Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!!

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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by Alstom 888M »

Problem with Skyrail is where do the V/Line and freight trains go?
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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by Alex on the Bus »

Alstom 888M wrote:Problem with Skyrail is where do the V/Line and freight trains go?
They would be running along the same corridor, either the same tracks as Metro services (as now) or on their own tracks (as per the "Eastern Regional Rail Link" proposal floated a couple of years back). The need to build a corridor suitable for them - with gentle grades that loco-hauled trains can easily climb - may ultimately influence the final design.
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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by tranzitjim »

Alex on the Bus wrote:
Alstom 888M wrote:Problem with Skyrail is where do the V/Line and freight trains go?
They would be running along the same corridor, either the same tracks as Metro services (as now) or on their own tracks (as per the "Eastern Regional Rail Link" proposal floated a couple of years back). The need to build a corridor suitable for them - with gentle grades that loco-hauled trains can easily climb - may ultimately influence the final design.
What sort of problems does Springvale cause?

That would be the steepest that we would need.
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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by Craig »

While the seats around Noble Park are fairy safe, going with skyrail if done in the wrong manner along the Dandenong line (no further consultation, urban blight, cheap and nasty stations etc), could well have ramifications for marginal seats along the Frankston line - people who have limited beachviews from their upstairs bedrooms and balconies along Station St aren't just going to roll-over if they were taken away or planned to be taken away.

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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by Alex on the Bus »

tranzitjim wrote:What sort of problems does Springvale cause?
The issue of gradients might not be a problem for most of the line (witness, as you mentioned, Springvale), but the section just down from Caulfield Junction is something that would need to be treated carefully. Having the line already dropping down from the junction heading towards Carnegie, and with there being a high likelihood that up trains would have to be held at signals before entering Caulfield Junction, making that section of line even steeper might be something to be avoided. Springvale, meanwhile, would normally see loco-hauled services (V/Line and freight) passing through at speed, where momentum should get a train up a steeper grade.

Remember that when the Anderson Road crossing removal on the Sunbury Line was being planned that elevating the line was ruled out due possible issues with stopping loco-hauled services approaching Sunshine Junction. While the problem here would be starting a train from a stop instead of stopping a train at signals, the principle is much the same.
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Re: Proposal To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!!

Post by Roderick Smith »

Mentone Station buildings could be affected by level crossing removal works February 3, 2016 Mordialloc Chelsea Leader The heritage listed Mentone Railway Station. Picture: Valeriu Campan LEVEL crossing removal works could put the 103-year-old Mentone Station in jeopardy.
The Level Crossing Removal Authority said it can’t promise the heritage listed building won’t be affected when work begins on the Balcombe Rd level crossing in 2018.
Dorothy Booth says people would riot on the streets if Menton’s heritage listed train station were . Picture: Valeriu Campan CEO Kevin Devlin said planning was still in the early stages and “until we have a final design in place it’s too soon to say whether the station will be rebuilt.”
“Much work needs to be done before then, including consultations with the local community and a range of stakeholders including Heritage Victoria and interest groups,” Mr Devlin said.
But the State Government will be getting a taste of its own medicine during the planning and development process, as Heritage Victoria has vowed to treat its sister department like any other applicant.
A spokeswoman for Heritage Victoria said any application for works at the Mentone Railway Station and Gardens “would be assessed as a normal heritage permit”.
She said the Heritage department would analyse “the extent to which the works would affect the cultural heritage significance”.
Friends of Mentone Station and Gardens group said there’d be “riots in the streets” if the station was dismantled.
“It ain’t gonna happen — this has been here for 100 years, and it’ll be here for another 100 years,” Chairwoman Dorothy Booth said.
“Just try and do anything here and you’ll get everyone up it arms about it.”
The group has spent years tending to the station and surrounding area, which they proudly call “the entrance to Mentone”.
Ms Booth said “it has been 15 years of dedication”.
“We’d rather see the line go down and under, not above, to retain the heritage buildings.”
Mentone Station was constructed in 1913, and placed on the Victorian Heritage Register in August, 2006.
The Balcombe St site is listed as one of 50 level crossings to be removed and replaced under the Andrews Government election promise.
The Level Crossing Removal Authority will hold information sessions next month between Cheltenham and Frankston, and consult with local groups.
Ms Booth said her group had expressed their concerns in a “very productive” meeting with engineers from the Level Crossing Removal Authority.
Details on the upcoming local Level Crossing Removal Authority information sessions are expected to be released in the next few weeks via levelcrossings.vic.gov.au <www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/inner-south ... f18fd5788c>

