It’s January, and while lots of people have heard about the City Loop closure, less well-publicised are the shutdowns on the Hurstbridge, Alamein, Cranbourne/Pakenham and Frankston lines… plus more lines in the evenings. Anyway, here’s something related – an expansion of a comment answer I left on a recent post. The question was about how ... [More]
The new Carnegie and Murrumbeena stations opened on Monday morning. These used to be my local stations. I lived close to Murrumbeena in my teens, and again from 2003 to 2005, and occasionally used Carnegie as well, and still sometimes pass through on the bus to Chadstone. As this photo from Saturday shows, immediately after ... [More]
For two weeks the Cranbourne/Pakenham line was shut between Westall and Dandenong, allowing construction crews to complete the ramps and connect the first section of skyrail to the line. It re-opened on Thursday. I and other stakeholders got a preview on Wednesday, but we weren’t allowed to take photos inside (because construction work around the ... [More]
On Wednesday the State Government announced that the first section of “skyrail”, at Noble Park, will open on Thursday 15th February, along with the new station, following a two week disruption to rail services between Westall and Dandenong. This will mark the removal of three level crossings: at Corrigan, Heatherton and Chandler Roads. Trains will ... [More]
A post in an occasional series wrapping up a few brief transporty things from the last week or two. The new train design This might be the least crowded train I’ve ever caught. That’s because it’s a pretend train, a mock-up of a carriage and a half, somewhere in a warehouse in outer-suburban Melbourne. I ... [More]
On the weekend I was chatting about the Dandenong skyrail proposal to rellies at their house near Hughesdale station. They are keeping an open mind; they are not immediately under the rail line, and they can see the obvious benefit from getting the level crossings removed quickly, but are concerned about some aspects, which it ... [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]