Re: [Melbourne Australia] Mont Albert to Box Hill and Docklands tramway extensions

[David McLoughlin <davemcl@AXE*THISiprolink.co.nz>]

Vaughan Williams wrote:
> 
> The PTUA has been trying for a while to have the [new Box Hill tram] terminus located in
> the pedestrianised Market St at the doors to Box Hill Central so as to
> make tranferring between the tram and the trains and buses as easy as
> possible.
> 
> Otherwise, people from places like Balwyn and Kew trying to go further
> east (who would take a tram then a train) will have to cross the three
> lanes of Whitehorse Rd traffic and then walk several hundred metres
> along Market St to the train station. 

Well it's not several hundred metres, it's about 100 metres. But yes, I
have always thought a tram terminus in Market Street at Main Street is
the most logical place to put it.

> 
> Didn't that line used to go to Box Hill, and some idiot decided to
> shorten it??

No, the line has terminated in Whitehorse Road at Union Road Mont Abert
since it was extended there from Burke Road on September 30 1916.

You may be thinking of the short-lived electric tram from Box Hill to
Doncaster via Station Street and what is now called Tram Road, operated
by a land speculation company which soon went bust from 1889 to 1896.
This line, which ran on a dirt track through empty paddocks, was the
first electric tramway in the southern hemisphere.

Even when I was a kid growing up in Box Hill in the 1960s, much of that
route especially in North Box Hill and past Koonung Creek to Doncaster
Road was still open fields. It defies belief that anyone would have
built a tram line there in 1889 yet it happened, with the expected
results.


> Oh, and by the way, a safety zone is a sub-optimal solution to safety
> problems. Far better would be a raised pavement and a lower speed limit
> to reinforce the law requiring drivers to stop behind the tram,

Well a speed limit has nothing to do with it, motorists are required to
stop behind a stopped tram. Full stop. Most do. However extending the
footpath out to the tram line at stops on narrow roads to force
motorists to stop is a good idea and Melbourne does have some stops like
this, eg, in Glenhuntly Road on the Carnegie 67 line just near
Glenhuntly Station and in Union Road (I think) on the West Maribyrnong
57. The practicality depends on how busy the road is, and Whitehorse Rd
is a very busy road which often needs all the lanes to keep motor
traffic moving so there would be some major traffic management issues if
such a feature existed say at Union Rd/Whitehorse Rd which is a very
busy intersection. Moving the tram terminus on is the best solution
here, just as it seems that all Toorak 8 trams actually travel past the
nominal terminus at Toorak Rd/Glenferrie Road to Malvern Depot to shunt
there because of the heavy traffic at the nominal terminus.

David McLoughlin
Auckland New Zealand