With the close housing along the Frankston line: was the easement always narrow, or was railway land sold off? At stations, railway land was often leased, but resumed when the land was needed (Surrey Hills, Glen Huntly). RRL was of so much national importance that a whole row of historic wooden houses was demolished. At Mentone: are the Como Ave shops on railway land? Elevation or lowering are equally viable at Mentone, but the problem is the Cheltenham - Mentone section: too many houses for elevation, and then no room to go up to the double/triple height needed to clear the commercial buildings at the up end of Mentone. Once clear of Mentone (Balcombe Rd), elevation is feasible for virtually the whole way to Frankston: the railway has roads on each side, not backyards, and Nepean Hwy is urban blight already. However, there are two tight bits: one just before Mordialloc, one just after Carrum. Not even PTV could build a Luna Park lookalike. If elevation saves so much money, then buy out the two lots of 500 m: 100 properties at $1m each is only $0.1b; peanuts compared with PTV's other project costs. Unfortunately, Google Earth never gives a scale.

Mentone (Google Earth)

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Re: Proposal To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!!

Post by system improver »

Dorothy Booth says...
“We’d rather see the line go down and under, not above, to retain the heritage buildings.”
I don't think Dorothy quite understands what happens if the current rail alignment is changed - up or down. The only way Mentone station can be maintained, as it currently exists, is to abandon grade separation at Mentone. There is no possibility of a road under or overpass. Sending the rail under the road is the obvious solution and I suppose you could build a replica station, but there seems little point in that.
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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by Heihachi_73 »

Move the building(s) elsewhere and turn it into a café or district heritage centre, job done.
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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by jarf »

^ One option (at a stretch) could be to construct the new station as an island platform to the east side, using a slight curve through the road crossing. Elevated or sunken would both work.

It could be designed so only the down platform building would be removed, with the existing up platform building incorporated into the new station.
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Re: Elevated rail lines?

Post by Roderick Smith »

PTV has adopted a policy of no more curved platforms, and it will want sufficient straight for its nine-car desires.
Smithplans are based on allowing for four tracks, even if not building them yet, and having two island platforms.
For Mentone, lowering the rail is the only option: elevation is precluded by housing from Cheltenham to Mentone.
Staging: lower the down line to run under the eastern carpark, then roof over it again.
Demolish the down platform building and its platform.
Lower the up line under the current down platform. Extend the middle portion of the current up platform across, and use the heritage station as the main building on the concourse. Add additional verandahs to match.
Demolish the up and down ends of the current up platform.
The future provision: third track below the current up track.
Fourth track below the botanic gardens (which become the new hanging gardens of Babylon), below the front of the heritage building, then start worrying about the six strip commercial buildings. For that scale of project, they are worth demolishing: easy if on railway land, money if not. There isn't much demolition needed from Caulfield to Frankston, so spend the money here.

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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by V981 »

BroadGauge wrote:
V981 wrote:This issue is set to potentially become a political firestorm for the Andrews government, with rumours circulating that a "skyrail" option has already been signed off on by the government between Clayton and Dandenong. There are murmurs that a prominent media organization is set to expose this next week sometime.
What's the very worst that could happen, the ALP's hold on one of the local electorates will decrease from their current 65.8% margin to 65.0% at the next election?

The majority of people wouldn't care about what it looks like anyway, they'd be happy to accept the benefits of the project. And at the end of the day everybody still votes for the ALP anyway so it really wouldn't matter if the government decommissioned the sewerage system in these suburbs, people would still vote for them.

And who knows, the actual "skyrail" viaducts themselves, if done right, could become the most architecturally beautiful structures standing within the suburbs in question, perhaps even creating the area's only tourist destination :twisted:
Who says we need a tourist attraction? I'm a happy resident of Noble Park, and I will be happy as long as it remains the peaceful safe suburb it currently is with abundant open space and easy access to public transport which is also currently the case. I for one am happy for it to be a Skyrail option as long as it is done properly. (To be perfectly honest, at the current time I wouldn't vote Labor anyway, so this project is unlikely to influence my vote at the next election anyway).

