Created: 09 July 2003

Last Updated: 20th November 2007
Changes made this month shown in red
Changes made the previous month shown in orange

NOTES ARE LISTED AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS LIST.

Please help to maintain this list by contacting the creator Craig Halsall at  craig.halsall@gmail.com  or AATTC webmaster Lourie Smit at lsmit@ozemail.com.au of any corrections or latest news. Your help is greatly appreciated.

LATEST POCKET TIMETABLES ARE EFFECTIVE SEPTEMBER 30 2007

These replace Connex pocket timetables effective October 15 2006

FORMAT:

• Fold-out pocket sized card produced on glossary paper in full colour 
• Shows departure times from designated station towards City, with direction via City Loop. Also shows mins later at the other stations listedm in the particular timetbale. 
• Shows departure times from Flinders St to designated station, with direction via City Loop
• Currently line Maps shown are in the Metlink style. Attractions & connecting rail lines now marked, and are the latest version, showing Host Stations
• Prior to the 2004 timetables, they showed a PTC style line map for the line with connecting services & travel times (stopping all stations) from Flinders Street. 
• Line name is also showed on front cover. Timetables issues by Bayside/M>Train & Hillside/Connex issued between April 2000 until March 2003 also had a colour scheme has used reflect each line as follows: : (NOTE Last Connex timetables to use colour-coding were 23/3/03 timetables, M>Train last used colour-coding in 27/1/04 timetables)

• Alamein - Green
• Belgrave/Lilydale - Violet
• Cranbourne/Pakenham - Maroon (formerly Green)
• Broadmeadows/Upfield - Orange (formerly light blue)
• Epping - Yellow
• Frankston & Stony Point  - Violet
• Glen Waverley - Orange
• Hurstbridge - Blue
• Sandringham - Green (formerly dark blue)
• Werribee/Williamstown/Sydenham - Red

• Express services not stopping at incorporating stations are marked "N"
• Stony point Line pocket timetable shows a table-style timetable, rather than a departure list. This shows times for all stations between Stony Point & Frankston, with listing of suburban connections to & from Flinders St. 

• No pocket timetables are issued for stations within the City Loop or its immediate surrounds (Flagstaff, Flinders St, Jolimont, Melbourne Central, North Melbourne, Parliament, Richmomd, Southern Cross, South Yarra), or the special event stations of Flemington Racecourse and Showgrounds.
• The final pocket timetable for South Yarra was issued in October 2004
• No General Motors timetable was issued in the years prior to its closure in July 2002.
• Prior to August 23rd 1993 timetable only Weekday times were shown & no line map was provided
• Prior to February 18th 1996 timetable, a individual timetable was printed for each station
• The Mont Albert, Surrey Hills timetable was split into seperate Mont Albert and Surrey Hills timetables with the March 23 2003 timetable
• The following timetables were mergered together with the October 15 2006 timetable:
  • Auburn with Hawthorn
  • Mount Waverley, Jordanville with Holmesglen
  • Thomastown with Keon Park, Ruthven
• The following timetables were split up with the October 15 2006 timetable:
  • Clayton, Huntingdale into Clayton and Huntinghdale timetables
  • Springvale, Westall into Springvale and Westall timetables
• The Upper Ferntree Gully and Fentree Gully timetables were merged together with the September 30 2007 timetable
• The Spotswood, Seddon, Yarraville timetble was split into seperate Spotswood, Seddon and Yarraville timetables with the September 30 2007 timetable
• Non-P.S.R. trips are not shown in pocket timetables
• Bayside Trains & M>Train pocket timetables included a self-fill mini-table in issues from December 1998 until January 2002, in which passengers filled in train times important for them for quick reference - previously "The Met" had issued a business card sized card for this purpose.
• See below for a brief history on the infamous M>Train pocket timetables reprinted January 2004
• New pocket timetables were not issued with the timetable changes to the Northern Group lines on September 3rd 2006. These changes were reflected pocket timetables dated October 15 2006 pocket timetables. The introduction of the extra late night trains on Fridays & Saturdays commenced on the latter date

M>TRAIN / METLINK ISSUES - REPRINTED JANUARY 2004

Version 1

In Mid March 2004, with just over a month until Connex took over the entire system, M>Train released new blue "Metlink" pocket timetables for its services, together with the re-issuing of a their booklet timetables a few weeks earlier. Connex didn't re-issue either style of timetables at this time. This came as somewhat of a surprise, seeming that they were neither were available until after the State Government had made an official announcement of the April 18th takeover. 

These timetables are also the first pocket timetables to feature the Metlink style line maps, 18 months after Connex began using them in their booklet timetables. However they used a different version of the map than that of the booklet timetables - they didn't show attractions or connecting rail services. With the exception of the Broadmeadows/Upfield one editions, these maps contain significant errors, which are detailed below. This has lead to some stations withdrawing all stocks; they are now refusing to hand them out to passengers and in some cases they were returned to the printers or thrown in the bin. It's believed that these have been issued for all M>Train stations listed above, but it is now impossible to collect a full set due to the actions of individual stations. Other stations appear to be using up present stocks of January 27th 2002 timetables first, making the challenge even harder, however in some cases they eventually began to offer them, as late as October 2004.

The Met Shop never received these stocks of either Version 1 or 2 (see below), while to our knowledge Flinders St only ever were given supplies of Version 2 pocket timetables for Frankston Line stations, which were given out in lieu of booklet timetables, when stocks ran dry. 

It's also now known that some metcard retail outlets had also received copies of the Jan 2004 pocket timetables, in some cases for timetables that weren't even received at local premium stations! Ascot Vale Lotto & News, for instance, was the only location that Ascot Vale pocket timetables were obtained.

