go.

A bunch of Metcards. I was trying to calculate just how many cards were produced over the system’s lifespan. I suspect it was billions. (I once had an inspector say, with a little too much obsequiousness, “Thank you” after spotting the Yearly.)

I like the sentiments, but… this isn’t a tram stop.