Article: Monash University pushes for $500m rail line to deal with future demand

[ozbob]

From the Herald Sun click here!

Monash University pushes for $500m rail line to deal with future demand

Monash University pushes for $500m rail line to deal with future demand

    by: Greg Thom
    From: Herald Sun
    November 25, 2011 12:00AM

BUILDING a $500 million rail line to Rowville, is crucial if Monash University is to have any hope of coping with an expected explosion in student numbers.

The university expects numbers to grow by more than 20,000 by 2030, it says in a submission to a state government feasibility study.

Without a 12km extension of the Pakenham rail line and a station at Monash, the number of car parking spaces at the Clayton campus would need to double to more than 13,000.

This would take 13ha of land and $500 million from research and education. The precinct, which includes the CSIRO and Synchrotron, would be strangled by traffic congestion.

The number of people forced to drive because of inadequate public transport is tipped to rise from 21,000 a day to more than 35,000.

The Government has earmarked $2 million for a feasibility study into a rail line from Huntingdale to Rowville.

The line was first proposed in 1969.

People behind the Monash submission believe the Government's narrow focus on rail, rather than including options such as buses, could cause gridlock.

The director of the university's office of environmental sustainability, Paul Barton, said while the rail connection was desperately needed, it was just as vital that planners considered short-term solutions.

This included extending the highly successful 12-month trial of the 601 express bus service between Huntingdale station and Monash.

"We see the proposal of the heavy rail as a great solution, but we are concerned that it is a very expensive solution," Mr Barton said.

"The likelihood of it getting priority and funding obviously needs to be weighed against many priorities the Government's facing."

Opposition transport spokeswoman Fiona Richardson said there were serious questions about what the Government would do if the Rowville rail link failed to go ahead.

"Students need a way to travel to university in the meantime," she said.