“The proposed solution of simply running tremendously large trains won’t solve the problem because they can’t provide the level of frequency that a suburban service demands,” Hearsch said. “Whichever way you slice and dice it,there just isn’t enough capacity between the CBD and the west.”
The city’s best served train lines,including Frankston and Pakenham,operate a service almost every 10 minutes at peak times and some stations served by multiple lines,such as Caulfield,have trains departing every few minutes.
The document – an agreement on how to plan the rail upgrades alongside thenow-paused Melbourne Airport Rail project – says new nine-carriage Metro trains with capacity for 2000 passengers will serve the western suburbs stations,significantly larger than the 440-seat six-carriage V/Line trains currently used.
Taking in several greenfield residential growth areas,the combined population of the Wyndham andMelton local government areas has grown 70 per cent over the decade to 2022 to just over half a million people,and is forecast to grow another 50 per cent to 791,000 by 2036.
When it announced the Western Rail Plan in 2018,the Andrews government said that duplicating and electrifying the lines was necessary to address “unprecedented population and patronage growth in the outer western suburbs” that was already causing overcrowding.
Melton City Council’s director of city futures,Sam Romaszko,said duplicating the rail line was vital to provide the limited passenger capacity and frequency the growing area needed.
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“Trains will be arriving from Ballarat and Bacchus Marsh at Melton stations with no standing room,which will most likely result in passengers from Melton to Caroline Springs being left at the station,” Romaszko said.
Hearsch said western suburbs train services could only be significantly improved by building a new corridor from the CBD to the western suburbs –something the long-slated Melbourne Metro 2 (MM2) would achieve.
Victoria’s transport department first flagged the MM2 – a new underground line from Clifton Hill to Newport via the CBD – in a 2012 network plan.
“We’re also building a brand-new Melton station and fast-tracking the removal of four more level crossings on the Melton line – making Melton level crossing-free by 2026,” the spokesman said.
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Work on the Melbourne Airport Rail and the Geelong Fast Rail projects,which could both affect the Western Rail Plan,has been paused as the Commonwealthgovernment completes a review of all infrastructure funding commitments.
The RPV documents raise concerns from the agency that the Airport Rail project was not “future-proofing” for the eventual Western Rail electrification works at Sunshine Station.
An October 2018 Western Rail Plan government brochure also flagged potentially building new stations and connecting Werribee to Wyndham Vale,which could become part of the proposed western section of the Suburban Rail Loop.