I noticed on a tram trip to the city today that work has commenced on new 'super stops' in St Kilda Road, near both High St & Commercial Road.When the first super-stops were introduced in the cbd some years ago, I was greatly impressed by not just the good design and amenity of the stops, but mostly, by the wonderful new electronic real-time timetable signs at each stop. These have been a great help to me, and saved much time and frustration by letting me know how long I'll have to wait for my service, and whether or not it's even worthwhile to wait.
I was just as greatly disappointed when the ersatz super-stops were installed along Dandenong Road a year or so back. These ones looked like the ones in the city, but were missing one important feature - the electronic signage! This is the best part of the super-stops, but not even the very busy stop at Chapel St was deemed worthy enough to warrant one being installed.
A further disappointment was that whoever plans these things makes a decision by some means to re-locate or remove stops in the process of upgrading them. As a result, my homeward stop was moved from its old location to the far side of Orrong Road, making it far less useful to me (in fact, I rarely use it all any more, as a result of the move).
I now note in St Kilda Road, that the inbound stop at High St seems to be getting moved to the city side of High St (and I assume that the same will happen at Commercial Road). I also get the feeling that a stop is going to be removed completely as a result of these changes. And I wonder whether anything is going to be done to ensure that it remains possible to interchange to the 216/219/220 buses from the trams near Commercial Road. The bus stop has been moved during the current roadworks, but I couldn't see where it's been moved to... hopefully, not so far away that it can't be reached easily and safely on foot through peak-hour traffic.
I wouldn't be so concerned about these changes if I believed that the people who designed them actually used the services involved and had a real idea of how to improve amenity for passengers, instead of the tram company, but having experienced the downside of so many of their other works, I have a bad feeling about these new ones.
All stops will be on the city side, including Union Street. Raleigh Street stop will be removed. Moubray Street will remain and not touched. Odd. Why was the Dandy Road stop opposite Alma Park not done? Also odd. I guess when stops are moved, some win and some lose. There is a passenger information display at Melbourne Uni terminus, and then another just metres away at Grattan Street, while there are few in the suburbs. While they don't make your tram come any quicker, they are comforting.
ReplyDeleteThe Alma Park stop was understandable - it's under a big pedestrian overpass, and I don't think they could have installed a new stop around the existing stairs.
ReplyDeleteThe beauty of the information displays is that you at least know a tram is coming at some point. By this time, they should be standard installations at all tram and bus stops around the city, super or not. The last new one that I can remember seeing was the one at the Arts Centre stop.