Melbourne tram route 72 is operated by

Yarra Trams Yarra Trams is the trading name of the operator of the tram network in Melbourne, Australia, which is owned by VicTrack and leased to Yarra Trams by the Victorian Department of Transport. The current franchise is operated by Keolis Downer. ...

on the

Melbourne tram network Trams are a major form of public transport in Melbourne, the capital city of the state of Victoria, Australia. As of May 2017, the Melbourne tramway network consists of of double track, 493 trams, 24 routes, and 1,763 tram stops. The sys ...

from

Melbourne University The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

Camberwell Camberwell () is a district of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles and a common of which Goose Green is a remnant. This ...

. The 16.8 kilometre route is operated out of Malvern depot with Z and D class trams.

History

Route 72 was first allocated to the line between

(

Burke Road Burke Road is a major north–south thoroughfare in Melbourne, Australia. It runs from Ivanhoe East to Caulfield East and through the major shopping district at Camberwell. It is aligned with the western boundary of Elgar's Special Survey, ...

) and the

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

(

Swanston Street Swanston Street is a major thoroughfare in the centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is one of the main streets of the Melbourne central business district and was laid out in 1837 as part of the original Hoddle Grid. The street vertical ...

) on 1 November 1970.The Camberwell Tramway ''

Transit Australia ''Transit Australia'' was a Sydney based monthly magazine covering public transport in Australia and New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses ...

'' November 1998 pages 243-248 Prior to that, the line to Camberwell was serviced by route 7. The change was at first due to operations of the Camberwell line being shifted from Malvern depot to Camberwell depot. Even though the route was subsequently returned to Malvern in August 1979, the number 72 was kept. Before 1970, Route 72 was a short-working of the Wattle Park line, for trams that terminated at Riversdale instead of Wattle Park. Trams traditionally terminated at the Victoria Street terminus, but following an accident in 1991, trams instead terminated at the Queensberry Street crossover. Due to congestion during peak hours at the crossover, some trams continued north to Melbourne University. Finally on 17 January 1996, a permanent shunt was built at

. From then on, route 72 trams were altered run full-time to Melbourne University. The origins of route 72 lie in separate tram lines. The section of track between Queensberry Street (Stop 4) and Commercial Road (Stop 25) is the oldest section of this route, dating back to the Brighton Road cable tram which opened on 11 October 1888 by the

Melbourne Tramway & Omnibus Company The Melbourne Tramway and Omnibus Company (MTOC) was the company which established and operated Melbourne's cable tram system from 1885 to 1916. History The MTOC was started by Francis Boardman Clapp, who had come to Australia from the United ...

. This cable tram line was electrified in stages by the

Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board The Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board (MMTB) was a government-owned authority that was responsible for the tram network in Melbourne, Australia between 1919 and 1983, when it was merged into the Metropolitan Transit Authority. It had b ...

. The section between

Domain Interchange The Anzac Station tram stop, formerly but still colloquially known as Domain Interchange, is a major interchange on the Trams in Melbourne, Melbourne tram network. It is located on St Kilda Road south of Domain Road, adjacent to Kings Domain, a ...

(Stop 20) and Commercial Road was electrified on 27 December 1925. The section between Queensberry Street and City Road (near Stop 14) was electrified on the same day. The line between City Road and Domain Interchange was electrified on 24 January 1926. The Prahran & Malvern Tramways Trust constructed the Malvern Road line between

St Kilda Road St Kilda Road is a street in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is part of the locality of Melbourne which has the postcode of 3004, and along with Swanston Street forms a major spine of the city. St Kilda Road begins at Flinders Street, i ...

and Gardiner (Stop 50) on 8 April 1915. This line was extended to Camberwell station (Stop 64) on 6 December 1917, and then to Cotham Road on 7 March 1918. The route was curtailed for 21 months from March 1995 while a bridge was built over the

Monash Freeway The Monash Freeway is a major urban freeway in Victoria, Australia, linking Melbourne's CBD to its south-eastern suburbs and beyond to the Gippsland region. It carries up to 180,000 vehicles per day and is one of Australia's busiest freewa ...

. In response to the State Government's Melbourne 2030 planning policy, the

Public Transport Users Association The Public Transport Users Association is a community-based public transport lobby group in Victoria, Australia, based in Melbourne. It is run entirely by volunteers and has no full-time staff. History and aims The organisation was founded ...

lobbied to extend route 72 north to

Doncaster Road State (Bell/Springvale) Highway, also known as Bell Street/Springvale Road State Highway (after its longest constituent parts), is the longest self-contained urban highway in Melbourne, Australia, linking Tullamarine Freeway and Nepean Highwa ...

and Ivanhoe station, and south to Caulfield.

Operation

Route 72 is operated out of Malvern depot with Z and D class trams.Route 72
Yarra Trams

Route map

References

External links

{{MelbourneTramNavbox, state=collapsed 072 072 1970 establishments in Australia Transport in the City of Boroondara Transport in the City of Stonnington