OK, If the road must be excavated, why not abolish the Elizabeth Street stub terminus and build curves into Flinders Street in one or both directions. Trams could then be through routed from Elizabeth Street onto any of the Flinders Street routes. The Elizabeth Street scissors crossover could then be removed. Was there any planning thought given to that approach ?

Even single curves off and on to the eastbound Flinders Street track could yield a good result. That would not need any obstruction to the westbound Flinders St track which could have temporary crossovers and weekend ‘bang road’ working during the construction . The island tram platform in Elizabeth Street could then accommodate escalators or a ramp leading to a subway into the Flinders Street railway station.

In Sydney, the King and George Streets junction had single curves off and on to the city bound King Street track to allow a tram connection between two streets in a restricted space. See tram “R” R1 1934 negotiating one of these curves, also attachment showing the track and signal layout of the junction.

http://tdu.to/a33422/King%20%26%20George%20Sts%20Jn.%20%27R1%271934.%201950s%20%20N%20F%20Reed%20.jpg Picture of King & George Sts Jn.

Noel Reed. Showing that Sydney tramways had good ideas.

From:TramsDownUnder@... [mailto:TramsDownUnder@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Saturday, 25 February 2017 9:40 PM
To:TramsDownUnder@...
Subject: RE: [TramsDownUnder] Elizabeth St works today

Red paving, cross hatching, not even berms as Mal said, mean nothing to the modern motorist. The sight of a tram coming towards them on the wrong side of the road yields nothing more productive than confusion and a head-on collision. We need to go with the flow Noel, so to speak.

Tony P
(Who once heard that scissors are like marriage - sometimes the two halves go in opposite directions but heaven help anybody who gets between them!)

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Posted by:prescottt@...

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