A shiny new thing

I found a new barber and the shop looked quite smart. It would be $5 more for a haircut, but I am an adventurous soul...in some areas. Alas, it is popular and was booked out.

I returned to the one I had been going to for a year or more, which wasn't bad when I first visited but it has deteriorated. I never see the same barber twice, and the last two different guys have been quite rough with their buzz cutting machines. 

As I was looking into the mirror in front of me, watching the reflection of the passing parade of pedestrians outside the salon, I spied something unusual about a passing tram. Was it our sole new operational G Class tram? 

With the reflection confusing me about direction, I did eventually work out it was travelling one more stop to the Flinders Street terminus. 

My unsatisfactory haircut finished and as I left the salon, the tram was starting off from the terminus. I can still walk briskly if a situation requires it, and so I did and caught the tram. I rode the tram to Victoria Market, and caught another tram back.

There isn't a figure available for how much a new tram costs, in this case 100 new trams bundled in with a new depot, maintenance facilities, etc. The figure for 100 new trams and the aforesaid costs is AU$1.85 billion.

So, what did I think? Just wonderful. It was smooth, quiet and felt quite luxurious. It is better insulated from the tracks, the aircon noise wasn't noticeable, the internal passenger information displays were very well thought out. The only fault I noticed was some internal panel rattle as the tram crossed other tram tracks at right angles. 

Some trivia for you, in spite of spinner Adam Chandler (I'm disappointed in you Adam) fronting a video suggesting Melbourne has had a great mix of tram lettering numbering, not really. In order from the early 20th century, we had V Class, W, X, Y, Z, A, B, C, D, E, and we skip F Class, to G Class. OK, there was an L Class thrown in too, but really, it does not need super intelligence to guess why F Class was omitted. The thing is, had Yarra Trams or Department of Transport just admitted it wanted to avoid F Class for the obvious reasons, it would have been refreshing honesty, we'd have a chuckle and move on.

Externally it is a bit weird looking, but we'll get used to it. I took these photos after I left the tram. 

For the more nerdy of you, modern trams pull a lot of electricity from the substations via the overhead wires. These trams have batteries which the tram uses to uses to even out power draws. New substations were not required for these trams. 

Friday Funnies

Nothing too hilarious just a couple of vids that grabbed my eye.

I will be away for a few days. I vont to be alone. I do have a post scheduled for Monday. See y'all soon.

The old lady seems to be doing rather better on the conveyor belt than staff. But note how the luggage is all lined up and out of ther way. That is not my luggage carousel experience. 

While Romania might have modern trams, it could really do with spending some money on its tram tracks.

Moaning Minnie goes on

I caught our shiny new train and then a tram to Brunswick to see and photograph a sculpture at a shopping centre. I could not find it and distressingly Guggling informed me it had been stolen in 2024. Worth $60,000, I would guess it has been melted down for the bronze content. Nevertheless, I had never visited the Barkly Square shopping centre and it was interesting enough, being small and local.

I received the quote for car body repair and fainted. I remember discussing with Ray that given we hadn't made a car insurance claim for a couple of decades, we would reduce our premium by increasing the excess that must be paid before the claim to $2,200. The repair quote came in at $4,200 and possibly an extra $500 if the alignment wasn't right, whatever that means. However, pay cash and the cost will be discounted to $3,600. This is a large chain company, yet so ready to cheat on tax by receiving cash payment. SHEEsh. As is said, I am considering my options.

The roar of the fans goes on. Bone Doctor will stay tonight. Her mother with rapid onset MND, has deteriorated rapidly. She was transferred from her South Gippsland home to the Alfred Hospital. I will find out more when Bone Doctor arrives, and she has already stated she will need a stiffie. A strong drink she means, not as some of you thought. The disease is not treatable, so I expect the end is nigh.

Phyllis, Kosov and I are taking a road trip tomorrow, which is rather irresponsible by way of using up petrol when there is a shortage, thanks to Fuck Face #47. The trip will do a power of good for our mental health, and worth every cent of the inflated petrol price. Someone is making a lot of money out of the rise in fuel prices, but a definitive answer by experts seems to be impossible. I know someone knows.

