New Parkdale station

I took a quick look around Parkdale station on Saturday morning. It opened on Friday after works to remove two nearby level crossings.

From the previous stop, Mentone, the line rises fairly quickly, to go over Warrigal Road before arriving at Parkdale, which has two side platforms.

The temporary track, which was provided on the eastern side of the station, has all been removed. It allowed much of the work to proceed while trains kept running – something possible at some locations but not at others.

There doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of shelter on either platform. Even on the citybound side, which normally would have 60% coverage, there’s a lengthy section in the middle with no cover. It beats me why they don’t just aim for 90+% coverage; the additional cost during construction would be tiny.

The fencing along the platforms is such that you mostly can’t easily see down to street level – this is similar to the privacy shielding along the rail line itself. But there are a couple of spots on the citybound platforms with views down to the shops and beyond to the bay, which is nice.

One great thing about the station design is that there are entrances at both ends of the station, which can help cut walking time from the surrounding streets. I really hope this will be the trend for other new stations. (The outbound southern entrance/exit is the only one of the four not yet open.)

The fears of some of the station overshadowing the shops was not apparent at 10am on Saturday. Given the orientation of the station, I would expect it would only happen early in the morning.

There’s a gap of perhaps 20 metres between the shops and the station structure, so hopefully it’s not a long impact each morning. When I went past, it didn’t seem to be bothering the al fresco diners.

(Keon Park is an example of a station that has been a really bad outcome for adjacent residents. Thankfully I don’t see the same problems at Parkdale.)

One thing is apparent: the whole area is still a construction zone. There are no Myki machines installed yet, nor lifts. If you can’t use the stairs, there’s an accessible shuttle bus (or taxi?) to the next station.

(Eventually there will be lifts at both ends of each platform.)

So the station is arguably more functional than beautiful for now, but it’s nowhere near as bad as some of the anti-skyrail renders distributed before the project got underway.

That said, any comparison should probably be left until more work has been completed. Things should improve as the works progress, particularly making the space underneath the tracks usable.

Not everyone will love it. But opinions shifted at Carnegie – a year or two after it was done, one local told me she had been against it, but had changed her mind once it was finished. We’ll see what happens at Parkdale.

But there’s still one question I have: where will the Parkdale Pigeon roost?