RE: mel loop operation

[Vaughan Williams <ender2000@MailAndNews.com>]

>As someone who was growing up in Melbourne while the loop was being
>built, the main stated aim was to provide a better distribution of
>passengers around the CBD. Previously almost all passengers had to get
>off at Flinders Street (a small number at Spencer Street) and walk or
>catch trams to their destinations in the CBD. It was claimed that the
>loop would make Latrobe Street a real estate mecca the way Yonge Street
>in Toronto developed after the underground there opened in 1954, but
>I've yet to see much sign of this on my irregular visits back home --
>Latrobe Street still seems a backwater.

I wouldn't call it a backwater, though I don't know what it was like before 
the loop opened. Latrobe St seems mostly to be lined with lawyers offices at 
the western end, and what about Melbourne Central? You know, the big 
shopping 
centre and office tower that went up on top of museum station?

It certainly hasn't boomed to the extent Yonge St has, maybe Bloor St is a 
better example (the boom on Yonge St was not repeated to the same extent 
when 
the Bloor subway opened, nor on Spadina Ave).

The new commonwealth law courts building on top of flagstaff station is one 
example (Thought: Is it only government agencies that build things in 
desireable places? Does the free market work against desireable urban 
planning?)

>It's interesting to see that it has been St Kilda Rd which has developed
>the way Latrobe Street was meant to -- huge numbers of people catch the
>train to Flinders Street, then take the trams down St Kilda Road to all
>the employment-generating developments there: Melbourne's prime example
>of a reverse commute  (ie where there is a large peak hour public
>transport flow out of the CBD in the morning peak and into the CBD in
>the evening peak).

Indeed. Probably encouraged by the very frequent tram service down there.

Vaughan Williams
Secretary
Public Transport Users Association
247 Flinders Lane
Melbourne 3000
http://www.ptua.org.au