For local tram nerds, in Sydney Road I saw a D1 pass by as I walked to the tram stop to travel home, against what Tram Tracker was telling me, I could see the headlights of a Z tram approaching. Well, this was rather convenient, a number 6 tram approaching in Sydney Road that will take me all the way home without changing. It was a diverted tram as something wrong must have happened on its normal route.

Remembering Agnes

Agnes emigrated to Australia from Scotland in the 1970s. She was single but she had been in a relationship with someone called Bob. She knocked several years off her age and obtained work as a chambermaid at the Windsor Hotel, yes a posh Melbourne hotel and it still is. 

Mid 1970s she joined the tramways as a conductor at South Melbourne tram depot where she and Ray met and they became life long friends.

She spoke with what I now know as a posh Scottish accent, and it was magical to hear her speak. 

She lived in a rented flat in a block called Cremorne Court on the extremely busy Punt Road, Richmond.

She and Ray eventually became assistant conductors, boarding busy trams to assist with collecting fares, but they managed to sneak time off for coffee and shopping, never being discovered missing by their supervisors Misters Jekyll and Hyde, as they called them. In the afternoon they would be stationed in Russell Street to sell tickets to the queues waiting to board tramway buses towards Doncaster and Templestowe.  They carried a machine that dispensed tickets with the wind of a handle. This meant the buses could quickly load as the driver did not have to take fares, and the bus would be smartly away. Rinse and repeat for the a couple of hours.

She retired at government pension age, then perhaps 63 for women and at the urging of the union, received compensation for her chest and breathing issues caused by inhaling diesel fumes from the the buses, never mind that she smoked forty cigarettes a day. Along with the then retirement gratuity scheme, she had enough money to buy a modest flat in Murrumbeena. 

We helped Agnes move, and she was a hoarder and a voracious reader. There were even books stacked in her toilet. We got rid of so much of her hoardings, but I can't remember how. 

She was very happy in her Murrumbeena flat, and unless someone invited her out, she was content at home with her cigarettes and books. She did stop hoarding once she moved. She had less opportunity to do so where she now lived as there weren't all the Richmond shops nearby. 

At our home in Prosper Parade, Glen Iris, we were hosting a family barbeque, with us all sitting out on the timber decking under the shade of the massive jacaranda tree, growing in our neighbour's back yard.

We had to come together to celebrate my birthday. Simultaneously, the fat in the barbeque caught fire with flames a metre high and the telephone rang. Ray answered the phone while I and my step father dealt with the fire. 

The phone call was from a neighbour of Agnes, who remarked that he hadn't seen her around for a couple of days and she wasn't answering her phone. Ray called the police, who forced an entry and Agnes was found dead in a lounge chair with a book on her knee. 

Ray had met Agnes' sister, who lived on Bribie Island off the Queensland coast.  The sister immediately cranked up when informed and said, Agnes has a will and her money and property are left to me. I know Agnes had a sister still in Scotland, so I am not sure why she wasn't due something. But isn't that just so sad that it was the first thing the sister said, and she was very aggressive towards Ray, as if he was going to steal from Agnes.

I think that would have been about 1991.

Along with her friend, Pat O'Haire, who lived in a lovely flat overlooking Hedgeley Dene Gardens in Malvern, Ray and I scattered Agnes' ashes in the rose garden at Springvale Crematorium. Pat was a very funny woman and there was much hilarity as Agnes' ashes were thrown into the wind, rather than downwind.

So here's to Agnes, and wouldn't you like someone to compose almost an OB about 35 years after you died. I found all these when sorting through Ray's stuff after he died. 

With George Harvey, a Mormon and not gay as the church would have disapproved, but he was as camp as a edit: row of tents.  

Ghost Trams

There was some botheration in Chapel Street last Saturday night, with hoons doing car burnouts and general bad and risky driving. I suppose the Route 78 tram was disrupted, probably just running from North Richmond to Toorak Road where it can turn back a short distance past the beginning of Chapel Street. It was also a possible a tram could run from the southern Balaclava terminus to Dandenong Road. That still leaves quite a gap in between. 

