Yarra Trams — Local services in Melbourne

Absolutely Abysmal!!! Appalling Services. You can complain all you want and they just do what they please and patronise you with a customer service call with not solution as to what they intend to do with improving their service. Whoever is in charge of planning needs to be fired. I have previously complained about the my tam route lines 5 & 64 which they combine after a certain hour in the evening the drivers are clueless and not co-ordinated and they are unable to Manage the Shunting that happens later in the evening can't even give you at time as they do not have a fixed time. They play every thing by ear. This is first world transportation for you. And today my complaint is about the Grand Prix -GP planning. So utterly, poorly planned, locals so terribly inconvenienced. This happened to me on the Friday the 14/03/25 and today 16/03/2025 Got stuck at Stop 32 Chapel street. People living along the route 64 and 5. Friday stood in the heat with children and elderly for 40 minutes waiting for a tram to take us further down the road. Had 4 trams pass us by and idling past our stop mid track 3 of them in a row and then all turning back to pick up passengers to take them to St. Kilda Junction with no passengers to take passengers to St. Kilda junction for the GP. And then again today Sunday in the midst of rain with no place to sit due to rain wetting the benches/seats due to the designing of the platform also very poor and elderly people with Walkers who cannot stand for long waited again for more than half an hour while we saw 7 trams pass us by all empty idle at the midst of nowhere point and all turned back to go back to St. Kilda Junction while we locals were inconvenienced. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out co-oridnation. After every 2 GP or lets say even 3 GP routes there should be 1 normal tram route line taking passengers along the normal tram route line. If the the normal tram route line was delayed Yarra Trams should be nimble enough re route shuttle so that the normal locals are not inconvenienced about their business. There is no bus replacement service available before 3 p.m. and until 7 pm. so no alternate provided. No staff on the routes to co-ordinate with the centre, or inform passengers, no real time tracking on the app. Absolute Shambles. This is the first year I have experienced such appalling service during the GP and I have been living on this route for the last 4 years. We pay the highest fares amongst all other states in Australia for this sub standard, below par service. I am absolutely disgusted with this transport system. Even worse than 3rd world transportation. They also run trams with no fans for passengers but fans and A/C's in the drivers cabins cause they're fear of getting sued, while we who pay our fares of $10:45 or more a day sit in hot trams with temperatures hotter inside than the outside heat. That in itself is human violation providing transportation in heated temperatures. They should not be using those trams on days when they are hot. Absolutely Ludicrous!!! Class action needs to be taken against the government for providing such...

Drivers on the 86 route need to learn that a tram stop means a tram is expected to stop there. Seems these individuals think it's fun to just skip stops for the hell of it. It's not a pleasant experience for passengers to have to continuously press the button so that the driver will stop only to have him or her hit the brakes hard and basically take out almost an entire tram load of passengers, or alternatively just drive past a designated stop adding extra travel time for the individuals that were wanting to get off. Cannot begin to fathom why these drivers don't seem to understand that a tram stop is where they are supposed to stop. What's it going to take Yarra Valley trams? You clearly don't take heed of polite calls asking that you instruct drivers to stop at all stops to let passengers on and off. I've also observed drivers telling at passengers simply standing at tram stops. Doesn't matter how bad a day the driver is, if they're at work, they need to keep their emotions in check. They have no right to abuse passengers without provocation!

Update: This service keeps going from bad to worse. Not only have drivers been abusive to passengers, but those that are more inclined to be passive aggressive (and there's lots of them) will usually see someone running to the tram, they'll smirk and they will lock the doors. Passengers get to the tram in time, but can't open the door because the driver will not allow it. Reminder to all tram drivers, you'll be elderly one day too and I'm sure the karma you are creating for yourself will visit you many times over.

In short, THIS SERVICE...

Today 9/12/14 at 3.36pm I was at Stop 9 Library/Melbourne Central when a tram stopped I saw that there was no signage on the front of the Tram So I pop my head into the door and asked the driver “Excuse me Sir. What number tram is this? I asked again He didn’t answer he either didn’t hear me or ignored me. I checked the next two Trams that had stopped a 1 and a 8 not suitable. So I got on the tram no. 173 and asked him again twice before he said I don’t Know! I got off. With the help of tram tracker I found out it was a 72 but the tram had left the stop. I then hopped on a tram that new its destination. Whilst on my journey I stopped at Flinders street Stop where I observed the most bizarre behavior by Three Yarra Trams Customer Service Officers They were in the middle of the stop Two officers were standing either side of a metal stand like wall flowers, and the third was pretending to bang his head onto the metal stand in an aggressive manner. First they were not doing their job secondly Not-one person would approach the Three Yarra tram Officers standing around talking and joking in the middle of the stop it would be intimidating. The thing is this sort of behavior is normal practice for most Yarra Tram Customer service officers. They are either standing together talking or on the phone So why bother having them… As most people ask fellow travellers as I’m often asked while there are Yarra Tram Customer Service Officers on the stop “Where to get to some Where? So get rid of them and then bring back more trams and the...