Now that we’ve finished talking about names of yet-to-be-built stations, let’s talk about some recently built ones. Last Saturday a steam train ran to celebrate a year (and a bit) since the new Bentleigh/McKinnon/Ormond stations re-opened, following level crossing removals. K153 leads a Steamrail special into McKinnon pic.twitter.com/6XISB3b2t1 â Metro Man (@The_Rail_Life) November 25, 2017 ... [More]
The other week I noted the current state of level crossing removals across Melbourne, and that Glen Huntly Road / Glenhuntly Station [1] isn’t on the list. This used to be my home station, and with about a million boardings per year [2], it’s the busiest on the Frankston line south of Caulfield, apart from ... [More]
Three years ago in 2014 I attempted to summarise level crossing removals, based on the old 2008 ALCAM list, which is (still) the last public safety evaluation of level crossings in Victoria. Things have moved on a lot since then. Labor was voted in with a policy of grade separating 50 level crossings in 8 ... [More]
The state government announced over the weekend that Edithvale and Bonbeach grade separations on the Frankston line would get rail under road — a little surprising given apparently challenging engineering so close to the beach. No doubt this is politically expedient. For better or worse, that’s how democracy works sometimes, but you have to wonder how ... [More]
Last year, rail under (trench) and rail over (skyrail) options were presented for Cheltenham and Mentone. On Monday the government announced both would be rail under. As expected, the Park Road crossing in Cheltenham (just a stone’s throw from the Charman Road crossing) is being grade separated as well. Latrobe Street, a minor crossing south ... [More]
The rebuilt Ormond, McKinnon and Bentleigh stations opened in August. Following this, the car parks all opened in November. But what about the bike cages? The answer is that they’re still not open. “Parkiteer” Bike cages around the rail network have proved very popular. Some stations have multiple cages. It was a smart move to ... [More]
I was invited by the Level Crossing Removal Authority to look around the Bayswater station grade separation project. This is removing two crossings, either side of the station: Mountain Highway and Scoresby Road. They’re in the final stages of the major works period, with a rail shut down of 37 days almost over, the line ... [More]
The level crossing removals at Ginifer (Furlong Road) and St Albans (Main Road) are nearing completion, and yesterday the new stations opened. Originally the plan had been to remove the St Albans (Main Road) crossing — this was funded by the Coalition government in 2014, for a massive $200 million, recouped from savings during the ... [More]
I was pondering what benefit would the 67 tram gain from the Glenhuntly level crossing being removed? Well thanks to the 37 day rail shutdown in July, we know. Looking at punctuality figures for the last 12 months, this tram route achieved its highest figures for the year in July — in fact my little ... [More]
After about a year of construction, the Burke Road (Gardiner) level crossing was finally removed in January. One of four train/tram crossings (tram squares), it had long caused delays to both, as well as pedestrians, cyclists and motor vehicles. I went and had a look a month or two back. The design isn’t outstanding. In ... [More]
OK, back to level crossing removals. My local ones are going full bore, and I thought I’d post an update and provide a Q+A opportunity. The project summary Originally removal of just the Ormond level crossing was funded by the Coalition. The project was expanded to include adjacent crossings at Mckinnon and Bentleigh after Labor ... [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]
A few more observations on the Bentleigh/Mckinnon/Ormond update — sorry to obsess over this, but it is a huge project directly affecting my local neighbourhood, and similar works will come to many areas of Melbourne soon… Some more pictures of construction Just south of Bentleigh station some serious work is going on re-routing a storm ... [More]
The second big (longer than a weekend) shutdown for this project has commenced, so where are we at? The project summary Click here for my long post on the project details, or here’s a summary: Originally just removal of the Ormond level crossing was funded by the Coalition. The project was expanded to include adjacent ... [More]
A few people have asked me about this in the past few months — what if Bentleigh had got “skyrail”? It’s interesting to consider, though it was never going to happen. Firstly, the timing was wrong. The Coalition had fully funded the Ormond level crossing for removal in May 2014, with designs already having determined ... [More]
Ian Woodcock (RMIT) and John Stone (Melbourne Uni) have a new report out comparing level crossing removal methods. The Age has a story on it this morning, and hopefully the full report will be online very soon. UPDATE: Here it is. I did manage to get a sneak preview, and looks at various case studies ... [More]