As for your "tourist attraction" comment, what more can I say? Surrey Hills doesn't have any tourist attractions. Berwick doesn't have any tourist attractions. Footscray doesn't really have anything that could legitimately be classed as a tourist attraction. But that doesn't bear any influence on whether they are a quality place to set up a home.

Perhaps, I should extend you an invitation to spend a day with me in Noble Park. We can start the day off by having a coffee at the Peddlers Tuckshop, then go skateboarding at the newly built skate park, have an Asian style lunch at Street Pho in Douglas Street. spend the afternoon with me pushing you down the water slide at the Noble Park Aquatic Centre (the largest water slide in Melbourne) and then finish the day off with a Chicken Parma at a couple of pots at Aherns Bar at the Highways Tavern.

(I am even going to politely ignore the fact that every year people jet in from all over Australia and even overseas to our area for the Sandown 500 Motor racing which would technically, at least for motor sport enthusiasts would class Sandown Raceway as something of a tourist attraction at certain times of the year. But that is a discussion for another day.) :twisted:
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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by Heihachi_73 »

Roderick Smith wrote:PTV has adopted a policy of no more curved platforms, and it will want sufficient straight for its nine-car desires.
Good, it's high time Mooroolbark was demolished.

What, were people thinking I was talking about the station? :lol:
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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by jarf »

V981 wrote:But that is a discussion for another day
And another suburb. It's clearly in Springvale. :twisted:
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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by Alex on the Bus »

Well, it's now (pretty much) official:
The Age wrote:$1.6 billion elevated rail project to replace level crossings on Dandenong line
Elevated trains will run nine metres above street level along the busiest railway corridor in Melbourne's south east, as part of a $1.6 billion project to remove level crossings from Caulfield to Cranbourne and Pakenham.

Three sections of the railway line along the Dandenong railway corridor will be replaced with new elevated tracks - dubbed "sky trains", but not to be confused with an airport line - that would run along the viaduct above the existing railway line.

Nine level crossings will be removed, and five new stations will be created as part of the project at Carnegie, Murrumbeena, Clayton and Noble Park.

A consortium of CPB Contractors and Lend Lease have been awarded the contract to build the project, which is due to be completed by November 2018, in time for the next state election.

Premier Daniel Andrews told the Herald Sun the project would create a quieter rail line, and would commence later this year.

As the elevated rail lines would be built above existing railway lines, the existing train services would not be disrupted by the construction.

The elevated railway line will also free up an extra 225 square kilometres - equivalent to 11 MCGs - of public open space.

Premier Daniel Andrews said "every single level crossing between Caulfield and Dandenong will become history".

"This tired and ugly rail corridor will become one of Melbourne's largest community open spaces, with room for parks, playgrounds, netball courts and thousands of new car parks," he said.

However, the state opposition already criticised the elevation proposal when it was first put forward in January as a cost-cutting measure to remove level crossings that would create vulgar "eyesores" several storeys high that would divide neighbourhoods.

While the Victorian government has promised to undertake community consultations to refine the designs and determine how the new public space underneath the railway would be utilised, local residents have already written petitions to state MPs to be presented when Parliment resumes on Monday, claiming the empty space under elevated railway lines will become ghettos and havens for crime.

Residents are reported already planning a rally in a Murrumbeena park on Sunday to protest against the proposal.

Elevated rail lines can be less intrusive than building a trench to remove level crossings, according to RMIT urban designer lecturer Ian Woodcock who told Fairfax that in cities like Berlin and Vancouver elevated rail lines actually "maximises the connection at ground level".

Elevated rail already exists in sections across Melbourne, including between West Richmond and Clifton Hill, through Hawthorn on the Lilydale/Belgrave lines and through Balaclava on the Sandringham line.

Under the plans, the longest section of elevated rail will run over 3.5 kilometres built between Grange Road in Carnegie and Poath Road in Hughesdale.
A 2.7-kilometre stretch of elevated rail will be built between Corrigan and Chandler Roads in Noble Park.

