News / Transport
Accessible tram stop advocates want more than promises
Rally marks third anniversary of Sydney Road campaign
Mark Phillips
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The failure to install accessible tram stops in Sydney Road has become a totemic issue for disability advocates in Victoria with a rally in Brunswick on Saturday drawing people from as far away as Frankston.
The rally was held to mark the third anniversary of the campaign for raised platforms so that people with mobility issues are able to use trams on the #19 route to and from North Coburg.
The campaign marked up a small win earlier this year when the government included funding to investigate the development of accessible tram stops in the state Budget. But no-one at Saturday’s rally was in the mood for celebrating.
Instead, the crowd of close to 100 people was told to keep up the fight until trams on Sydney Road were fully accessible for everyone including wheelchair users, the elderly and parents with prams.
There are only two accessible stops along the full length of Sydney Road, one of them at Brunswick Road and the other 5.5 km further north at the last stop on the line in North Coburg.
Under the federal Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport, the state government was required to make its public transport networks and associated infrastructure accessible for people with disabilities by 2022.
However, the standards do allow until 2032 to make trams and trains fully accessible.
In the May Budget, the Allan government allocated $70 million to a package of works to improve Melbourne’s tram network, including the delivery of more accessible tram stops with Sydney Road named as one of the areas of focus.
Only $28.8 million of that money is to be delivered this financial year and activists are cautioning that a similar pledge of funding was made to improve tram stops on the route 86 in Fitzroy in 2022-23, but no work has yet taken place.
The founder of the Sydney Road Accessible Tram Stops Now campaign, Christian Astourian, urged supporters to keep up the pressure for real action.
“The biggest progress so far has been that the Allan government has committed to community consultation and planning development, which is a good start but there is no guarantee that accessible tram stops will happen,” he said.
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While no members of the government were present at the rally, Greens MLC for Northern Metro province, Anasina Gray-Barberio, picked up the same theme by urging the crowd to continue to be vocal.
“Do not settle for piecemeal breadcrumbs that the government is offering,” she said.
“Stand proud, be vocal … because if the government is offering, if they’ve got money for consultation, they’ve got money for accessible trams.
“It’s a political choice when it comes to budget outcomes where you spend money.”
Brunswick resident Sean Tyrell, who is an associate director of Physical Disability Australia, said the government should ensure some of the budget for the upcoming level crossing removal project is allocated to accessible tram stops. He also suggested different tactics could be required.
“I think it is time for us to step this up again and to go early for strategic litigation,” he said.
“The Victorian government have themselves had reported to the Victorian Auditor-General, pointing out this is all meant to be done by 2022. It’s now 2026. We’ve waited long enough.” 
The rally culminated with a march up Sydney Road from Wilson Avenue to the Brunswick Town Hall, where several people in wheelchairs demonstrated the impossibility of boarding a tram.
They included Ally Clarke, a teenager from Frankston who has a rare muscular condition that requires her to use a motorised wheelchair.
Despite living on the other side of Melbourne, she said she wanted to attend to show how important this issue was to people with disabilities wherever they came from.
Merri-bek Councillor Sue Bolton, who has been involved in the campaign from the start, said the situation in Sydney Road resonated widely beyond Brunswick.
“It doesn’t matter where you live, this affects everybody,” she said.
“So every advance for accessible public transport is an advance for everybody, and if we can win this in Sydney Road, hopefully that means we can also build up steam to win it everywhere, because there have been precious few accessible tram stops put in [place].”
The council’s recently adopted 2026-27 budget has allocated $200,000 over two years towards a Sydney Road planning and corridor study.
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