Re: Melbourne Historic Fleet - thoughts

Thought it made sense to go back to the beginning of this discussion.First am I right in saying that only Southbank Jct.to St.Kilda station and Port Melbourne are not pole compatible?If so what is stopping us running some kind of service with W and older cars even if only occasionaly,on Sundays or as happened one year,to the Australian Open{lots of visitors and not much traffic at that time of year and visitors do love our old trams].I am sure there are reasons,I just don't know what they are or if they are lack of official will or actual official resistance.It seems to me that if you can run Restaurant Trams running at series speed mixed in with service cars then anything else would be an improvement.I'd back it in that anything except a Birney[worst ride in Christendom] could keep average service speeds on,say,St.Kilda Rd.and not delay other services.I'm not saying you'd run the old cars every day just that when you did run them they needn't stuff up the rest of the service.I'm with you David,I'd like our famous tramway heritage to be a bit more visible,and to carry working connies.On that subject I'm getting really pissed off with seeing 4 or 5 people chasing fare evaders instead of 1 person actually selling tickets even if only on city safety zones and at other busy points,I know fare evasion is a problem but surely prevention is better than this dubious,and surely costly, cure.Any thoughts?Regards all,Peter Bruce. --- In TramsDownUnder@y..., "Cawood, David" <David.Cawood@a...> wrote:

Hi again Gentlelmen
Thank you for the replies with regard to the Melbourne Historic Fleet. Here
are my thoughts from a non Victorian on how the Melbourne Tram scene could
enriched to the benefit of Melbourne and Victoria. I know that bureaucratic,
commercial interests, politics and egos would probably make this impossible.
- Trams are a Major tourist attraction to Melbourne, but the operation of
historic trams has been stalled through legislation and commercial
interests.
- A volunteer group should seek running rights on Sundays on several of the
Melbourne tram lines, possibly the City Circle and St. Kilda for a
peppercorn rental of track and power. With dispensations for earlier safety
systems no differently to the use of vintage cars or buses.
- The Thornbury Depot at Preston would be a befitting location for a
Historic Depot. Though there is no reason why Historic Fleet should be
limited to one Depot (Don't keep all your eggs in one Basket). I think the
key is accessibility of these trams to the Victorian Public and tourists. As
such a central location should be considered. The Preston test track would
be an ideal Demonstration track off the main line to give rides week days
for instance.
- The Melbourne Historic Tram fleet, Haddon and By-lands should consider
seriously coming together to create the pan-ultimate Tramway Museum/s with
running access the Melbourne tramway system.
- The Malvern / Norm Maddox collection should be a key part of any above
mentioned Museum.
Just some thoughts, because I think that the current situation in Victoria
with splintered competing groups and questionable decision making on
Historic operations is detracting from the rich flavour which Melbourne's
tramway heritage can add to Melbourne's and Victoria's tourism. The fact
that Melbourne should have a single tramway Museum as big and successful as
Sydney. While utilising the fact the there is a whole tram system there
which these Historic vehicles should be demonstrated on!

David Cawood

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