I thought I would take a look at the Route 78 on Saturday night, and down the rabbit hole I went. Route 78 is one of two Melbourne routes than don't travel via the city. It would probably have the highest count of hop on hop off travellers for its distance in Melbourne, and probably the highest fare evasion too. I've never seen ticket inspectors checking tickets. 

Here we go, and I'll try to keep it simple. Route 78 is operated by Kew Tram Depot a few kilometres from the North Richmond terminus.  That means when the service closes for the evening, all trams return to Kew Depot, via the North Richmond terminus.

The last three trams from North Richmond arrive at the Balaclava terminus at 1.18am, 1.37am and 1.55am, and the last service from Balaclava to North Richmond leaves at 1.24am. We can assume the tram that arrives at Balaclava at 1.18 becomes the 1.24 to North Richmond. 

But there are still two trams to arrive at Balaclava, 1.37 and 1.55, that need to return to the Kew Depot. Why aren't they shown on the timetable as returning to North Richmond then Kew Depot? They can't just go 'poof' in a cloud of smoke and disappear, so how do they get back?

Obviously they do return via North Richmond and Kew Depot, as ghost trams. They are not listed on timetables and I don't know if they show on apps, but after contacting my tram driver contact who knows all things trams, they do take customers passengers. So the last tram from Balaclava to North Richmond is not actually 1.24 but some time after 1.55. 

Twenty years ago, Chapel Street traffic on Friday and Saturday nights could be diabolical, with trams not moving faster in some areas than walking pace, or stationary in traffic for long periods. I don't know about the current situation and I have no intention of staying up late to find out. So, the above could be quite theoretical if the service falls apart as it used to on those two nights. 

I expect the same would happen with the other non city tram, Route 82, but your brain is already hurting so I won't check.

The service is operated by small and boxy A Class trams, one of two routes where they normally operate. They were the last trams built without air conditioning in the mid 1980s, and have high steps to enter. Chapel Street does not have one platform stop, all are at road level. Air con was installed in the driver's cabins at each end a number of years ago. 

An A Class tram. By Bahnfrend - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37653884

Lunch and a puzzle

By popular demand, I have now included the photos. Most of this was a copy and paste of my notes as I looked at each photo, and I didn't intend to include the photos, as my friend has the photos to refer to. But here they are now.

I had lunch with Wombat in town yesterday. It was a such a nice catch up with someone who I have a long history with, maybe thirty years. 

She had three photos with her that she couldn't remember when and where. Here is a paste of what I could work out from the photos.

Photo 1.

First Domain Interchange opened 1986.

Interchange doesn't look new. W class trams dominate but 1 Z class at interchange siding to make a return journey to West Coburg.

The tree leaves look very fresh and full, so I suggest the season is spring.

It's been raining and there is significant flooding on the inbound service road. I don't recall water pooling there.

BP House doesn't seem to have been converted to The Domain. The conversion was completed in 1995.

I suggest the photo was taken in 1993, or maybe 1994.

Photo 2.

The trees appear the same and the roadway and dome of the synagogue is wet. Photo taken on the same day. A Z class tram is visible in St Kilda Road.

I can't see anything useful in this photo.

Photo 3.

The dominant Australian Unity building was in Albert Road. I can remember seeing it from Kingsway, especially when we used to go to the long gone Palmerston Hotel. I'd be outside in the beer garden taking in some fresh air and looking up at the building.

I conclude in spring about 1994 you were in a high rise building in St Kilda Road between Park Street and Dorcas Street, with unobscured views to the east, south and south west, and there had been heavy rain. You were about 29 years old. Channel 7 studios were in Dorcas Street and it was perhaps the tallest building in the area at the time.  Lol, were you on tv? In the audience for a game show? 

But no. That doesn't add up. I can't remember the tall buildings now at that location, but it clearly was tall. 

A visit to northside

Melbourne is divided by the river Yarra. People who live on the north side of the river, the hipster types, the young artistic types, and the left of politics comfortable middle class despise the wealthier south siders of the Yarra, with their fascination of property values, labelled clothing and the latest trends. God forbid, there are a lot of voters for our conservative party led by Peter Dultrump.

