Keeping People Moving in Metro Melbourne's North East

[Aussie Steve]

Keeping People Moving in Metro Melbourne's North East

Seven metro North-East Councils commissioned a transport blueprint for the region from Dr Jan Scheurer, international advisor on transport and leading urban planner, currently based at the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) at RMIT University, Melbourne.

Keeping People Moving in Metro Melbourne's North-East: Operational scenarios, Multi-modal connectivity and Activity centre integration on the Clifton Hill Lines of Melbourne's Suburban Rail System develops a bus, train and tram plan for the Metro North-East and provides a compelling case for a detailed strategy plan for achieving Melbourne 2030 trip projections.

The Councils of Banyule, Darebin, Manningham, Melbourne, Nillumbik, Whittlesea and Yarra are committed to further discussion in partnership with the Department of Infrastructure and the MTF to design that plan.

[Aussie Steve]

Councils group pushes for Doncaster rail line
By Stephen Moynihan
4 October 2006

A RAIL line from the CBD to Doncaster and Ringwood has been proposed to help fight congestion and increase passenger capacity to Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

The Metropolitan Transport Forum yesterday released plans for the line using existing land reserved on the Eastern Freeway and new EastLink toll road.

Doncaster is one of only five suburban centres detailed in the Melbourne 2030 plan with no heavy rail access.

Releasing a report into the long-term transport needs in Melbourne's northern suburbs, the forum said an alternative rail line to Ringwood would also ease the busy Belgrave and Lilydale lines.

The forum is a lobby group formed of several councils, including the City of Yarra and the City of Whittlesea.

Improvements listed include:

�¡Reversing the direction of travel in the City Loop for Epping and Hurstbridge lanes.

�¡Minimum service frequencies of 15 minutes.

�¡Extending the Epping line to South Morang.

�¡Building a train line to Doncaster along the median strip of the Eastern Freeway.

Whittlesea Mayor John Fry said his municipality was attracting thousands of new residents each year and public transport links were necessary to fight road congestion. "As a community we cannot afford, in environmental or economic terms, to develop three or four-car-dependent families in these new estates," Cr Fry said.

The Government this year released a $10.4 billion plan with most the funding to be spent on public transport initiatives. It included plans to alleviate bottlenecks on train lines to the northern suburbs, allowing for future rail extensions and more train services.

[tayser]

This is really interesting:



The hurstbridge line has its track/signalling reversed to cater for the Victoria Park junction. Makes transferring between Epping/Hurstbridge lines at Clifton Hill at little harder, but places more focus on Victoria Park - me likey given the scope for redevelopment along Johnston St.

Crazy (in a good way) frequencies too.... Aurora 15", Mernda 15", Hurstbridge 15" (or Eltham 20" and Hurstbridge 20" .: Eltham has a train every 10 minutes) and Doncaster 15" = trains every 2.5-3.5 minutes between Vic Park and the city off-peak.

[trentthomson]

Wow trains every 10-15 seconds... that's good.

I think you mean Aurora 15', Mernda 15', Hurstbridge 15' etc.

' = minutes
" = seconds

/nazi.

Trent.

[invincible]

Geez, 15 second frequencies are crazy indeed. (EDIT: Too slow. )

The double prime signal ″ stands for seconds. =P


Pedantic observations aside, that plan would have involve duplication to Hurstbridge because all those single track sections and tunnels make timetabling hard enough as it is, although Epping and Hurstbridge trains no longer have to cross each other's paths at Clifton Hill which would at least stop restrictions cascading onto other lines.

Hehe, AJAX quick posting is cool, especially on this painfully slow site.

[tayser]

w00t

[Yardmaster]

Focus on reality & get the trains to Mernda!

[Aussie Steve]

Reverse loop plan for better rail service

4 Oct 2006

A SIMPLE change of direction could mean more trains for frustrated Hurstbridge line commuters, a new study says.

The RMIT study said reversing trains so they ran clockwise through the city loop would immediately improve the lot of commuters.
Ratepayers from seven northern councils, including Nillumbik and Banyule, paid for the study.

The Keeping People Moving in Melbourne's North-East report says commuters on the Hurstbridge and Epping lines are the victims of ``irregular peak-hour services and hard-to-follow schedules''.

Services on both lines were limited by single-track sections, outdated signalling and train control systems and level crossings with major roads.

Reversing the direction of trains through the city loop would boost the capacity of the Hurstbridge and Epping lines to the same level as other lines. The Hurstbridge line was chronically unreliable, second only to the Pakenham one, Public Transport Users Association spokesman Alex Makin said.

But Government spokeswoman Sofia Dedes said the priority was to fix the rail bottleneck at Clifton Hill junction.

[Aussie Steve]

Switch for more trains
Leanne Arnold

2 Oct 2006

AN RMIT study says switching trains to run clockwise through the City Loop will immediately improve the lot of Darebin commuters, who get fewer services than fellow travellers on the Ringwood, Glen Waverley, Dandenong and Frankston lines.

Seven councils Darebin, Melbourne, Yarra, Manningham, Whittlesea, Nillumbik and Banyule paid for the study in a bid to pin the State Government to promises made earlier this year, including duplicating the train track at Clifton Hill to increase services and to introduce orbital bus routes through the northern suburbs.

The Keeping People Moving in Melbourne report, to be released today, says commuters on the Epping and Hurstbridge lines are the victims of "irregular peak-hour services and hard-to-follow schedules''.

Services on both lines are limited by single-track sections, outdated signalling and train control systems and level crossings, it says.

Reversing the direction of trains through the City loop would boost the capacity of the Epping and Hurstbridge lines to the same level as other lines.

Public Transport Users Association spokesman Alex Makin said there was no reason Epping and Hurstbridge line commuters should miss out on the same level of service provided to other travellers.

Sending the trains one way around the loop would get rid of a major bottleneck caused by a single-track section near Jolimont.

"This is something Connex has been aware of for some time. It's just a matter of the Government actually doing it,'' Mr Makin said.

The Hurstbridge line was chronically unreliable, second only to the Pakenham line, and had the greatest span of single-track sections across the metropolitan area, he said.

But Government spokeswoman Sofia Dedes said the most important priority was to fix the rail bottleneck at Clifton Hill junction.

"Once that bottleneck has been removed, other projects such as reversal of the loop and duplication of the line from Keon to Epping can proceed,'' she said.