It’s perhaps a minor thing, but… Back in November 2017 the metro tunnel station names were announced, including a new station called North Melbourne, with the current station to be renamed to West Melbourne. (See update at bottom of article. This plan was cancelled in early 2020.) I don’t have a problem with that. It’s ... [More]
If you live in Melbourne, you’ve almost certainly heard of the Melbourne Metro Rail Tunnel project (MMRT for short, but to avoid confusion here, I’ll call it Metro 1). You may or may not have also heard of the Metro 2 project. So what is it? It used to be the second stage of Metro ... [More]
So the Metro tunnel station names will be, from south to north… Anzac (working name Domain) — located more-or-less underneath the Shrine of Remembrance, of course. (The Shrine Trustees didn’t want the word Shrine used, by the way. I wonder how they feel about Anzac. Given the usual tight control over the name, I assume ... [More]
Just posted on the holiday blog: Brussels — where I meet my new baby cousin in a tram museum (of course!)đśđ The state government are running a competition for naming the new stations to be built as part of the metro rail tunnel. It’s a good idea to get suggestions. Some of the working names ... [More]
The metro rail tunnel concept is about ten years old, having first publicly emerged in late-2005. In some quarters, it’s been seen as an unnecessary white elephant — an expensive way of providing for extra passenger capacity in the CBD, when other cheaper ways were available to cope with increased patronage. But time has passed, ... [More]
As I’ve written already, both the Metro Rail Tunnel and the Melbourne Rail Link provide similar benefits in terms of rail capacity in the central part of Melbourne’s rail network. In those terms, they are roughly equivalent. But MRL does have problems. For example, I think it connects the wrong lines. Connecting lines Both MRL ... [More]
There’s plenty of confusion over the various rail tunnel proposals. The Coalition is pushing theirs, Labor’s saying they’ll stick to the original plan. On the bright side: The major parties aren’t arguing about whether a rail line should be built, but which route it should take. Both schemes appear to achieve the goal of separating ... [More]
The metro rail tunnel has been renamed again. What has been at various times “Metro 1+Metro 2”, “the Metro Tunnel”, and the “Metro Rail Capacity Project” is now “Melbourne Rail Link”. The plans for the revised version are not as bad as first thought. The Frankston line will run from South Yarra to Domain and ... [More]
UPDATE 7:30pm: The government has released details which vary from the assumptions in this post. See this followup post. Oh lordy. As some have feared, it looks like the Napthine government is about to stuff-up the metro rail tunnel, which is proposed to connect the Sunshine/Sunbury and Dandenong lines. The Herald Sun reports: WORK on ... [More]
There seems to be a little confusion over the various names of the Metro rail tunnel — for instance the name Metro One pops up regularly, especially out of the City Of Melbourne. The confusion is not surprising, as the name and design of the tunnel has changed a bit over the years. Origins The ... [More]
There’s been some speculation about who is running the SpringStSource Twitter account and web site. The web domain name is registered through WhoIsGuard, a Panama-based service specifically for hiding details of people who want to remain anonymous. It’s not hard to see whoever is behind it is well and truly on the side of the ... [More]
It’s often said that there hasn’t been a suburban rail line built in Melbourne since the Glen Waverley line opened in 1930. To be precise, that year it was extended from Darling to Glen Waverley. Others built or extended since then have either been electrification along existing lines, or re-openings of lines along old alignments: ... [More]