I ventured northside yesterday by the 11 West Preston tram and returned home by a 207 bus and then a tram. The Saturday bus service is not very frequent and gosh was the bus loaded. There is a green right turn arrow from Russell Street into Lonsdale Street but it wasn't working and it took four sets of the lights to turn right. Absolutely disgusting treatment to bus travellers. The bus should alert the traffic lights of its presence. 

Phyliss and Kosov had their friend Sarah visit today. They cooked up a meal and ate in the afternoon and then went out together. 

I was thinking of having a takeaway pizza tonight as part of my balanced diet but Phyllis told me I will have one of my meals on wheels, quiche with roast potatoes and vegetables. Then Phyliss said he was going out. What about my dinner you promised to serve? Phyllis relayed instructions to Kosov as to how to heat my meal and present it a nice manner. It was good. Kosov is mentally exhausted. His social interaction battery is much smaller than Phyllis', and as I write, he is working on project for his food safety studies. 

Oh yes, today I went out wearing a clean shirt. I was in a cramped space to eat before an outside table became available. Egg yolk dripped from my burger onto my shirt, and then fat. To top it off, coffee spilt from my cup onto my shirt. Somehow even my phone screen was splattered with something. I am becoming an old man with dribbles down his shirt. At least at this point in my life, I knew my shirt was dirty and changed once I was home. 

Trams are remarkably safe

Trams are very safe, and even if you are motorist and hit by one, the tram driver will have probably already applied emergency brakes. It is rare for the tram driver to be at fault when trams and cars collide. I assume it is still in the road laws that you must give way to trams at all times. 

I would guess most tram versus cars/vans/trucks happen when a motorist makes a 'U turn' in front of a tram. The plaintive wail will go out, 'I didn't see the tram'. Yeah, right, this great big vehicle carrying up to 200 passengers. What happened was they did think to check if there was a tram travelling along tram tracks. Who would have thought?  Next crash results might be failing to give way to a tram at a roundabout.

I've never been a passenger on a tram where it has been in an accident. 

Maybe I've used some of these photos before, but no matter. I want to clear the folder. It would be nice to credit the recent photos, but they just appeared at some point without a credit.

McMahons Point, Sydney. This was a bad one, as I recall. People were deaded. 

Flinders and Swanston Streets, Melbourne. A brake failure, as I recall. 

Taylor Square, Oxford Street, Sydney. It's a bit busy.

While in black and white, it is not a very old photos. 

Gold Coast, Queensland. The motorist drove onto tram tracks for some reason. Such an action caused issues. 

Nothing to see here, except for a tram on fire. I think our fire department are taught how to deal with train and tram fires, needed because of the electrics. 

Yep, as I said, a U turns. 

Oh, trams hitting trams is not good. St Kilda. 

Tram only signs completely ignored did not result in smooth city driving. 

Lost for words

I don't know what this post is about. I am just writing.

Yesterday I met the newest of the family. He is...a baby a few weeks old. I bought some absurdly expensive clothing for him at the posh Seed shop in Albert Park. Ray and I used to argue there every time we bought some clothing for a new born. Me, we are not spending that much, and then I spent that much. I asked for it to be wrapped and the shirt and shorts was wrapped very nicely in tissue paper, in a white box with a red ribbon around. No extra charge. They are size 1, perfect for him next summer. 

Mondays I have to hang around home to wait for my food delivery around noon. My neighbour HH was off to Morning Melodies, so I accepted her delivery too. One of her brother in laws died last night, but he had been unwell for some time and aged 88. It was no shock to anyone. I did go across the road for coffee at about 10.30. 

I ate some pumpkin soup from the freezer, with pretend croutons. Phyllis had left me half a kind of spicy sausage roll to eat, and that was nice. He is such a good cook. Kosov's laptop would not work and no matter what we did, nothing worked. It eventually completely died. 

I communicated with a couple of people online and I then went out to catch a 604 bus to Elsternwick Station. My plan was to catch a train back to South Yarra and a tram home from there. But I left the bus at Coles supermarket before the station to buy something, and then a 67 tram was approaching so I caught that home. 

Mail arrived in my letter box. One was a bill for last month's food delivery. Why can't they send the bill electronically? I called City of Port Phillip and a request has been lodged for me to receive the bill by email. Last week I had no postal mail at all, and then two letters today. I much prefer bills to come via email, and they nearly all do. 

