Melbourne tram route 86

History

A cable tram line operated by the Melbourne Tramway & Omnibus Company (MTOC) opened on 10 August 1887, operating along Bourke Street, Gertrude Street, Smith Street and Queens Parade to Merri Creek. On 18 February 1890 a group of Northcote land speculators built a line between the MTOC terminus and Dundas Street, the line was not as successful as they had hoped, closed down and reopened twice before the municipal government bought it in 1901 and leased out its operation.

At the end of the lease council took over operation for a short time. The MTOC line was taken over by the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board (MMTB) on 1 November 1919 with the Northcote Cable Tramway line coming under MMTB control on 20 February 1920.

The Fitzroy, Northcote & Preston Tramways Trust had started constructing a system but it wasn't until after its takeover by the MMTB that services first ran, on 1 April 1920, part of this system included a line from Dundas Street to Tyler Street. This network was orphaned from the rest of the electric network until 24 March 1925 when a line along Holden Street, Pilkington Street and Barkly Street was built by the MMTB to allow access to the CBD via Lygon Street.

The two cable lines were through routed by the MMTB, and operated until 26 October 1940, when the Bourke Street cable lines were abandoned in favour of double decker buses. The Bourke Street cable lines were the last cable trams to operate in Melbourne.

The MMTB, unhappy with the performance of the buses, decided to rebuild the lines as electric tram services when the buses became life expired. Trams first ran on route 88 (predecessor to the modern 86) on 26 June 1955, with Brunswick East starting operating on 6 May 1956.

On 18 May 1983, the suburban terminus was extended 1.2 kilometres from Tyler Street to Boldrewood Parade, then to 2.1 kilometres to La Trobe University on 10 January 1985, 2.9 kilometres to Settlement Road on 26 April 1987 and to the current terminus at McKimmies Road on 12 October 1995. This final extension was funded as part of the Federal Government's Building Better Cities program.

As part of the Docklands redevelopment project, La Trobe Street was extended west over the Spencer Street railyards on 26 March 2000, and with this extension route 86 was extended along Spencer Street and La Trobe Street to Docklands Stadium.

On 27 July 2008 route 30 and route 86 swapped termini, with route 30 terminating in Harbour Esplanade at Central Pier, and route 86 being extended to Waterfront City.

In August 2008 route 86 was the first route to see tram based testing of the Myki ticketing system, using special services not open to normal fare-paying passengers.

A project to improve access through platform stops, perform track and overhead renewal and improve speed and reliability on a 6.8 km section of route 86, along High Street and Plenty Road, between Westgarth Street, Westgarth and Albert Street, Reservoir commenced in 2011.

Since April 2012, there has been a campaign for route 86 to be extended to South Morang station. This campaign has been run by community group the Friends of South Morang. The proposed extension is for the tram to go north on Plenty Road, turn left on Bush Boulevard and go towards the South Morang station, from there it will go through the Mill Park Lakes Estate to the intersection of The Lakes Boulevard and Plenty Road. This proposal can be seen on The South Morang future transport network map.

In January 2016, route 86 began operating through the night on Fridays and Saturdays as part of the Night Network.

In late November 2016, E-class trams commenced operation on the route. These trams are beneficial on the route which has the highest amount of superstop platforms of any route in Melbourne.

Route

Route 86 runs from Bundoora RMIT, travelling south on Plenty Road through the suburbs of, Reservoir and Preston, passing La Trobe University.

Plenty Road ends in Preston at Dundas Street and High Street, route 86 turns slightly into High Street and continues south through Thornbury and Northcote. It then crosses Merri Creek, continuing along Queens Parade Clifton Hill, heading south-west, turning south into Smith Street passing between Fitzroy and Collingwood.

Just before the end of Smith Street it turns west into Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, and south into Nicholson Street, Carlton, past the Royal Exhibition Building.

It enters the CBD on Spring Street turning west into Bourke Street at Parliament House, travels through the Bourke Street Mall and turns north into Spencer Street, passing Southern Cross station, it turns west at La Trobe Street, passing over the Spencer Street rail yards into Docklands, it travels north briefly on Harbour Esplanade before turning west into Docklands Drive, where it terminates at Waterfront City Docklands.

Operation

Route 86 is operated from Preston depot by B class trams and E class trams, although it is not uncommon for A class trams to be rostered.

In popular culture

In 2010 Melbourne-based musical comedian The Bedroom Philosopher released an album Songs from the 86 Tram inspired by the tram route as well as an award-winning comedy show of the same name.

Route 95

Until 27 July 2014 additional capacity through the Melbourne CBD was provided by route 95 short workings from Melbourne Museum to Spencer Street via Bourke Street between 12:00 and 14:00 on weekdays.