Re: Trolley wheels/carbon skids on Melb trams

[Stuart Turnbull <stuartt@netspace.net.au>]

Les Brown wrote:
> 
> Dave McL <davemcl@REMOVEiprolink.co.nz> wrote in aus.rail:
> 
> >Les Brown wrote:
> >
> >> When I was about 10 years old, we lived above a Milk Bar in Waverley
> >> Road, East Malvern. A favourite pastime was watching the trams go past
> >> on a Saturday morning from a bedroom window that fronted the road. It
> >> was around 1961-1962 when I noticed the change from trolley wheels to
> >> carbon skids, the height of the window made this observation very
> >> easy. It did not take very long for the change to occur - probably no
> >> more than six months. It was also around this time that the Sunday 3D
> >> tram service was "busified".
> >
> >When was it changed back to trams, Les? I noted on my last visit to
> >Melbourne that all three bustified Sunday lines (East Malver, West
> >Maribyrnong and Footscray-Moonee Ponds) were using trams again after all
> >those years. I presume the change back came about with the driver-only
> >trams Kennett brought in after he was elected? Or was it before, after
> >the Great Tram Strike?
> >
> I really don't know, Dave. My guess is that it happened when the buses
> were seperated from the MET and became a corporation in their own
> right. Together with single crew manning and, I would imagine, a
> higher charge rate of hiring any buses, it probably became cheaper to
> run the trams rather than the buses. I'm sure others here can be far
> more accurate than I.
> 
> Les Brown

The change back to Sunday and evening off peak trams occurred with the 
introduction of "O-P-O" trams in the mid 1990s. Can't remember the exact 
date. You are correct in assuming that the separation of Met Bus from 
Met Tram was the catalyst for the change. 

I work at the PTC and I think these changes probably happened in 1995. 
Certainly not after the great tram strike.

Hope this is some help.

Cheers

Stuart