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Photos from ten years ago

Old photos from March 2011

Another in my series of photos from ten years ago: March 2011.

A Hitachi train, still in service (they were finally phased out in 2014) passing the MCG. If you believe the headboard, it’s going to Altona, which seems… unlikely.

Hitachi train passing MCG, March 2011

Myki was just over a year old in Melbourne, and they were keen to encourage people to shift from Metcard. While you have to pre-load money onto Myki to make it work, individual trips were cheaper as Myki Money was mostly aligned to the bulk discount 10×2 hour Metcard fares. (Blurry photo; sorry)

Advertising for Myki, March 2011

One of Metlink’s campaigns for public transport

Metlink advertising, March 2011

Metro also had advertising – of course a lot of people didn’t have smartphones back then, so reading a road map was still something people did.

Metro advertising, March 2011

Perhaps the advertising was helping. Patronage was booming – even on weekends. Melbourne was becoming a busy place, and on the longer lines, the 20 minute services were no longer cutting it – even with six carriage trains and no football crowds.

Crowd waits for Dandenong train, March 2011

To be fair, it wasn’t too much after this that they upgraded the longest lines to run every 10 minutes on weekends – they started on the Ringwood, Dandenong and Frankston lines in April 2012.

Crowded Dandenong line train, March 2011

And finally, a view of the Bourke Street Mall at lunchtime. The sun is shining, the people are strolling, the trams are rolling. And there’s an Armaguard van illegally parked in the background again.

Bourke Street Mall, including illegally parked Armaguard van, March 2011

By Daniel Bowen

Transport blogger / campaigner and spokesperson for the Public Transport Users Association / professional geek.
Bunurong land, Melbourne, Australia.
Opinions on this blog are all mine.

2 replies on “Old photos from March 2011”

Those bumblebee trams (C2 class) have been here for ten years, and it is hard to believe we had 10 minute frequencies to Dandenong on sat/sun now for 10 years too. But then again, as one thinks about it….

Time sure does fly. I guess the C2 class where still on loan back then too?

It is odd, for the front destination to be set wrongly. You would expect the two inner motors to have anything set on them. I would guess that, Altona is the next destination along from Alamein, and for some reason the driver was one position out from what he meant to select.

Clothing doesn’t seem to have changed much in ten years.

I was surprised to recently learn, teeth gnashing, that the Sandringham line service drops at weekends to every 20 minutes. While the line is not overcrowded, it is a long wait. I suppose it is the same for the Glen Waverley line.

Over the last week I’ve caught so many trains, trams and buses and generally my experience has been good.
There was a missing 72 tram off peak on the very day I had an appointment to be somewhere on time. The following crowded tram got me there just on time.
A very uneven service on route 58 West Coburg bound from South Yarra Station.

PTV timetables say most trains from Williamstown and Laverton continue to Frankston and so they do and I later checked and the midday train from Williamstown I was on was meant to continue to Frankston and I would get off at South Yarra and catch the 58 tram home. I was relaxed at Flinders Street, confident I would soon be in South Yarra until I heard one passenger ask another, does this train go to Werribee? Yes was the answer. I got off and checked the platform display and that was correct. A Frankston train was on the adjacent platform and left a minute or so later. Strange. If anyone is that interested, it was 1.00pm weekday from North Williamstown.

While the Harris trains seemed so luxurious compared to the red Tait trains, wow, when Hitachi trains arrived, they were a world apart. The Comeng with aircon were another huge step forwards, and they were so smooth and quiet. Now compared to later trains, they are no so good and showing their age.

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