The other letter was from a debt collector, clothed in the name of Mercantile Services, wanting payment for Ray's trip to the hospital by ambulance the night he died. A bill did arrive last year and our private health insurance covers the cost of the trip. I forwarded the bill to the health insurance company, assuming I would hear no more. Another letter arrived, and I thought the health insurance was slow to pay. Another letter arrived, so I called my health insurance company. 

It had been taken over by another company and changed its name, which happened a month after Ray died. Then I changed my cover from a couple to a single. I called my health insurance company and it is working on it, it said. Clearly the ambulance bill got lost somewhere. Ray died with some money towards his funeral, but effectively intestate. So there is no money in his estate to pay the bill. I think I should reply to the latest demand, but then I think, fuck it. It is not my bill. Go for you life to get money from a dead person. 

I've done everything right, but I am not doing anymore with this. 

A meal of barramundi and chips from my old person subsidised delivery service company. Phyllis kindly heated it for me and added some greens to it. 

You can't see anything really, but early yesterday there was a crash below. As those involved exchanged details, a shower of rain passed by, adding to their misery.

The purple tap is a public supply of recycled water, and is cleaned enough to drink, in spite of the message.

My pot of flowers on the balcony. 

The cupboards are full of all sorts of exotic ingredients and some were stacked on my tiny corner of cupboard, psyllium husks, Vegemite, peanut butter, jam and honey. I removed what was on top. I want free access to my stuff. 

Phyllis, this will be the only magnets on my fridge. Mine.

Yes Andrewww. But just this Singapore one. No Phyllis, no more. That is the last. Yet there is now another. 

My scribe assists me

If you remember League of Gentlemen, you might remember the shopkeeper calling out to his wife to help in the shop. Margaret............with a very long pregnant pause, and she would answer.

I issue orders from the comfort of my desk chair. "Kosov". Quite a few tens of seconds passes until the reply comes from his bedroom. "Coming Andreeew". 

"Would you like to help me sort out my pens, Kosov?" "Yes, Andreeew."

We had some fun, and made two piles of pens, one to put in the bin and the other to keep. I had three fountain pens tied together by a rubber band. One was an ink carriage, the one my grandparents gave me no longer had the squeezable rubber bladder to fill it with ink, it had perished, and the last still had its bladder intact. I remember chucking out the ink bottle a few years ago, after finding the ink had dried up. 

It is still strange to keep so many pens as I only use the same pen whenever I have to write.

Which brings me to my scribe, now plural. The few Christmas cards I sent were written by Kosov, in beautiful handwriting. I admire my lads' Indian English education so much. 

Phyllis got into act for a great niece's birthday, and wrote a card for me with some significant flourishes. She turned nine, and probably liked them.

It will be safer if Kosov writes the birthday card to my 38 year old Fire Fighting Nephew, but no. He camped up the writing too.

I must get back control of how my scribes write.

Crayons and dried up markers, and pens that did not immediately write were discarded.

 

The kept pens. The fountain pens are at the bottom right. There are some propelling pencils among the stash, because before I die, I am sure I will need a propelling pencil. 

What is this pen marked Yarra Trams? I think it must have been a giveaway many years ago. I can't remember it at all.

What is this curious pull out piece on the side of the pen.

Well, this really dates the pen, to a year I cannot remember. I remember the brand name Metlink.

My railway station, for now

With the opening of Anzac Station and the Metro Tunnel this year, South Yarra Station will be less used by me. 

To travel on the Pakenham or Cranbourne lines, I will use Anzac Station as those trains will cease to travel via South Yarra Station, diving underground just before they reach the station.

Anzac Station is a five minute walk for me, or one stop on a tram. I am not sure whether I will continue to use what will become less crowded trams to travel to the city, or use the train. Assuming the train has a very frequent clock face service, I will almost certainly use it to travel to the northern area of the city, using Museum Station, but only real life travel can tell me whether it will be better to reach the closer Town Hall Station. The slow part of the tram trip is once it reaches the city, with traffic lights very hostile to trams. 

