One difference is that John St Square is not advertised as having service at this time, so the moves to and from it are non-revenue . It's essentially a crossiver on the Down side of The Star - the presence of the John St Square platform is not wholly relevant. And with there being no further runs to the west, it doesn't impact any other services.Glen wrote: By contrast the crossover at John St Square is on the Up side, so after midnight when trams run from Central to John St Sq, they terminate on the Down platform, reverse and then crossover to the Up line to take up service from The Star back to Central.
Certainly the presence of the island platform at Lilyfield to use for terminating services makes a lot of sense though. Too much sense for it to be implemented any time soon