Looking up old articles in the State Library isn't the only way to find transport history in our fair city. If you're in the CBD, at least, it may be at a station or street corner near you. Old signs and maps can contain a wealth of information that enchant enthusiasts and bamboozle tourists.
Flinders Street Station, Degraves Street subway.
Flinders Street Station, Degraves Street Subway. The metropolitan transport map dates from the early 1990s and reveals a period in The Met's last few years when comprehensive passenger information was more commonly provided on the network.
For most of the last 15 years the maps have been in full view and only recently have posters been placed over them.
Elizabeth Street near Flinders Street. Though hard to read in the photo the signs provide information on routine tram services (some numbers have now changed) and show services.
Spencer Street Station subway entrance. This lonely sign to a disused subway entrance indicate two of the many brandnames used by Melbourne trains in the early 2000s. Today's rush hour passengers queueing up to cross Spencer Street must lament the loss of this useful albeit dingy way out.
Melbourne CBD station network map. Three right out of five ain't bad!
Bus stop near Arawatta St, Carnegie. Possibly the only trace of a route that ended 24 years ago.
Know of any more? Add them in the comments below.
6 comments:
There are lots more around. So many and so used to seeing them, I could not list them, even if I could remember them all.
But I have never noticed the Port Melbourne/St Kilda sign in the Degraves Street subway. The old tiles there and in Elizabeth Street subway have passed on from being an interesting quirk to an embarrassment.
I don't like either city station name changes, but I dislike Melbourne Central the most.
Tons of old maps at Flagstaff Station. Old Met bus stop signs in Footscray.
At Footscray in the street where the tram terminus is there is not only a Met bus stop sign - there is also a 20yr old timetable for route 404! Back when it had a better service than it does now.
Go to the corner of Ascot Vale Road and Maribyrnong Road. On the southwest quadrant there's a telegraph pole behind the northbound traffic light. Behind the traffic lights there is a 1950s era Bus Stop flag for a Route No. 74A or somesuch.
Here's another - at the Transport House tram super stop (Collins/Spender) the directional signs near the stop exits still point people to the "Free Docklands Shuttle Bus" (which replaced Tram 31 during the re-construction of Spencer Street Station. It hasn't run in a couple of years, but the signage looks new and modern so people could be more easily confused.
Also, I'm pretty sure there is a black-on-yellow sign at Collins/William (south west quadrant) about sunday tram services departing from Elizabeth Street, which again hasn't happened for a couple of years. There may be another at Bourke Street too.
At North Melbourne station there is a sign with arrows pointing the way to trains and buses. The bus arrow refers to the 216/219 a few hundred metres away. There is a shiny new bus stop sign for the 401 immediately adjacent which at any other station would have a second "buses" arrow marker on the main sign.
I used to enjoy standing on the platform at Museum looking at the wall posters across the tracks that said I could get a diesel train to Yering and Tarrawarra.
Sadly it was not true by less than 2 months - the loop opening in January 1981 but the last Healesville train in December 1980.
I am guessing but suspect you could actually catch a Mornington train for a brief period after the loop opened.
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