Time will  tell. If travelling by train to areas west of the city, while it may take a little longer, I often catch  a tram to South Yarra, and then a train that runs through the city and out to the west. It seems when the Metro Tunnel opens, these through trains will revert to using the underground City Loop, although possible another line might offer a through service from South Yarra Station.

I quite like South Yarra Station, though it has changed a lot over a couple of decades, with the front rebuilt and opened up wider. Pre Covid, it was neck to neck with Caulfield Station as the busiest outside of the city stations. This will certainly change when the Metro Tunnel opens, with quite a substantial drop in patronage at South Yarra and an increase at Caulfield. 

Here are a few photos of South Yarra Station. There is lots of seating to the left of this photo, and the level boarding tram stops could not be any closer. If you look at my header photo, the station is just before the tall buildings. 

I think the modern timberwork works quite well. Until I looked at these photos, I had not noticed how nice the windows are. Gates are now plentiful and to the right of this photo is the ticket office. 

This screen alternates between displaying passing tram times and nearby Chapel Street trams.

These screens inform passengers with train information. 

This one generally displays 'good service' for all train lines, until it doesn't. 

Improvements to the station could be lifts for each pair and individual platforms as the rams are quite steep. Ray used to always moan about the steepness of the ramp. So much for the power of Baby Boomers. There has a been a lot of intensive apartment development to the north of the station, so it also now needs northern platform entrances. 

Sparks, a bump and a foursome

I am not sure where these clips were first published, and so I cannot credit them. Claim them as yours if you will.

The Gold Coast railway line was suspended after this moron made damage, with quite a good electric flash display.

Sydney reintroduced trams in 1997 with this model. While it looks old fashioned, the mostly Australian made tram and its sisters were retired long before the normal lifespan of tram, say 30 years. It is a pity the video is cut short. Clearly the tram derailed as it left I guess the terrific Sydney Tram Museum shed. 

The annual NSW Hunter Valley steam train race exceeded itself this year. 

Tram undulations

I've tried a few times to capture this but either the tram driver was driving slowly or a passenger stood up and blocked the view. 

I got it this time, route 58, in Kingsway to West Coburg via the Zoo.

It is an E class tram, built in Melbourne by local and imported ingredients and built in the suburb Dandenong at the Bombardier factory, formerly COMENG, the government owned Commonwealth Engineering. E class trams are quite long, at over 33 metres/108 feet, have three articulated sections and sit on four swivelling bogies. They are quite a good tram in my opinion, even if the creak and groan. And some of the seats with their fibreglass backs, can pop forward and back depending on acceleration and braking. 

Our next new tram will be shorter and hopefully even better. They will be known as G class. I wonder why F class was skipped?

While I am talking about trams, with Melbourne having the largest tram system in the world, the private operator, not owner, is Yarra Trams, a consortium between the French company Keolis and a large local rail engineering company Downer Rail. In my forty one year career in public transport, my final employer was Keolis Downer. 

Come December a new consortium will take over the operation of Yarra Trams made up of the French company Transdev and the Chinese company, John Holland. Transdev did have a contract to operate part of Melbourne's bus system, and were run out of town by the state government for dreadful performance. That does not bode well. 

I hope the clip doesn't make you sea sick. 

The old and the new

Remember this photo not so long ago, showing Heartbreak Hill in Sydney, which is New South Head Road. The photo would have been taken in the late 1950s. I used the photo before a friend who made the City2Surf run. 

I thought I would take a look on Street View. And having travelled on the road by bus during our last Sydney visit in March, I correctly guessed the location.

 

So this is the best I could do with how the road looks now, sans trams. You can see the steps up to a house on the left are still much the same. The wrought iron railings look to be the same. 

P

PS, this should be posted tomorrow, Australian time. The US date system got me again. 

Heartbreak Hill

This month the world's biggest fun run happens in Sydney, called the City2Surf. A friend my age is running, along with the lad he is mentoring. 

In 1961 trams disappeared from the streets of Sydney. From my reading and knowledge of the system, it  was so huge, I struggle to understand how it was manageable and yet offered such an excellent service.

This rather good photo for its time shows a Sydney R Class tram travelling to the city from Watsons Bay as it descends the steep hill between Vaucluse and Rose Bay. The line was closed and then due to public pressure, reopened but then a final closure happened and as the last tram ran a following truck took down the overhead wiring. That was the end of a wonderfully scenic and very busy tram route. Buses then covered the route. Yuk. 

