Last Sunday was the annual St Kilda Festival. Coupled with the hot weather crowds descended on St Kilda, with huge demand for trams and several unusual workings, not least because of the centre of the suburb being completely pedestrianised, with pop-up bars on the tram tracks along the Esplanade. The 3a and 16a services were bisected. Here one of the remaining battleship grey Yarra Tram Z3 classs cars, 176, on the 3a terminated at St Kilda Triangle with the landmark Palais Theatre behind. The tram will switch tracks and ricochet back to East Malvern. Trams from the city direction terminated in Fitzroy Street the other side of St Kilda. They reversed track in a screened area. The crowds were greater on that side so the screening was doubtless for safety. Extra trams returned to the city and some continued via route 8 along Lygon Street. The 96, home to the five E class Bombardier trams delivered so far, terminated a St Kilda Station. Meanwhile the 112 had extra trams between the city and St Kilda, with the northern half of the route on a normal Sunday timetable. The route was therefore split in two and the normal B class trams replaced by C class Citadis on the high frequency section.
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