I once came across this curious Google Maps error which placed a tram stop from Pascoe Vale outside the North Balwyn Coles for over two years.

Ever since then, I’ve been paying more attention to the names given to tram stops.

There are stops named for things that no longer exist or have been rebranded:

• Braille Library/Commercial Road (Malvern) (although the beautiful heritage building still exists, the Braille Library as an institution ceased to function in 1990)
• Reservoir District Secondary College on Route 86 (school renamed to Reservoir High School in the 2000s)

Others are located on the boundary of where a road changes its name, leading to possible confusion with adjacent stops having different references to the same thing:

• Princes Street vs. Alexandra Pde (Brunswick)

Some of the stops on the Port Melbourne and St Kilda light rail sections still have ‘station’ in their name, referencing the heavy rail in use before the early 1990s when they were converted:

• North Port Station/Light Rail (Port Melbourne)
• Middle Park Station/Light Rail (Middle Park)
• St Kilda Station/Light Rail (St Kilda)

Tram stops are usually labelled with the names of two intersecting streets or a major landmark. There are some stops with more obscure references:

• Racing Victoria/161 Epsom Road (Flemington)
• QPO/Cotham Road (Kew)

While most stops that are located close or adjacent to railway stations are labelled accordingly (e.g. ‘Elsternwick Station’), this one is not for some reason:

• Orrong Road/Malvern Road (next to Toorak Station)

There’s also this curious phenomenon when the PTV website and timetables don’t quite match up with physical signs at tram stops:

• ‘Hawthorn Station‘ vs. ‘Hawthorn Railway Station‘
• ‘Kooyong Station‘ vs. ‘Kooyong Railway Station‘

Perhaps the most confusing of all are those stops that have a twin nearby:

• Highpoint Shopping Centre (stop 49) and Highpoint Shopping Centre (Stop 51) (this one is particularly confusing because the PTV website/timetable doesn’t match with the stop’s physical signage, which you can see here)

This stop is called ‘Kew Cemetery’ even though the main entrance is actually at the next tram stop, 250 metres up the road. It also shows the perils of naming things after facilities, as its official name is now technically ‘Boroondara General Cemetery‘:

• Kew Cemetery/High St (Kew)

These two stops are on the wrong sides of the road from the things that they are named after (literally all they’d have to do is swap them):

• Vision Australia/454 Glenferrie Road and Kooyong Tennis Centre/Glenferrie Road

Finally, this one isn’t really that strange but I do love the idea of the tram stop being named after a children’s’ traffic school. I remember going here many times as a kid:

• Kew Traffic School/Cotham Road (Kew)