We are feeling very trapped at the moment. A car journey to the west, where we shop and visit for brunch a couple of times a week is now a convoluted route full of jammed up traffic and takes quite a long time to get anywhere at all. This is because our street St Kilda Road is closed for about three hundred metres north of us towards the city. The street is closed for tram track realignment past the new underground Anzac Station.
This a wonderful infrastructure project, but how we have suffered for a week and half with the same still to go. Trams are being replaced by buses for perhaps three kilometres. We have to walk about 7 minutes to the bus stop.
The bus takes a convoluted route and as like the traffic can't, the bus also can't travel along St Kilda Road either. It just takes forever to get to the city. I've used the replacement bus in all directions and after last Sunday, R has refused to do so again and I will do my best to avoid it too. Bad luck City traders and businesses. You know who to blame for such poor management.
Here is an example from last Sunday morning.
11.05, depart home to catch public transport to the city to meet family. Walk south in the opposite direction for about 7 minutes to the bus replacement stop. There is no reason why it can't be kerbside and opposite the temporary outbound bus stop. It was a very warm 29 degrees and we don't walk terribly fast now.
A bus arrives at the stop as we did but the driver closed the doors and departed. We could see the bus was packed. About five minutes later another bus turns up. It was so full it couldn't take any more passengers and did not stop. Another five or more minutes the third one stopped and the about ten of us waiting squeezed on. It was then around 11.25.There had been other people waiting, including a family of Irish tourists. They gave up and I felt sorry for them. Others had left too.
Trying to turn into Kingsway was brutal in jammed up traffic. The third set of lights in a long cycle had us past Queens Road and it wasn't so bad then. More to feel sorry for as the bus had to leave behind about a dozen people in Wells Street and maybe half a dozen in Dorcas Street. I couldn't see that there was much chance of them being able to catch a bus there for a considerable time.
By tram from our front door to Bourke Street might have taken 15 minutes by tram. We changed from the bus to a tram at the Arts Centre and arrived at Bourke Street at 11.47, that is 42 minutes travel time door to city tram stop.
We are old men. We should not be standing on swaying, lurching and braking buses. No one offered their seats to us, unlike on trams, and I don't really blame them. We've experienced a few of these bus replacements situations in the twenty years we have lived here and I have never experienced one so badly organised and managed. How could Yarra Trams possibly think that a two minute service with medium sized trams can be replaced by a five minute slow loading bus service. What world do the planners possibly live in? It is a disgrace, and of course it is on the ground staff staff who unfairly cop the flak. Overheard, you are a tram worker who voted for him. Here is Dan's work in action.
We had a cunning plan to get home, train to South Yarra, tram to one stop short of home and then walk. The non disability compliant ramp at South Yarra Station, plus now a tram in 34 degree heat and the one stop walk home nearly killed us.
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I feel for you. And wince. Work on the tram lines to the South Side of my city is about to start in earnest. And we have been told that there will be at least two YEARS of delays.
ReplyDeleteEC, there will be inconvenience for some, but it should be well managed and in this case it hasn't been. I expect your city will do it better. I note your opposition leader has said if elected the next stage of the tram line won't go ahead. Is it any wonder why Australia has virtually no Liberal governments?
DeleteThe Stalker
ReplyDeleteWe are heading to Melbourne next week come in via Westgate , Kings Way and then on to Toorak Rd.. Always drive as we go back and stay at Port Fairy for a few nights. It’s been a nightmare for a couple of years since they closed off Domain Road . Haven’t used the trams since Covid but the train from South Yarra into the city is brilliant and easy access to the galleries . We never shop in the city….hate it and we tend to hoof it through the Botanical Gardens back to SY. Sometimes we get the train back to to Prahran markets My son tries to avoid the city even though his office is in Collins Street. Fortunately he can have some meetings in South Yarra or work from home He said driving into the city is a nightmare and of course the No 8 which which he used to use goes via Mongolia now. Still I absolutely love Melbourne, Hope Santa leaves early on Christmas night to avoid the traffic Good wishes
Stalker, enjoy your drive, hahaha, bloody ha.The ramps at South Yarra Station are so steep. It is ridiculous that the station was revamped last year and not an escalator or lift installed. No one gets old age until they are old. We like shopping in the city and suburban shopping strips. We hate large shopping centres, including Melbourne Central in the city. We've both vowed to never go to Chadstone again after being badly burnt and so stressed and haven't for about four years. Yes, the 8 becoming a 58 disadvantaged many, and obviously your son. It works well for us to get us to the western part of town, with an easy walk down to So Cross Station. Better still when the 58 was changed to go past our place. Err, you have to walk uphill to South Yarra via Botanical Gardens! You are fitter than we are.