The City2Surf runners must ascend this hill as they run from Hyde Park to Bondi Beach. This part of the race where the tram is descending in known as Heartbreak Hill. It's easy for cars and trams to climb, but not so easy for runners. 

Your History

I don't know why Google Maps has done this, but it has removed the travel history feature from web browsers, effectively meaning you can't see it on a desktop or I guess laptop. It can be time consuming but my photos upload to my desktop, numbered with a date and time. If I really need to find where a photo was taken, I check the date and then check on Google Maps where I visited that day.

Of course I can check on my Google Maps phone app, or tablet, but it is quicker and easier on the desktop. Yes, I am a dinosaur with my preference for a desktop computer.

It was not so long ago that you could do more on a desktop than with an app on your phone. I've noticed this is changing with apps are able to do more and more easily than a desktop. One instance is phone banking apps. A lot of time, effort and money must have put into these apps. I haven't needed to log in to bank using my desktop for ages. I can do all with the apps. 

This is a travel map of the day completed the target of travelling on every Melbourne tram route, the largest tram system in the world, by travelling on the outer end of route 75 to Vermont South from Camberwell Junction. It was rather boring but fortunately I had the company of my friend from the Gold Coast. 

Here is the map showing my travel. It is not entirely correct as we walked from Toorak Road to Hartwell Station, quite a distance. It was a case of thinking you know but you don't. 

Here is a link to when I was at Harwell and took some mural photos. Ah, I found the others. 

Tram to Melbourne Flinders Street, train to Camberwell, walk down the Burke Road hill to catch the 75 to the terminus. Return on the tram to Hartwell, walk to the station, train to the city. We missed a train by a couple of minutes so I think we had twenty minutes to wait, but fortunately the next was the start of through trains in the evening peak, instead of Alamein shuttle train to Camberwell and then change to a Belgrave or Lilydale train to continue to the city.  

Keolis Downer renewal to run Yarra Trams

The contract to run Yarra Trams, currently operated by Keolis Downer, is up for renewal. Melbourne has the largest tram system in the world and I care deeply about it, for both its history and how trams shaped our suburbs and city, and as being close to being daily user. 

Theoretically we have a tram every 70 seconds at our tram stop if travelling towards the city during the day for the ten minute trip to town. What actually happens is three trams will arrive together, just as we step out our front door and we will have to wait for a few minutes for the next tram to town. That's not a big deal. 

In the opposite direction we catch route 72 to Prahran and route 16 to St Kilda. Aren't we so lucky to be regular users of the worst two tram routes for on time performance. Of late it has gotten so much worse.

Having worked  in public transport for almost my whole working life and a user of public transport for the same period, with some good insider contacts, I do have some understanding. 

The operators of Yarra Trams have strict performance targets to meet. For on time running of trams, the company sometimes meet them. But how they do this disadvantages passengers.  There are various penalties to Yarra Trams for what it does wrong and so the company works towards minimising penalties, with a focus on performance statistics. What Yarra Trams doesn't do is to work the system in the best way to benefit passengers. 

EG. Two 72 trams are travelling to the city together when they should be twelve minutes apart. The late tram leading should be turned back from it city destination at a crossover point before the city terminus to get it back on time. Nah, the penalty to Yarra Trams is less for a late running tram than turning it back short of its destination and so the twenty minute gap continues with two trams together. As I write this, this happened to me today as I checked the app. Next 72, 2 minutes. It takes me longer than that to get to the tram stop. Next tram should be in 14 minutes, with a 12 minute service. No, 22 minutes and then one after 23 minutes. If this was rare, I could deal with it but it isn't rare and is our regular experience. 

On one of our tram models, a new door system has been installed. I don't know why. The doors hesitate and then slowly close, much more slowly than the original doors. I suggest double the time. As Yarra Trams admits, we have the slowest tram system in the world, and it's making a great effort to make it even slower. 

