I’m pleased that you liked it David.

Regarding point
1. Just a casual observation which may be incorrect, but on at least B class and older trams recorded announcements seem to be patchy and may perhaps more likely to be operational on the ‘Light Rail’ sections of track.

2. I can’t correlate what the driver told you years ago. Transponders are permanently transmitting the standard radio signal and have since day one, whenever that was. The driver can only intervene by choosing to use the points-change button or switch which puts out one of two alternative radio frequencies. The basic tone alerts traffic lights that a tram is in range, and also causes points to set for the Straight.

While a number of locations have ‘7 second’ T lights designed to come on if a tram is present but these only are inserted between phases of the traffic lights. In no way do they hasten a change of lights.

Sometimes in my videos you will see a green right turn arrow come up when the lights change to green. Some distance before the tram stop or intersection a loop in the road detected that a tram was coming and added the turn light which would not have otherwise appeared. This clears any turning vehicles off the track.

Years ago going up Lygon St in the afternoon peak towards East Coburg or Moreland, I came to realise that the transponder at the tram stop was holding the traffic lights green until the tram moved off, when lights immediately went orange but of course the tram continued.

While all those tram-helping features exist here and there, they should be absolutely standard at every traffic lights but unfortunately very many places are not set up to do that.

Overall I see it as a general strong reluctance by the traffic light authority to add any tram assisting feature which they can easily avoid doing.

As you have seen, lights going red immediately in front of a very close tram are just ‘typical Melbourne’.

I usually take a ride on the 96 to East Brunswick during my visits, and about the only traffic light improvement since I last drove it in 1994 seems to be one ‘7 second’ T light just past the former rail crossing outbound.

3. Governors were fitted in the early 1990s. Prior to that you could drive trams as fast as they would go. One evening at Port Melbourne a couple from Adelaide had a look inside the cab at the terminus and asked why the speedometer showed up to 90. I told them that I would show them on the way back. After passing the level crossing on the Port Melbourne side of Montague, I wound up the B and it got to 80 before I had to brake for Port Junction.

Sometimes coming back from St Kilda late at night on the Light Rail, somebody would say that they wanted to get to East Brunswick. I would reply that they had missed the last tram but would try to get to Collins St so they could catch the last West Preston which runs parallel. With usually nobody wanting to get off along the way, I got the B to Collins St as fast as I could, usually with the 10 still there. After governing, that was a lot harder to do.

Apparently the 65 km/h speed limit was to make sure Trams went no fast than the cars, and that included the tram reservations. The speed may have been further cut to 60 while the 35 or so limit for W8 Class is a sick joke.

Just another step in the path to dumb down drivers, or maybe employ some dumber ones.

Anyway these notes maybe will give you a little extra to look out for in your time in Melbourne, assuming that is a part of your upcoming visit.

Richard

On 19 Jun 2019, at 9:40 am, David McLoughlin mcloughlin.dj@...> wrote:

Thanks Richard. A nice look along a line very familiar to me.

Some observations:

1: There are "next stop" recorded announcements for the first few stops inbound -- perhaps as far as Blackburn Road. Then none. Seems odd.

2: There seems to be no tram priority whatever at traffic lights, despite the existence of T lights at them all. At some lights, the T light went red as the tram approached, and made the tram wait for up to 100 seconds, including to allow cars to turn right in front of the stopped tram. Are there no transponders any more? Years ago, a driver in a B on an 88 demonstrated things like a driver-operated transponder to me. You'd think technology would be far and away better than that now, but even that seems to have gone.

3: As I always think when travelling along the outer sections of the 75 and the 86, I find it astounding that the trams appear to be limited to 50okh or 60kmh maximum when the motor traffic adjacent is 70kmh or 80kmh. I even saw a couple of 30kmh signs just for the trams. Today's trams can go much faster. When were governors fitted? It must have been decades ago now. Ghastly.

--
david mcloughlin, New Zealand
"Better to be a Never Was than a Has Been."

> On Saturday, 15 June 2019 15:20:37 UTC+12, Richard Youl wrote:

> If you have not ridden the 75 from Vermont South for a while, this may be an easier way to do so.

>

> Regards,

>

> https://youtu.be/yoa_K3l4YPE