DeleteSorry you had a bad day. Replacement bus services (in Sydney mostly for trains, obviously: we are having a lot of them whilst the Bankstown line is being metro-ified) are always a nightmare. I will go to great lengths to avoid them.
ReplyDeleteMC, while inconvenient, mostly the train replacement work well enough. God knows, there has been lots of experience gained. I am following the Metrofication of the Bankstown line closely. You are living in interesting times.
DeleteYou can apply for half price taxi through local council or Centre link as long as you are over 65 with no vehicles. Sometimes a GP letter may be used as a supporting document.
ReplyDeleteRoentare, we have a car and we would never meet the medical criteria. Even 10 years ago, my now 88 year old mother could not get a half price taxi, although she never pressed the point beyond her doctor's initial letter.
DeleteYou have to walk for seven whole minutes?? Oh dear, this will never do. I shall send you my chauffer.
ReplyDeleteRiver, surprisingly it is not always all about me, in this case R. That walk was fine. Full buses passing us by was not. It was a tiring day, not helped by the heat. More on what we did later.
DeleteI thought of you when I heard the disruption reports on the telly. We lived on the Frankston line when they were doing the rail crossing removals. It was a bloody nightmare.
ReplyDeleteCaro, I wonder if you saw faults in the way things were organised. The inconvenience is one thing, but poor managing is another.
DeleteThat sounds like a nightmare of a day for you both. As you said going by car you’d have had the same difficulties that the public transport option had. And yes when you’ve been used to reasonable service it definitely hurts when it’s not available.
ReplyDeleteCathy, yes I am well aware some people might have one hour bus service on a Sunday if they have a service at all. But then we expect a certain level of service for what it costs to live here. Normally we try to not use the car to benefit the environment and other road users. It is mostly quite efficient at getting us around, although often not the fastest if we are not going to the city.
DeleteI hope they realign that tram track soon, open up the street again, and going into town will once again be a pleasure.
ReplyDeleteI don't have to go into downtown Cleveland to shop. These days, there are more stores in the suburbs!
17th of December has now been extended to the 19th of December, Kirk. Stores in the suburbs sounds good to me, as long as not in massive shopping centres.
DeleteOh my goodness, how frustrating and on a hottish day to top it off. Let's hope you both have to do that again, ever.
ReplyDeleteDon't they always fix roads just before Christmas!
Margaret, we won't be doing it again. Don't worry about that. There barely seems to be a street around here that is not having some works done.
DeleteI could have written your post with other names and circumstances but in Brussels and outskirts the Bus/tram situation is exactly as you describe, except it lasts since at least 25 years ! It's like a lottery to catch a bus on time or not at all or late and usually so packed that you can't put a needle in between the people. Tram is the same. Nothing is on time, or they are on strike because the whole system is rotten. That's why everybody take its car otherwise they would never arrive at work. The public transport is a catastrophe ! On Sundays I have ONE bus per hour or ONE train to get to Brussels !
ReplyDeleteIs Waterloo the second largest city in Belgium? One bus and one train per hour to Brussels is a disgrace, Sunday or any other day. Amsterdam and Netherlands has good public transport. Switzerland has amazing public transport. It is surprising that Belgium's is not better.
DeleteIt's in the whole country ! Waterloo is just 15 km from Brussels ! Have to ask my son but he never complained about public transport. He mostly takes his bike. Switzerland I have no idea because I have only seen a part of it and didn't even see a bus or tram !
DeleteSounds like at the very least they need to add some more buses!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely Steve. There is so much work happening on suburban and regional rail lines needing bus replacements I think they are quite short of bus drivers.
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