From the latest DTP travel update

This video is a dream

Article text (via 12ft.io):

Three train stations in central Brunswick will be closed and replaced with two new stations as part of level-crossing removal works in the rapidly growing inner-north suburb.

Jewell, Brunswick and Anstey stations will shut when a 2.1-kilometre stretch of elevated “sky rail” is built along the Upfield Line between Albion Street and Park Street, in Parkville, by 2030.

Consultation documents show a new “southern station” will be located adjacent to the RMIT campus between Union and Dawson streets – 200 metres north of Jewell Station and 450 metres south of Brunswick Station.

The second “northern station” will be between Hope and West streets, 450 metres north of Brunswick Station and 200 metres south of Anstey.

The loss of one station is likely to be controversial. Merri-bek Council has previously called on the Department of Transport and Planning to keep three stations in the area to maintain the existing level of access for nearby residents.

Jewell and Brunswick stations are also listed on the Victorian Heritage Register

Transport Infrastructure Minister Danny Pearson said the three existing stations were all within 1500 metres of each other, making them the closest stations on the train network.

He said the decision to merge them followed 18 months of technical and engineering assessments that showed it would create more open space.

Removing one stop and delivering new tracks and signalling would also improve reliability and open the door to more frequent services, Pearson said.

Upfield has the worst timetable of any major Metro line, with waits of between 15 and 20 minutes during peak times – but that is because a section of single track between Gowrie and Upfield limits how often trains can operate [paywall bypass and previous aussie.zone discussion here].

“This project will be a game changer for Brunswick and Parkville – it will reduce congestion, deliver two brand new and accessible stations and pave the way for extra trains on the Upfield Line in the future,” Pearson said. But the single-track bottleneck remains.

The new rail bridge will allow the removal of boom gates at eight level crossings, according to state government plans to be released on Thursday. It’s part of a program to take out 110 level crossings across Melbourne by the end of the decade – so far, 84 have been removed.

Brunswick is undergoing rapid growth along the Upfield rail corridor, with new medium-rise apartments built or planned close to the three stations, including some that are likely to be affected by construction of the rail bridge.

Pearson said the two new stations would have entrances on both platform ends for easy access.

Elevating the rail line would also create new open space and allow the popular – but narrow – Upfield bike path to be rebuilt and expanded, he said.

Work is slated to begin in 2028 with the two new stations to be open by 2030.

Level crossings have already been removed further north on the Upfield Line, with a 2.5-kilometre section of elevated rail built between new stations at Bell Street, Coburg, and Moreland Road, Brunswick.

The Allan government previously intended to extend the level-crossing removal work through Brunswick by 2027, but pushed the work back to 2030 in this year’s budget.

This lady is so wholesome and an absolute legend

Credit to u/melbtransport on Reddit:

Article text (via 12ft.io):

‘Ridiculous in a city this size’: The push to unclog Melbourne’s most infuriating train line

Patrick Hatch August 7, 2024 — 5.00am

Melbourne’s least reliable train line shows no signs of improving under the $12.6 billion Metro Tunnel project, due to the continued refusal of governments to fix a bottleneck that has caused years of commuter angst, critics say.

On the Upfield line, which runs through the city’s northern suburbs, passengers face waits of between 15 and 20 minutes during morning and afternoon peak periods and up to 30 minutes in the evening – the longest waiting times of any major Metro line.

Commuters on the Mernda, Sandringham and Glen Waverley lines wait less than 10 minutes between trains in peak hour, while Frankston trains run every 10 minutes all day on weekdays.

Now, seven local councils representing Melbourne’s northern suburbs are joining forces to call on the state and federal governments to duplicate a section of single track between Gowrie and Upfield that limits how often trains can operate.

Banyule Mayor Tom Melican, who chairs the council alliance, said that Melbourne’s northern suburbs desperately needed more public transport, with the population expected to grow by 500,000 to 1.5 million by 2036.

“At current car ownership rates, that’s about another 400,000 cars in Melbourne’s north,” Melican said. “Our roads are already very congested. But the problem is … the majority of people have no access to decent public transport and their only alternative is to drive.”

Infrequent and unreliable Upfield trains were among the reasons Amanda Olle decided to move last year from Fawkner to Brunswick. Olle still occasionally catches Upfield trains from Brunswick but prefers to use the more regular No. 19 and No. 58 trams.

“It was only three services per hour to the city, which is ridiculous in a city this size,” she said of the trains. “And if you were late or a train was cancelled, it was a big chunk of time and it’d make you late for work.”

The Allan government is promising significant improvements in train services across the network when the Metro Tunnel opens next year. The new cross-city tunnel will remove Sunbury trains from the City Loop, opening up capacity for more frequent Upfield and Craigieburn services.

But Rail Futures Institute president John Hearsch said the Upfield timetable would be limited to trains running every 15 minutes at best until the section of single track was dealt with – either by duplicating it, building a “turn back” at Gowrie or a second platform at Upfield.

