Transport blogger / campaigner and spokesperson for the Public Transport Users Association / professional geek.
Bunurong land, Melbourne, Australia.
Opinions on this blog are all mine.
It only cost $2 billion to build Citylink and that included 5.2 km of three-lane road tunnels and some very tricky elevated road construction. Surely a train tunnel, which doesn’t need to be as wide as a road tunnel and doesn’t need a road built in it, should be easier and cheaper to build than a freeway.
But why does it need to be restricted to a short tunnel around the inner suburbs? I’d expect a ring tunnel connecting the radial lines at a distance of about 20 km from the city would move even more people. And it wouldn’t need to share tracks, or even trains, with the current system. All it needs is pedestrian connections as they have in London and Paris. We could use newer, more compact trains like those used in the Tube (though we could cater for air conditioning too).
Yeah, I’m not sure but I gather construction costs have gone up a fair bit in the last few years. Of course you’d be talking about at least two physical tunnels.
The London Tube only uses compact trains so they fit in the old tunnels… it’s not by choice. Sticking to standard tunnel heights would work better, so the tunnels can be used for through-routed trains, thus relieving existing tracks (well, once they fill up; most of them are a long way from that yet).
From what I understand, there’s not that much radial travel demand at this stage, though that may change as more trips get induced by the ring roads.
I think you mean ring travel demand. But I’d say there is. We only need look at the insane traffic on Springvale Road every peak hour to see how many people might be persuaded to use a train connecting Doncaster with Mordialloc via Nunawading, Glen Waverley and Monash.
Yeah, ring travel I mean. The problem is (taking Springvale Rd as the example) that the travel stats show most N-S trips in that area are only for short distances. Which is why the opening of Eastlink is unlikely to help Springvale Rd very much; like a rail line, it’s really better for longer trips.
I’m hoping they would actually put an access road in the tunnel if they end up building it for two simple words – emergency vehicles.
5 replies on “No time Bellamy, no time”
It only cost $2 billion to build Citylink and that included 5.2 km of three-lane road tunnels and some very tricky elevated road construction. Surely a train tunnel, which doesn’t need to be as wide as a road tunnel and doesn’t need a road built in it, should be easier and cheaper to build than a freeway.
But why does it need to be restricted to a short tunnel around the inner suburbs? I’d expect a ring tunnel connecting the radial lines at a distance of about 20 km from the city would move even more people. And it wouldn’t need to share tracks, or even trains, with the current system. All it needs is pedestrian connections as they have in London and Paris. We could use newer, more compact trains like those used in the Tube (though we could cater for air conditioning too).
Yeah, I’m not sure but I gather construction costs have gone up a fair bit in the last few years. Of course you’d be talking about at least two physical tunnels.
The London Tube only uses compact trains so they fit in the old tunnels… it’s not by choice. Sticking to standard tunnel heights would work better, so the tunnels can be used for through-routed trains, thus relieving existing tracks (well, once they fill up; most of them are a long way from that yet).
From what I understand, there’s not that much radial travel demand at this stage, though that may change as more trips get induced by the ring roads.
I think you mean ring travel demand. But I’d say there is. We only need look at the insane traffic on Springvale Road every peak hour to see how many people might be persuaded to use a train connecting Doncaster with Mordialloc via Nunawading, Glen Waverley and Monash.
Yeah, ring travel I mean. The problem is (taking Springvale Rd as the example) that the travel stats show most N-S trips in that area are only for short distances. Which is why the opening of Eastlink is unlikely to help Springvale Rd very much; like a rail line, it’s really better for longer trips.
I’m hoping they would actually put an access road in the tunnel if they end up building it for two simple words – emergency vehicles.