Flagstaff to open weekends

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Craig
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Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2004 12:26 am
Location: Edithvale, VIC

Flagstaff to open weekends

Post by Craig »

The Age wrote: Countdown to Flagstaff Station opening on weekends
November 28, 2015 - 4:29PM
Deborah Gough and Goya Dmytryshchak

Flagstaff station will open on weekends as of next year, but possibly earlier.

Flagstaff railway station will be open on weekends at some time in the next 32 days.

A Public Transport Victoria spokeswoman, Jessica Maguire, confirmed the station would open at weekends after a long campaign from traders and residents.

"Flagstaff station will be open by the end of the year," Ms Maguire said.

"An announcement about exact timing will be made in the next few weeks," she said in a brief statement.

Labor promised to open the station as part of its election campaign saying the western part of the CBD was no longer the "dead end" of the city.

Local traders had led a petition to have the station open at weekends.

The Age was alerted to the opening by a line in a PTV statement about expanded Sunbury services in the new year.

The changes included that Watergardens services would be extended to Sunbury station, including weekend services. Added to this, all trains it said would travel via the City Loop, stopping at Flagstaff station, from December 31.

A Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen tweeted a copy of the changes:

http://twitter.com/danielbowen/status/6 ... 64/photo/1

Mr Bowen said Flagstaff station was the only station to not open on weekends.

"It is very welcome news, no other railway station on the network is closed on weekends," Mr Bowen said.

"This one is in a very busy part of the city, so it makes no sense to close it for two days a week," he said.

"When the City Loop opened you didn't have 8000 apartments and a court precinct in the area," he said.

He said the station was also a good stop to get to the Queen Victoria Market or join the tram which went to the Melbourne Zoo.

Kirsty Chiaplias, owner of The Workers' Food Room on Little Lonsdale Street, had been lobbying for the station's weekend opening since 2011, when she launched a petition that collected about 1000 signatures.

"It makes sense for the area, because it's growing," she said.

"It's good news that they took notice of what people were saying."

Ms Chiaplias said once the station reopened, she and other traders would look to open their businesses at weekends.
Flagstaff was originally open Saturdays until February 1997, and the patronage didn't warrant it being staffed to stay open. But given the development in recent years, it's worth another crack.

Kind Regards


Craig :-)
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