Are major roadworks disrupting attendance for RMIT classes?

Travelling to classes has become difficult for students after the Swanston Street and La Trobe Street intersection has been closed for tram upgrades.

Road works close intersections of Swanston Street (Credit: Bill Teuma)

With Stop 7 being RMIT’s main stop, students have been left confused and having to switch from different tram routes.

Fergus, a 19-year-old engineering student at RMIT, realised that while La Trobe Street was closed, classes started to shrink in attendance.  

“I noticed in one of my classes last week there were a lot of people, when this week was probably half or less,” he said. 

Despite there being multiple forms of signage surrounding the works, and information online from Melbourne City Council and Public Transport Victoria, students were still unclear on the purpose of the works.  

“I didn’t know it was happening. The university hasn’t said anything about it, it hasn’t been in the news or anything” Fergus said. 

Fergus recalled how he was 10 minutes late for his morning class, having to make the “annoying and slow” trip up La Trobe Street during its construction.   

A press release by Premier Jacinta Allan states closures should last from 10pm on Friday August 30, until 5am Monday, September 16. Official signage at the Swanston Street site indicates the closures are expected to be finished on September 15.

In any case, students should expect both ends of Swanston Street and Victoria Street intersection to be closed at this time. 

Louise Stockton, who came from Canberra to RMIT, "wishes" she had known in advance that she would be delayed by Swanston’s closure so she could have had “a better indication of where I needed to go next”.

Stockton travelled to RMIT for a session held by the scholarship program and almost missed the event due to the construction works. 

When Stockton took the tram from Coburg, she had “no idea” there would be any tram closures and while having signage here helps inform those in Swanston Street, it “doesn’t help her in Coburg”. 

“I wish, as someone who is visiting Melbourne, I had a way of finding out this information,” she said. 

Ms Stockton finds speaking to customer service officers at the Swanston Street site to be “incredibly intimidating”. 

Swanston Street’s roadworks are part of Victoria’s Big Build. One of the focus areas is the North region of the CBD. 

This part of the road works stretches to include Lonsdale Street, Russell Street, and Queen’s Street. 

Yarra Trams states the reason for Swanston Street’s closure is a renewal of overhead lines and upgrading the network at Swanston Street and the Victorian Street Precinct. 

Jacinta Allan in her press release states that the works will “reconfigure Victoria Street,” allowing “modern trams to run along the key corridor”.

“The upgrades will also deliver safety improvements for cyclists and pedestrians with the works to create dedicated cycling and walking paths,” she added.  

Updated tram line on La Trobe Street (Credit: Bill Teuma)

Works on La Trobe Street to concluded on Friday August 30, with the detours up La Trobe Street from Melbourne Central Station no longer a bother to students. 

But those who use Stop 7 to get to campus will have to wait until the Swanston Street construction is finished on September 15.

The Swanston Gazette contacted Public Transport Victoria and workers at the Swanston Street construction site, but they didn’t comment.