Article: Monash Uni train line plan derailed

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

Monash Uni train line plan derailed

Monash Uni train line plan derailed
Clay Lucas
March 9, 2012

A PLAN for a new rail line to Monash University and Rowville, floated by the Baillieu government before it won office, looks set to be shelved indefinitely.

The Rowville Rail Study, provided to The Age yesterday by Victorian Transport Minister Terry Mulder, recommends building new tracks from Huntingdale station on the Dandenong line to Rowville.

The new line would go underground from Huntingdale to Monash University's Clayton campus - which is currently served only by buses - and then on to Rowville via an overpass and another tunnel.

But the line would only be feasible, the report says, if new tracks were built on the Dandenong line and several level crossings removed. It would also depend on the proposed but unfunded Melbourne Metro tunnel from South Kensington to South Yarra being built.

The Rowville line, it says, ''could not be provided for at least a decade''. It suggests ''further bus service improvements'' as an interim measure.

Mr Mulder said last night it would be unfair to criticise the government for doing long-term planning. ''There is no good in four or five years time putting your hand up to the federal government for funding and not having done the work. We have to have ... built a solid business case,'' he said.

Public Transport Users Association president Daniel Bowen said a proposed metro tunnel should not be an excuse not to build the Rowville line. He was concerned the project would be put ''permanently on ice''.

RMIT transport expert Paul Mees said the report was the kind designed to ensure nothing was ever built, by including ''ludicrously over-designed tunnels and overpasses''. The cheaper alternative was to build the rail line in a cutting along Wellington Road, he said.

Monash's Paul Barton said a high-frequency shuttle bus from Huntingdale station put in place last year carried 17,000 passengers a week - underlining the need for a rail line.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/monash-uni-train-line-plan-derailed-20120308-1un2l.html

[#Metro]

Yawn,

This is going the way of Toronto. Many big cities the world over want to get metros and heavy rail but they can't because of the huge costs.
Why not use Light Rail or BRT. What is with this tunnel obsession?

Monash's Paul Barton said a high-frequency shuttle bus from Huntingdale station put in place last year carried 17,000 passengers a week - underlining the need for a rail line.

17 000 per week, IS THAT ALL, the SE Busway can move that in ONE HOUR.
And they want to build rail at $200 million/km

If they spent what they spent on 1km of concrete on actual services, you could BUZ pretty much the entire city for $200 million.

[O_128]

Yawn,

This is going the way of Toronto. Many big cities the world over want to get metros and heavy rail but they can't because of the huge costs.
Why not use Light Rail or BRT. What is with this tunnel obsession?

Monash's Paul Barton said a high-frequency shuttle bus from Huntingdale station put in place last year carried 17,000 passengers a week - underlining the need for a rail line.

17 000 per week, IS THAT ALL, the SE Busway can move that in ONE HOUR.
And they want to build rail at $200 million/km

If they spent what they spent on 1km of concrete on actual services, you could BUZ pretty much the entire city for $200 million.

170000? The 109 would move more than that alone. I don't see why a tram line from the station wouldn't work? The park road/boggo road transfer works very well.

[#Metro]

170000? The 109 would move more than that alone. I don't see why a tram line from the station wouldn't work? The park road/boggo road transfer works very well.

They want a fiesta of concrete so they have pieces of infrastructure to look at and put on maps but don't actually run services that would be useful.
A motorist's error in perception I think.

[somebody]

109 via Annerley Rd carried 4000 per week*.  It could be less now as people are able to interchange at Park Rd rather than South Bank.

* Source: thredbo10 Allen Buz paper.

[ozbob]

From the Waverley Leader click here!

No Rowville train for 10 years, so Monash Uni wants dedicated bus link

No Rowville train for 10 years, so Monash Uni wants dedicated bus link

9 Mar 12 @ 11:40am by TIM MICHELL

MONASH University will push the State Government to make the express bus service linking Huntingdale Station with the Clayton campus permanent from July.

A feasibility study looking into the proposed Rowville Rail Link, released today, showed it could be at least ten years before a train line is built to the university.

But the report recommended that bus services in the region be upgraded.

Monash environmental sustainability director Paul Barton said the university could not wait years for transport improvements.

"What the report highlights is that the government needs to address the short-term needs of the university right now,'" Mr Barton said.

An average of 17,000 students have used the bus service each week since a trial began last July.

Mr Barton said any bus service upgrades should include a new interchange at Huntingdale Railway Station.

"Students have to spill across Huntingdale Rd just to get on a bus, which is such a dangerous situation," he said.