Re: [melb] Yarra Trams Network Observations

[David McLoughlin <davemcl@NO***damned***SPAMiprolink.co.nz>]

W O Topp wrote:
> 
> At a locally convened meeting held on 21 November, speakers from Yarra Trams
> confirmed that the new trams would be used first on Route 109.  They expect
> work to commence at the Mont Albert end in February.  They would like (but
> can't commit to) running services to Box Hill by Oct 2001 when the new trams
> are expected to be in service (the first is scheduled for September).  They
> certainly expect to complete work well before the June 2002 deadline.


Excellent news.

> So, David, you may need to book your flight and gather your bunting this
> side of Christmas 2001.

Whatever the opening date of the Box Hill extension, I will be on the
first tram! As I said I grew up there.

One of my work colleagues is in Melbourne this weekend; she has taken
her mother over to shout her to a weekend in Melbourne. I was happy, but
very envious, to give her a list of tips on what to see and how to get
around. She even plans to go on Puffing Billy and thought the train ride
out to Belgrave would be an exciting experience (well for someone
brought up in transit-starved Auckland it would be!). And they are going
on the tramcar restaurant. My wife and her sister went on that a couple
of years ago and got mightily inebriated and thoroughly enjoyed
themselves. 

Our next-door neighbours here in Auckland recently moved to Box Hill,
just down the hill from the Mont Albert tram terminus (in a street off
Whitehorse Rd between Union Rd and Elgar Rd) ) and they have invited us
to stay with them when the tram extension opens.

Ha, I will take my whole family over, and use the opportunity to try to
convince them to join the accelerating brain drain from New Zealand.

David McLoughlin
Auckland New Zealand