Most successful, Eh?

Success is a rather wishy washy word so one has to wonder, what yardsticks were used to reach this conclusion? Let’s look at a few possibilities.

Most track? Yep.

Fastest at relaying track? Yep

Best method of laying track (concrete up to sleeper tops? Yep.

Good service frequency? Yep

Smoothest railhead producing minimal noise? Yep.

Iconic? Yep.

Loved by motorists? I won’t bet my house on that one!!

Heaps of untapped potential? Yep.

Potential ever likely to be tapped? Next joke please...

Smoothest special work, (crossovers, junctions, H crossings? Nope (There are probably worse examples in impoverished former Eastern Blok countries).

‘Automatic’ points which always work? Nope.

Most tramcars? Probably not.

Highest percentage of lowfloor tramcars (excluding tramways less than 50 years old)? Probably not.

Fastest journey times? Nope.

Best traffic light priority? Abysmal, but Adelaide is worse 😒

Technology being used to speed trams? Nope. Hopeless. No interest in this.

Let me give an example.

Before driver-only ruined services in the early 1990s, Sunday mornings and all evenings, the running time from East Brunswick to St Kilda Beach (and the same going back) was 40 Minutes. Plus 5 minutes recovery time/layover with the result that we left each terminus every 90 minutes. This was not difficult to do and a late departure due to a late arrival was rather rare. And the only location I remember having a ‘7 second T light’ between traffic light phases to assist trams was Spencer St at Flinders St. My last ride on the 96 early this year revealed just a few more of these useful tools.

So how does the 96 look today, considering it is held up as a shining example of an important Light Rail line running at its best, and often touted as getting priority upgrades, (but heavens knows when).

To give the 96 the best hope for a fast run, I chose the after-midnight services as the least likely to have delays from passengers, road traffic etc. The 3:01am from St Kilda Beach takes an uninspiring 47 minutes to East Brunswick, 7 minutes longer than we took 27 years earlier, despite ripping out a number of city and possibly other tram stops.

At 9:07pm the journey takes a staggering 53 minutes as opposed to our 40 minutes. I know that today there are more people riding and more traffic, but........

And you don’t have to remind me that the route is now 50 metres longer 😄

A sign of success? I think not.

See the timetable extract below.

Anyway, Good Luck to Aymeric. He’s sure to get plenty of sales despite the above 😊

(Ducking for cover 😉)

Regards,