29 January - 6 February 2011

The Port Melbourne line is being upgraded - the wooden sleepered track that has been in place for probably 50 years is being completely replaced with new concrete-sleepered welded rail.

Whilst the Australian-built trams have had no problem with the old, rough track, the fussy, delicate French Citadis crashed, banged and rocked violently from side to side at any speed over 40 km/h (a curse of the 4-wheel tram design necessitated by the government mandating a 100% low-floor tram design).

The pages below detail the progress over the nine days of the closure: 5 km of track was ripped up right back to the sub-roadbed and new concrete-sleepered track was laid from Southbank Depot to Beacon Cove.

Clicking on album images generally will display a 1600 x 1000 pixel image. 
Depending on your monitor, you may need to Right-Click | View Image to see it full-size.