Article: Baillieu puts Rowville rail line back on the table

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

Baillieu puts Rowville rail line back on the table

Baillieu puts Rowville rail line back on the table
Clay Lucas
May 30, 2011

THE architect of the Brumby government's unbuilt $5 billion rail tunnel from Footscray to Caulfield has been appointed to oversee a feasibility study into a rail line to Rowville.

Transport planner William McDougall will lead a team of engineers from Sinclair Knight Merz, who will work on the Baillieu government's $2 million feasibility study for the project.

Transport minister Terry Mulder yesterday released a ''conceptual alignment drawing'' of the 12-kilometre route for the line, and named Mr McDougall as the study's leader.

Mr Mulder said the most likely place for stations along the line were at Rowville, Waverley Park, Springvale Road and Monash University.

The first stage of the feasibility study, which will examine construction, operational, land use and environmental considerations, will finish in 2012.

A second stage will finish in mid-2013.

Mr Mulder said there would be a ''strong emphasis'' throughout the study on asking the community what it wanted from the rail line.

The proposed extension would involve the construction of an arm to the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines, starting at Huntingdale and extending to Rowville.

Mr McDougall led a team at Sinclair Knight Merz in 2007 on a study for a new rail tunnel under central Melbourne. These plans re-emerged in Labor's 2008 Victorian Transport Plan. The Baillieu government has since all but abandoned it.

A rail line to Rowville was proposed in 1969, and has been discussed many times since.

Labor promised to consider building the line when it was elected in 1999 but soon withdrew its support, saying the project would be too expensive and that improved bus services would suffice.

A 2004 Knox City Council report found the rail line could be built for between $353 million and $413 million, and that the trip from Rowville to Parliament station would take 30 minutes.

The Baillieu government study will look at how the rail line could be built, where it would travel along the surface of Wellington Road, and where it would need to incorporate either tunnelling or elevated train tracks.

Public Transport Users' Association president Daniel Bowen said that it was good the rail study was going ahead.

''The amount of traffic on Wellington Road and the Monash Freeway shows there are thousands of potential passengers who could be using the train line every day instead of driving,'' Mr Bowen said.

About 28,000 students attend Monash University's Clayton campus each semester.

Last week, the government increased the number of bus services from Huntingdale railway station to Monash University: from July, route 601 buses will leave Huntingdale every four minutes between 7am and 7pm.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/baillieu-puts-rowville-rail-line-back-on-the-table-20110529-1faw1.html

[#Metro]

Funny how they have already chosen the mode first, before even doing the study!

Capacity and eventual service characteristics should be looked at first and then the mode chosen.
They are doing the study backwards...

And as a ballpark estimate on cost 12 km x 100 million = $1.2 Billion and possibly 5-10 years before it is even operational. And then
My guess is the frequency will be no better than 20 minutes when it begins. Plus it may need unblocking in the core section as well as convergence effects (all trains traveling towards a single point tend to block of each other as they approach the core).

[O_128]

Funny how they have already chosen the mode first, before even doing the study!

Capacity and eventual service characteristics should be looked at first and then the mode chosen.
They are doing the study backwards...

And as a ballpark estimate on cost 12 km x 100 million = $1.2 Billion and possibly 5-10 years before it is even operational. And then
My guess is the frequency will be no better than 20 minutes when it begins. Plus it may need unblocking in the core section as well as convergence effects (all trains traveling towards a single point tend to block of each other as they approach the core).

ummm isnt this the same as the kippa ring line

[#Metro]

ummm isnt this the same as the kippa ring line

Shh!!!

I think they did check out all modes for kippa-ring. I'm not sure what the peak pphd would have been though.

[ozbob]

http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/~/media/3944d5ab-d3e0-4fcf-b1f1-3a343068cc6c/mbrlpe%20report.pdf

All there, heavy rail dual track was the best outcome. 

[Gazza]

Funny how they have already chosen the mode first, before even doing the study!

Thing is, they are already running buses every 4 minutes, express, on top of the all stops smartbus service.
That sort of frequency makes a good candidate for a shift to rail.
Light Rail/Tram is always an option, but I think rail would be better since it would be an isolated line from the rest of the network, which would mean a new depot etc.
Plus the long term capacity constraints of light rail/tram.

[SurfRail]

Who knows - it might advance the case for building Melbourne Metro 2 from Caulfield to Domain.

[#Metro]

60 minutes / 4 = 15 buses per hour
x 65 passenger spaces = 975 pphd. <---- this is VERY low

Increases to the size of the bus should be considered.

Oh, and I don't think the buses are there yet- they're a new service.

[O_128]

60 minutes / 4 = 15 buses per hour
x 65 passenger spaces = 975 pphd. <---- this is VERY low

Increases to the size of the bus should be considered.

Oh, and I don't think the buses are there yet- they're a new service.

Its called foresight, Unlike the Queensland approach where you would wait until the buses are at capacity before even beginning feasibility studies for rail and make the buses run at capacity for 5 years they are getting all the paperwork out of the way to make the project basically shovel ready and complete before capacity on the buses are reached.

[#Metro]

Its called foresight, Unlike the Queensland approach where you would wait until the buses are at capacity before even beginning feasibility studies for rail and make the buses run at capacity for 5 years they are getting all the paperwork out of the way to make the project basically shovel ready and complete before capacity on the buses are reached.

Agreed. You'd have to see what the study says first and figure what the now solution is and what the later solution is.
Buses are great because they can be started off with good frequency and that is key to growing patronage, as is the connections.

[Gazza]

60 minutes / 4 = 15 buses per hour
x 65 passenger spaces = 975 pphd. <---- this is VERY low

Increases to the size of the bus should be considered.

Oh, and I don't think the buses are there yet- they're a new service.

It's not much different to the situation with the 199 though is it? How frequent are the buses at the peak of peak?