Summary of errors:

• BROADMEADOWS/UPFIELD MAPS - Bus connection at Moreland not shown, and Batman tram connection also omitted 
• CRANBOURNE/PAKENHAM MAPS - City Loop stations in wrong order / Tram connection at Cranbourne / Narre Warren not shown as a Premium / Closed station General Motors shown / Parking shown at General Motors
• FRANKSTON/STONY POINT MAPS - City Loop stations in wrong order / Zones are wrong (Zone 1 nth of Patterson, Zone 2 McKinnon - Mentone, Zone 3 sth of Highett) 
• SANDRINGHAM MAPS - City Loop stations in wrong order / Cover reads Sandringham Lines
• WERRIBEE/WILLIAMSTOWN/SYDENHAM MAPS - Tram connection at Spotswood / Laverton not shown in Zone 1 & 2 overlap

In addition to this, the pocket timetables for stations on the Frankston, Sandringham & Pakenham/Cranbourne lines don't reflect short-term changes to the timetable, which see late night trains Monday - Friday & Saturdays not running via the loop due to the Spencer St redevelopment. The January 2004 booklet timetables do so however.

Timetable errors to the Frankston line issues
In addition to the errors with the Frankston line maps in the Version 1 editions, there is also errors with the timetables themselves, with have occurred in both Version 1 & 2. In ALL Frankston line issues spotted so far, the times listed for Monday to Friday departing from Flinders St, are trips that are appropriate for Frankston, Seaford, Carrum & Chelsea editions only.

For Mordialloc, Mentone, Cheltenham issues, this means that the times shown don't include the 16:49, 16:59 or 17:24 Mordialloc services.

With the Highett, Moorabbin, Bentleigh & Glenhuntly the error means that not only are Mordialloc services not shown, but services that run express through the respective stations are shown!

This error was picked up by Connex sometime before early June 2004, and it is believed that they are currently reprinting them yet again. The mistakes were not spotted by collectors until they began to be withdraw version 2.

Other minor errors, in both versions, are a phantom 11:45am trip from Carrum to the City on weekdays & the 8:06am trip to the City from Mordialloc is still not marked by "N" to show it skips Parkdale. As well, the Clayton/Huntingdale timetable (Cranbourne & Pakenham lines) doesn't show the 4:20pm or 5:45pm services not stopping at Huntingdale

Version 2 

By early April most timetable collectors had generally believed that the Jan 2004 TTs would not be reprinted until Connex took over, and had accepted this when Connex began running the entire metropolitan system on April 18.

It therefore came as a bit of a shock when, only a couple of days after the takeover that some Frankston line stations began to distribute newer editions of these timetables, with the errors to the maps corrected, other than one minor error - all maps show BENTLEIGH in CAPITALS, when they should show the respective station for that timetable. These timetables were still issued by M>Train & include the M>Train contact info.

The mistakes with the timetables still remained, showing the incorrect weekday times from the City in 7 of the timetable. For details regarding these errors please see above.  Also, although some staff had previously advised passengers as this being an error, these timetables still don't reflect the short-term changes to late night services via the Caulfield loop.

Only Frankston/Stony Point timetables were reprinted into Version 2 editions, and all relevant version 2 timetables were eventually sighted by collectors. Its unknown why Frankston/Stony Point timetables were reissued while ones for other lines such as Pakenham/Cranbourne & Sandringham weren't. It wasn't until early October 2004 that Connex reissued all timetables, both booklet & pocket, for the entire network. 

Obtained:

Eventually the majority of M>Train pocket timetables dated January 2004 were spotted, and these are listed below for historical information. All are version 1 editions, unless indicated. If you happen to have one of the ones not listed below, could you please contact either Lourie or Craig. 

• BROADMEADOWS/UPFIELD LINES: Ascot Vale, Broadmeadows, Brunswick, Coburg, Essendon, Fawkner, Glenroy, Royal Park, Upfield
• CRANBOURNE/PAKENHAM LINES: Armadale, Berwick, Caulfield, Clayton, Cranbourne, Hughesdale, Malvern, South Yarra, Springvale
• FRANKSTON/STONY POINT LINES: Bentleigh (1 & 2), Carrum (1 & 2), Chelsea (2), Cheltenham (2), Frankston (1 & 2), Glenhuntly (2), Highett (2), Mentone (2), Moorabbin (1 & 2), Mordialloc (2), Seaford (2), Stony Point Line (1 & 2) 
• SANDRINGHAM LINES: One spotted, but actual station is confidential
• WERRIBEE/WILLIAMSTOWN/SYDENHAM LINES: Footscray, Hoppers Crossing, Laverton, Spotswood, St Albans, Sth Kensington, Sunshine, Watergardens, Werribee, Westona, Williamstown

OBTAIN:

• A complete set of current pocket timetables is usually available from the City Met Shop - Melbourne Town Hall, corner Little Collins St & Swanston St Melbourne. Open 9am - 5.30pm Weekdays & 9am - 1pm Saturdays. (Note: You may have to return later while you request is filled)
• Flinders St station also has most pocket timetables at the Flinders St concourse offices. 
• Pocket timetables can also be obtained from the staffed station applicable.
• In the case of unmanned stations, nearest premium station often has copies available. 
• Some Metcard retail outlets are also known to stock supplies of pocket timetables for the nearest station.
• Stony Point line pocket timetables can also be obtained on-board the train by asking the conductor. 

CORRECTIONS & UPDATES:

• Please help to maintain this list by contacting the creator Craig Halsall at  craig.halsall@gmail.com  or AATTC webmaster Lourie Smit at lsmit@ozemail.com.au. of any corrections or latest news. Your help is greatly appreciated

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