Many thanks David.
Fortunately when I finished up in 1994, there seemed to be a little trouble with drug addicts, probably because ice was not prevalent like today.
The potential troublemakers could be drunks but they are more likely to fall asleep and cause no problems. I remember on at least one occasion some young guy was out to it, so he went back-and-forth asleep. We had been taught that rousing drunks could result in a violent reaction. At the depot entrance, a few of us half-carried him out, sat him in the little waiting shed at the depot entrance where he would have slept it off overnight. At least he had a good choice of trams to catch home next morning!
Some presumably sober people could be quite despicable. One Saturday evening I was coming in from East Brunswick and noticed a man in the internal rear vision mirror standing in a suspicious manner at the rear stairwell. I glanced in the small TV monitor screen and then had little doubt that the scumbag I was using the stepwell as a urinal. In five or so minutes he could have got off and used a facility in the city.
Your housing density observations are quite correct and reinforce why some routes don’t need bigger trams although at school times, B class or bigger would be very handy on Glenferrie Road (which will be seen next week).
Every time I ride my local tram, usually once or twice a week, I am reminded how efficiently traffic light priority can work. In actual fact, Canberra does better but has much less complicated intersections to deal with, particularly compared with our stretch through the heart of Surfers Paradise where fairly insignificant intersections can delay trams, but rarely for very long at all. Cutting across major roads like the Gold Coast highway sees no problem at all. So it is very frustrating riding in Melbourne where a lot of time is wasted when stuck at red lights.
Certainly at the city intersections in Melbourne where routes cross, approach-side tram stops are much more convenient for transferring passengers. There is a way around the the problem of stopping for a green light and have it go red when passengers are finished. Gold Coast trams have a button which the driver can activate to prompt the traffic lights but the jury is out on the question of whether these work or not.
Nevertheless Gold Coast timekeeping is rather good with overall running speeds but having every stop compulsory does make running times more even than with a line with many request stops. In fact there are a number of places where the trams in opposite directions do pass each other and it is easy to tell whether one of the trams is running late or not. For instance they nearly always cross somewhere on the curve when leaving the reservation, crossing Olsen Avenue, and heading to the underground stop at the hospital.
So for decades I have seen Melbourne as a tramway with great potential but still waiting for some decent traffic light priority. Artificially slow running times like during this Covid pandemic shows the stupidity of the OPR operating regime, even if nobody on TDU agrees with me on this.
Regards,
Richard
>> On 20 Sep 2020, at 11:32 am, David McLoughlin mcloughlin.dj@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks Richard. A great ride. Various observations:
>
> • The loud abusive arguments are quite frightening to many passengers. The abusers seemed to have been drug-crazed when I have encountered them. A lot of them around St Kilda. On the 109 in Victoria St Richmond I have seen people shooting up on the tram, and vomiting everywhere too. I once phoned ahead to Southbank Depot from a 109 to suggest they get cleaners onboard when the tram passed, to clean up a mess of vomit. This was 2pm BTW. And in Ascot Vale, it often amused me to see drug dealers hop on and off the moving 57s to attend to customers; the transactions were done quickly and quietly, but very openly.
>
> • I like the 16 along what was once the 69. Seeing your video reinforced what low-density areas Melbourne's trams run through compared with trams in many places in Europe.
>
> • Every time I see one of your videos, Richard, I rage at the pathetic traffic light priority the trams get. Europe had traffic-light priority for trams in the 1970s -- priority that actually works too. With far-side stops, the trams don't even have to slow when approaching even a red light because the T light always comes on.
>
>
> --
> david mcloughlin, New Zealand
> "Beware for whom the mob bays; lest next it bays for thee."
>
>
>
>
>
>> On Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 12:28:13 PM UTC+12 Richard Youl wrote:
>> If you have not ridden on the 16 for a while, here is a chance to sample it.
>>
>> However if you or anyone about to watch it is easily offended with course language, it might be best to have the sound off between the corner of Carlisle Street and Saint Kilda Road, and Balaclava station. I could have edited out the swearing, but unfortunately public transport workers anywhere these days are likely come across situations like this, and worse.
>>
>> Driver’s View Tram 16 St Kilda Junction to Glenferrie Rd Melbourne
>> https://youtu.be/M5sT3opNjYM
>>
>> Regards,
>
> --
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