Wednesday, 30 November 2011
From this Friday night, late night city visitors will be able to catch a taxi from the City of Melbourne’s new Queen Street mega taxi rank each weekend.
A first of its kind for Melbourne, the taxi rank will see Queen Street closed between Little Collins and Bourke Streets every Friday and Saturday night between midnight and 5am.
The Queen Street rank will be well lit, have CCTV cameras, traffic marshals and security officers in the area each night. The Salvation Army will have its food and coffee van on site, Victoria Police officers will patrol the area as part of their operations, and Youth Street Team volunteers will hand out free water bottles and thongs to late night revellers.
Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said the new rank will make it easier and safer for patrons to catch a cab late at night.
“Queen Street is one of the city’s biggest nightclub precincts and in the early hours of the weekend there are a lot people trying to get a taxi home,” the Lord Mayor said.
“The mega rank will provide a safe and well lit place to wait for a taxi. Family and friends will also be able to pick up people from the east side of Queen Street if they enter through Little Collins Street.”
“Often we see alcohol affected people walking onto the street late at night as they try to get home and it is this sort of behaviour that we want to eliminate.
“It’s great to see the City of Melbourne, Victoria Police, VicRoads, The Salvation Army, the taxi industry and the Nightclub Owners Forum all working together on this initiative,” the Lord Mayor said.
The rank will be in place every Friday and Saturday night for a six month trial period. At the conclusion of the trial Councillors will assess the rank based on patron and taxi usage.
The Lord Mayor said this weekend’s launch of the Queen Street taxi rank will coincide with another new city safety initiative, when City of Melbourne compliance officers work alongside Victoria Police to crack down on alcohol related offences.
“This weekend our compliance officers will be working with police late at night and in the early hours of the morning to enforce local laws that prevent people from drinking or carrying an open bottle of alcohol on the streets,” the Lord Mayor said.
“We will be working in teams of four – two compliance officers and two police members – to issue fines to anyone drinking alcohol in public places and confiscating their bottles.”
The on the spot fine for this offence is $100. The trial with Victoria Police will be for this weekend only and depending on its success, the City of Melbourne may conduct similar initiatives over the summer period.