The western underpass at Ashfield Station, on the appropriately named Bland St, is functional but it’s narrow and drab.
The closest public level crossing to the city would be the on the Carlingford line across Parramatta Rd at Granville. It should have been replaced decades ago.
The closest level crossing to the city in Sydney is the one across the freight line at the airport (which is being removed in the next few years as part of Westconnex apparently).
Forgot about that! I was only thinking about the lines with train stations.
I’m staying in Melbourne at the moment near a location where a level crossing (Bell Street Preston, next to Bell Station South Morang line) is due to be removed. Love to know how they’re going to do it…
I’m not familiar with that particular crossing, but the general idea goes along the lines of:
1: Close station to remove station buildings - run replacement buses to that station, but trains can continue through to service the rest of the line.
2: Stop trains on the line / section of line, running replacement buses.
3: Remove tracks and dig hole for train tunnel either side of the road (keeping the road open for traffic still).
4: Close the road at the crossing, complete digging hole through the cross, put in road bridge, re-open to traffic ASAP.
5: Put in train tracks through tunnel, and start building new station (most of the station is pre-fabed off site for quite installation)
6: Open train tracks for trains and finish building station (while still running replacement buses to that station)
7: Open station - everything is now operational while final landscaping works etc are completed.
The whole process takes anywhere from 2-6 months depending on the exact location specifics. They work it so that the train line and roads are closed for as short a time as possible, with closures over off peak times (eg. long weekends, school holidays etc.) to minimise disruption.
The exact process varies from site to site - for example at Gardiner Station in Glen Iris, they had some land adjacent to the existing track that they could use, so they were able to do a lot of the digging and construction without closing the train line or major roads - it made the project take about 7 months, but it kept closures of both the train line and road down to 1 week in September (to build the road bridge deck) and then a couple of weeks in January (to switch to the new tracks and remove the old crossing).
They have heaps of workers and construction is pretty much 24/7 for the entire length of the project. On the whole with disruptions kept to a minimum and the projects being very efficient and almost always finishing on time (or ahead of time usually) most people don’t mind too much considering the benefit to both road users not having to stop for trains and also train users as it makes for a quicker and smoother journey (trains have to travel very slowly over most level crossings, particularly those near stations, and the crossing themselves can be quite bumpy, particularly where the road has trams).
There’s some interesting videos on the Level Crossing Removal Authority’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/levelcrossings/videos/
Also once all the level crossings are removed it hopefully offers the potential for more train services as they no longer have to consider the impact on interrupting traffic.
Dan Andrews AKA Mr. Level Crossing Remover 
Victoria: Getting on with it. As he likes to say.
Same at St. Albans and Ginifer out west, though I don’t know what the future provision is for four tracks (thus seperating Bendigo V/Line and Sunbury Metro trains)
Bell Street is one of Melbourne’s busiest roads with tens of thousands of vehicles using the road to go between the airport and the eastern suburbs. Add to that there are apartments on both sides of the railway near the crossing, making a diversion close to impossible.
The Victorian government announced last week that construction of South Morang line extension to Mernda would start early next year. I think the government may use the opportunity to close the line between Bell and South Morang for most of the year while the level crossings at Bell Street and Reservoir (another dangerous crossing) are removed in one go.
Victoria will get a new colour coded railway map next year, combining metropolitan and V/Line services. Premier Daniel Andrews first revealed the map on Reddit last night before it was officially launched this afternoon. It looks great to me.
Looks more realistic even though it’s probably not to scale.
Clearly inspired by Sydney Trains/CityRail.
Melbourne is still the same… 
People shoving into eachother and pushing into get first on the tram… even when packed
Love it.
The Age reports Melbourne’s bus network is set for a shake up with the Victorian Government deciding to open 12 of 13 contracts up for renegotiation, in order to attract more passengers. For those who are wondering, the network is divided into 13 contracts with each company receiving government subsidy to run a number of routes in a particular part of Melbourne (e.g. Ventura Group in eastern suburbs and Mornington Peninsula, Dysons in the north, Sita in the west etc.). Basically the contracts have been rolling over for many years. Under the government plan, existing operators will be given the option of five-year contracts (after which the contract will be open for tender), or ten-year contracts with stricter performance targets.
Hopefully this will lead to new routes in outer suburbs, and more frequent services and better connections with trains.
There was an interesting article in The Age today that the new Melbourne Metro tunnel project may not be able to support a new rail link to Tullamarine Airport due to rapid population growth in Melbourne’s north-west. Under the original proposal, airport trains would run via the Metro tunnel some time after it opens in 2026, but the tunnel must also handle booming demand on the Sunbury and Melton lines (the Melton line is currently run by V/Line diesel trains but will be duplicated between Melton and Deer Park, and later electrified between Melton and Sunshine). The most recent service plan for Melbourne Metro, published in the 2016 business case, predicts the tunnel will be used by up to 14 trains an hour to and from Sunbury and nine trains to and from Melton. It will handle 23 trains an hour, which would leave no capacity for an airport line.
I support a rail link to Melbourne Airport but if the Victorian Government is to fund the project, it needs to learn from the mistakes made during the planning for Airport Link in Sydney and Airtrain in Brisbane. I think it has to be a separate line for most of its length, only joining the rest of the railway network at North Melbourne/Southern Cross Station area.
I daresay the Melbourne Airport Link will be privately funded, it will compete directly with the SkyBus, which costs $18 one way, which is expensive by bus standards.
In Sydney, a train from Central to the Airport is about $15 each way, that’s nearly double what I pay to get from Newcastle to Sydney on the train!
What’s the actual usage like of the rail airport links though? I hadn’t seen all that many people on it the times I’ve taken it.
I just assume most take taxis/private cars/hotel shuttles regardless.
I think the shuttle bus from Hobart Airport to the Hobart CBD is even more than that.
It’ll be interesting to see how patronage levels compare once Perth’s rail link is done, as it will be accessible with a standard fare ($4.60) and not surcharged in the same way Sydney and Brisbane’s airport links are.
