Wasn’t the Sydenham line closed during Regional Rail Link construction? They utilised Flemington Racecourse as an interchange with busses.
But trains were still running between Sunshine and Sydenham while Regional Rail Link was being built.
wasn’t upfield closed for like 6 months for the construction of citylink years ago?
edit: yep in 1997 they closed the upfield line from flemington bridge to the city from 30 April 1997 to 22 February 1998
But the Upfield line was only closed for one section, not all the way to Upfield in the north.
Victorian Transport Minister Jacinta Allan announced today the notorious level crossing at Reservoir in Melbourne’s north will be replaced by a rail overpass up to 9m high, with a new elevated Reservoir station serving the Mernda line. It is ranked by RACV as the third worst level crossing in Melbourne, but to lift the railway above road instead of putting it in a trench is a bad choice. It means the junction built around the level crossing (Spring Street / High Street / Edwardes Street / Cheddar Road / Broadway) will not be reconfigured, and traffic from Edwardes Street going to Broadway (and vice versa) will still have to perform sharp turns at the intersection. Had the rail line been built under a trench, a road overpass could even be built linking Spring Street to the south west and Cheddar Road to the north east.
Sounds like they are going with a cheap and nasty solution like with Essendon Station.
Cheaper doesn’t necessarily mean nasty. Below ground level costs a lot more and unless it’s cut and cover leaves big ugly trenches which cut suburbs in half.
I’d assume they would need significantly more time with the line shut down to do a trench? I’d assume that’s part of the calculation.
I don’t know the particular area, but surely a 9 metre high rail line would mean you could do a lot with the road configuration underneath, provided there’s planning around the exact location of the supports?
I think the elevated option for Reservoir station was taken without considering other level crossings along the Mernda line. The level crossings at Mahoneys Road (Keon Park) and Settlement Road will probably have to be put into a trench due to the M80 Ring Road above. This means trains will travel above and below ground level similar to the Dandenong line, which has two sections of elevated rail but the Springvale section is built in a trench.
Meanwhile in Claremont, the Ashton Ave Bridge has been upgraded and was reopened a fortnight ago just in time for the Perth Royal Show. This bridge was built out of timber more than 100 years ago and had a 12-tonne load limit. 2 years ago, trucks and buses were not allowed to use the bridge and had to seek alternate routes. I have driven over the Bridge during the long weekend (as the Royal Show was on during that time) and noticed that they have modified the traffic intersections.
On the other hand, Nicholson Road railway crossing in Canning Vale has been removed and replaced by a bridge. This was opened during this month. This was another dangerous road where it contained a railway crossing and traffic signals.
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The proposed design of new Reservoir station and rail overpass was posted on Level Crossing Removal Authority website this morning. It shows the current road network around the level crossing won’t change.
But that was back in January this year.
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I think the only real level crossings remaining in the built up area of the Sydney metro region are the ones at General Holmes Drive Mascot, Parramatta Road Auburn and Pine Road Yennora. The first two are being removed within the next two or three years, with the Wentworth Avenue extension project creating an underpass of the railway line and the Parramatta Light Rail causing the abandonment of the Carlingford Line between Clyde and Camellia. Don’t really know what they’re going to do with Pine Road. There’s a fair amount of traffic using that one (it serves as the entrance to a large number of industrial estates).
There are a few level crossings left on the Richmond line, but there is very little traffic using those crossings apart from the one at Riverstone (which is due to be removed soon).
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Following cases of fare evasion on Perth’s buses by using a $50 and $100 bills, there is now this sticker at the exterior driver cab gate on some buses. However, some drivers are still allowing them rather than asking them to leave the bus as they can’'t give change.
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Need to just ban cash and make everyone buy the transport card.
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A nationally recognised public transport card would be great too.
I only go to Melbourne maybe once every 18 months or so and the last couple of times I’ve been I’ve had to get a new Myki or whatever they use now card because mine had expired as I hadn’t used it since. Which is a bit annoying.
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Well if they do have their Smartrider, they can top-up to $50 on buses.
Yeah i second that too.
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An expired myki can be replaced free of charge and with a balance transfer, or if you don’t wish to replace but there is money still on it you can get it refunded.
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More likely to skip straight to contactless which will be truly universal.
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Exactly, especially since contactless should be live across the board throughout NSW, QLD and WAs public transport systems in under 5 years.
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