“You can’t use the capacity increase that the Metro Tunnel generates in the City Loop to its full potential until some of these changes are made,” he said.

Hearsch said that outside peak periods, there was no reason the Department of Transport and Planning could not improve services from their current 20 and 30-minute frequencies immediately.

The local councils – Banyule, Darebin, Hume, Merri-bek, Nillumbik, Whittlesea and Mitchell Shire – are also pushing the state government to implement long-held plans to extend the Upfield line to Roxburgh Park – to connect it to the Craigieburn line.

That would enable the extension of electric Metro services to Wallan and greenfield growth suburbs such as Donnybrook and Kalkallo – currently served only by V/Line trains – and allow for the building of new stations at Beveridge and Cloverton.

Mitchell Shire acting Mayor Nathan Clark said delivering Metro services to Wallan and a building new station at Beveridge were essential in light of the state government setting a target for the council area to grow from 21,800 homes today to almost 90,000 by 2051.

“We’re all ready to go – all we need now is the state government to come along and pick up the work that’s needed,” Clark said.

An Allan government spokesperson said opening the Metro Tunnel would improve reliability on the Upfield line and was a first step towards introducing more frequent trains.

“We’ve removed five level crossings on the Upfield line with another eight to go, while adding more than 50 weekly services,” the spokesperson said.

Article text:

Melbourne Airport has backed down from its demand for an underground station for the airport rail link, ending a stalemate with the Victorian government and clearing the path for the overdue project to proceed.

The state government has insisted building a station above ground in Tullamarine would be cheaper and faster, and accused the airport of deliberately trying to sink the project, while the airport had argued that an underground station would future-proof the connection.

But Melbourne Airport has decided to compromise to get the rail link done.

The Allan government, blaming the stand-off with the airport, delayed the project in May by at least four years to 2033.

Melbourne Airport is now hopeful the project could be ready by 2030.

The declaration appears to end the impasse that has put the rail link in doubt for more than a year and leaves the government with no further reason to delay. However, compensation to the airport for the acquisition of the land could become a sticking point.

The airport expects to receive redress for the use of part of its land, leased from the federal government and which would be acquired by the state. Chief executive Lorie Argus told The Age she hoped this could be easily resolved.

“We are genuinely empathetic to the challenges that the state is facing. So we want to do that as cost effectively as possible. We’re definitely not going to be difficult in this process,” Argus told The Age on Sunday.

“We’re going to be really pragmatic and realistic about expectations on the station on our side, and we understand the position they’re in from a cost perspective. Obviously, getting us back on track also means the funding needs to recommence.”

Melbourne Airport had accused the government of abandoning negotiations in April last year.

The state government referred the project to a Commonwealth review of infrastructure projects around the country, delaying work and angering MPs in the north-west. Federal Transport Minister Catherine King ultimately ruled it should go ahead.

The federal and state governments have each committed $5 billion to the project. A business case for the $10 billion to $13 billion project in 2022 considered both above- and below-ground stations.

Melbourne Airport just last month pledged to continue its fight for an underground station after mediator Neil Scales, who was appointed by the federal government, recommended the station should not be built below ground unless the operators could show it made commercial sense.

Victorian Transport Infrastructure Minister Danny Pearson has said a below-ground station would cost billions more, cause more disruptions, and take an extra two years to deliver.

He has blamed the delays on the airport for pursuing the underground station, which he said did not stack up.

“We’ve spent three years trying to reach an agreement with the airport, and we’ve been blocked and frustrated at every step of the way by the airport because of its fixation on a below-ground solution,” Pearson told reporters on Friday.

The airport still prefers an underground station but said it had compromised to support growth when a third runway, awaiting a final sign-off from the Commonwealth, opens in 2030. About 45 million passengers a year are expected to fly through the airport by then.

Argus said the Scales report had found traffic congestion was worse than the business case predicted in 2022, making the case for the project even stronger.

“So our view now is we need a public transport link. Victoria needs a public transport link. I think everyone agrees we need a train, and we don’t really want to find ourselves a couple of years down the road still debating our end. We’d rather accept the compromise, move on and make sure it can be delivered.”

About 18,000 workers also commute to the airport.

Delays to the rail link have become a sore point for Labor in the western suburbs because of a perception the government has prioritised major infrastructure projects in the east.

The government, which rebranded the airport rail link “SRL Airport” at the 2022 election, has locked in major works contracts for the $35 billion first leg of the Suburban Rail Loop in the east.

Deputy Premier Ben Carroll in May declared it was time to get the rail link done and that he would not leave parliament until the promised Keilor East station in his electorate of Niddrie was delivered. Last week, standing alongside Pearson, he announced the government had secured the land for that station “to fix a 100-year access gap” for residents in the north-west without trains.

The state government is yet to respond to the airport’s compromise. The Age was restricted from contacting third parties, including the government, as part of the announcement.