Then there is the standard of driving. Let me think. I've used trams in Sydney, Gold Coast, Germany, Austria, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Manchester, Budapest and Toronto and I found the standard of driving excellent in every city. Not so in Melbourne. The standard is erratic and sometimes just dreadful. I suppose about one third of our tram drivers are women and generally they seem are better to me, but not always.  

I've already bored you to tears if you read all of this, but in conclusion the current operator of Yarra Trams has failed and the about to be renewed contract should not be in favour of the current operator.

Transporting the fans

It is not unknown for the Melbourne Cricket Ground to cater for around 100,000 people. 

People arrive by train, train and tram, tram alone and on foot after getting to the city by train.  

The sell out concerts by Taylor Swift were amazing. There was no public car parking beyond for the very posh set. It was all about public transport. 

I think YouTuber Phillip Mallis left out the point of people getting to the Flinders Street Melbourne Richmond and Jolimont Stations and then the venue by train/walk and train/tram but his video is still quite a good indication of how things work here for major events. It is an eight minute clip. He is a good presenter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X42qWBNTLo

Later: I heard some concert attendees had parked in the nearest city private car park and it took them forever to get out because of traffic. I also heard after a subsequent event at Docklands Stadium where there is car parking under the stadium, it was taking people forty minutes to leave the car park. Southern Cross Station, the second busiest station in Melbourne is a few minutes from the stadium. Why do people torture themselves with their obsessive and impractical car usage? 

Ticked orf

I completed the tram challenge yesterday with a visiting acquaintance from the Gold Coast, Queensland.

Saturday night we caught up with Brighton Antique Dealer for a very nice dinner  near her home, along with her Toyboy and a two others from her building. If you read the Trip Advisor reviews, you would never go there but we really liked it.  

Sunday was killer hot at 38/100+ degrees which killed off any thought of attending this year's Pride March. Things became a bit ugly this year as anti police protestors clashed with police marching in the parade. Most unfortunate really. That the police march, including the Chief Commissioner is good, but I also understand why GLBTI people are against a police presence generally because of their mistreatment by police, hopefully mostly in the past. As happens, the State Premier marched too.

Monday morning was a bet wet and much cooler at abut 21/72. The rain cleared away but the clouds did not. We had brunch at a newish local café as we had been given a coffee voucher. The food was nice, the coffee, not as good as we expected.

At 1pm I met with D from Gold Coast and we caught a 75 tram to the terminus at Vermont South. It was a long trip, taking an hour but pleasant enough. We left the tram there and let it depart and then caught the next one back towards the city. We left at Hartwell where I took some mural photos and then caught the train back to the city. 

We were sitting at the front of  the tram and for some reason D was sitting on a single sideways street in front of me. A very attractive young woman boarded the tram somewhere in full leather, well done hair and full makeup. She looked stunning. I suppose she was mid twenties. She sorry, but do you mind if I sit with you. If I sit backwards I feel like I will throw up. D said we will have tone our conversation down then, half joking. She replied, I've seen and hear it all before. I said to her, How sad to be so jaded at such a young age. She laughed. Boy could she talk. She worked in a bar in the city and was on her way to work. In about fifteen minutes we knew almost everything about her. We even learnt about her grandmother's car, an Austin 1800 if that means anything to you. She was also interested in us and asked questions. It was an amazing experience. 

We left the tram at Hartwell and I took  some mural photos, but one I am not happy with and I missed some. I will just get the train back soon and get it right, when I am on my own.

I thought the train station was close to Toorak Road but it isn't, so it was a decent walk to the station. I knew we would not make the planned trains, and sure enough as we arrived the pedestrian gates closed. So close but so far. We didn't have too long to wait and at least it was a direct train without a change at Camberwell Station. 

This Tuesday night we are just back from dinner with Bone Doctor and Jo, who is going to see Melanie Martinez in concert. I Googled 'images' and I can instantly see one reason why Jo likes her. Martinez'  performance outfits match Jo's taste in clothing. 

Saturday night's dinner at Tao.

A rather spesh ceiling lamp.

Passing by the Dr Hugh Wirth Animal Care Centre at the Royal Society for Protection of Animals, RSPCA, in the 75 tram.

The 75 Vermont South Terminus. Boring.

What bird is this? Maybe a hooded crow? Some kind of crow, I believe. Never heard of it.