Have Melbourne commuters enjoyed better public transport services since privatisation?
Stephen Moynihan looks back at the radical overhaul, the problems it created and the solutions ahead. IN THE last days of Melbourne’s tram conductors after the transport network was split in two, Roberto D’Andrea remembers a lot of grey. Each day he would don his leather bag and sell and check tickets while he chatted with tram travellers. He’d explain to confused tourists why half a guide showing the tram network was missing. Only routes covered by his tram company were colourfully highlighted, the remainder erased from the map, a grey nether region. Tram depots were assigned to separate companies, routes were divided up and colleagues became competitors. “The trammie family is pretty strong and right in the middle of that initial stage we all thought it was bit bloody crazy,” he says. In 1998, the Kennett government carved up the city’s train and tram networks. But the division would not last as one major transport company pulled out and the Bracks government pieced the system back t
