At long last the shops built as part of the new Bentleigh station (my local) have been leased. Somewhat to my surprise, in the middle of an economy-busting pandemic, they’re being fitted out now. One of them will be a medical centre. Following a conversation on Twitter about it, I was curious to see if ... [More]
This coming Saturday the new Bentleigh, McKinnon and Ormond stations are hosting a “family fun day” featuring a steam train. Should be… well, fun. Edit: Here’s the steam train timetable: (Hopefully they’ve checked if steam trains are okay climbing the higher-than-usual 2.5% (ish) gradient heading north out of Ormond station! I’d assume so, given the ... [More]
Apologies for this very much locally focused (and possibly over-long) blog post: The main bus route through Bentleigh (both the suburb and the highly marginal state seat), the east-west 703 along Centre Road, is getting a slight upgrade. It doesn’t seem to have been announced yet, but eagle-eyed timetable watcher Craig Halsall spotted it: on ... [More]
Many around Australia would know of the Gosford Anglican Church, thanks to Father Rod Bower and his famous signs. A couple of weeks ago this sign appeared at the Bentleigh Uniting Church. It now seems to have disappeared in favour their more usual list of events. It pleases me to see messages like this. Immigration, ... [More]
My local suburb is increasing in density, and (not entirely disconnected from that) it’s also interesting to see how the retail strip is doing. The shopping centre has grown around the railway station, which is still the epicentre, though the east side of the tracks is where most of the busiest shops are located. The ... [More]
With Ormond likely to get its tower (whatever the height might be), what of other nearby suburbs? The transition is already underway in Bentleigh and many other areas. Around the station, numerous developments are going up. And in principle, I have no problem with this. Melbourne’s population continues to grow. People have to live somewhere, ... [More]
So this is what it looks like when hundreds of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure gets built rapidly in your neighbourhood. Here are some photos and video of the first week of major works on the Bentleigh/Mckinnon/Ormond level crossings. (Click any photo to view it larger at Flickr — or click here to view ... [More]
Pedestrians — Use other footpath. Haha just kidding, there IS no other footpath! You’ll have to use the road or the (possibly wet boggy) grass. Silver lining: it’s not a very busy road. (Ward Street, Bentleigh. The footpath is blocked for building construction. Not many streets in this area have only one footpath, but a ... [More]
We survived! Ten days of bustitution is over… well, almost. Just to be clear — because some of the information is either vague, misleading or missing: The Frankston line is running again, including to Bentleigh station. Bentleigh station will close for demolition and rebuilding in June. But Mckinnon and Ormond stations are closed and demolished. ... [More]
I love a bit of local history, even if it’s fairly recent. For my fellow Bentleigh peeps — as part of the level crossing removal project, the old underpass into the station has been partially uncovered. It looks to have been a similar layout to Mckinnon: steps straight to the street, as well as a ... [More]
On Thursday the state government announced two more level crossings in their first term batch of 20: Scoresby Rd and Mountain Hwy, either side of Bayswater station. This provides some interesting challenges due to the adjacent train maintenance facility, which presumably can’t be moved. The press release notes: They [the crossings] will be removed through ... [More]
As I’ve touched upon in previous posts, there are numerous technical hurdles with the Bentleigh area level crossing removals. Via the stakeholder group I’m learning that a lot of the cost with any removal where the railway line is dropped down under the road is related to carefully moving all the services that are buried ... [More]