A further two kilometre elevated structure will run through Clayton between Clayton and Centre Roads.

Barricades will also be put in place to ensure passengers on elevated trains cannot see into nearby houses.

The new train stations will be longer to accommodate longer trains and will be accompanied by signalling upgrades that will carry an extra 11,000 passengers during peak hour on the lines which currently carry more than 60,000 passengers daily.

The level crossings due to be removed include some of the city's worst traffic bottlenecks in Murrumbeena and Clayton.

A Metro Trains spokeswoman said Metro could not comment on the project, which would be overseen by the Level Crossing Removal Authority.
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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by willister »

Alex on the Bus wrote:Well, it's now (pretty much) official:
The Age wrote:$1.6 billion elevated rail project to replace level crossings on Dandenong line
Elevated trains will run nine metres above street level along the busiest railway corridor in Melbourne's south east, as part of a $1.6 billion project to remove level crossings from Caulfield to Cranbourne and Pakenham.

Three sections of the railway line along the Dandenong railway corridor will be replaced with new elevated tracks - dubbed "sky trains", but not to be confused with an airport line - that would run along the viaduct above the existing railway line.

Nine level crossings will be removed, and five new stations will be created as part of the project at Carnegie, Murrumbeena, Clayton and Noble Park.

A consortium of CPB Contractors and Lend Lease have been awarded the contract to build the project, which is due to be completed by November 2018, in time for the next state election.

Premier Daniel Andrews told the Herald Sun the project would create a quieter rail line, and would commence later this year.

As the elevated rail lines would be built above existing railway lines, the existing train services would not be disrupted by the construction.

The elevated railway line will also free up an extra 225 square kilometres - equivalent to 11 MCGs - of public open space.

Premier Daniel Andrews said "every single level crossing between Caulfield and Dandenong will become history".

"This tired and ugly rail corridor will become one of Melbourne's largest community open spaces, with room for parks, playgrounds, netball courts and thousands of new car parks," he said.

However, the state opposition already criticised the elevation proposal when it was first put forward in January as a cost-cutting measure to remove level crossings that would create vulgar "eyesores" several storeys high that would divide neighbourhoods.

While the Victorian government has promised to undertake community consultations to refine the designs and determine how the new public space underneath the railway would be utilised, local residents have already written petitions to state MPs to be presented when Parliment resumes on Monday, claiming the empty space under elevated railway lines will become ghettos and havens for crime.

Residents are reported already planning a rally in a Murrumbeena park on Sunday to protest against the proposal.

Elevated rail lines can be less intrusive than building a trench to remove level crossings, according to RMIT urban designer lecturer Ian Woodcock who told Fairfax that in cities like Berlin and Vancouver elevated rail lines actually "maximises the connection at ground level".

Elevated rail already exists in sections across Melbourne, including between West Richmond and Clifton Hill, through Hawthorn on the Lilydale/Belgrave lines and through Balaclava on the Sandringham line.

Under the plans, the longest section of elevated rail will run over 3.5 kilometres built between Grange Road in Carnegie and Poath Road in Hughesdale.
A 2.7-kilometre stretch of elevated rail will be built between Corrigan and Chandler Roads in Noble Park.

A further two kilometre elevated structure will run through Clayton between Clayton and Centre Roads.

Barricades will also be put in place to ensure passengers on elevated trains cannot see into nearby houses.

The new train stations will be longer to accommodate longer trains and will be accompanied by signalling upgrades that will carry an extra 11,000 passengers during peak hour on the lines which currently carry more than 60,000 passengers daily.

The level crossings due to be removed include some of the city's worst traffic bottlenecks in Murrumbeena and Clayton.

A Metro Trains spokeswoman said Metro could not comment on the project, which would be overseen by the Level Crossing Removal Authority.
Question is, will it really proceed? It isn't as bad as I expected it but I question whether that Clayton to Centre Road sky rail is really needed.
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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by Alex on the Bus »

The Clayton section would have worked either way as that section is all but flat - it is the other two sections that pretty much had to be elevated on account of the topography. That said, if the usual way of lowering rail lines in Victoria was to be employed (digging a trench alongside an active line, laying down lines then cutting the new alignment in), either the trench would have to swap sides between Clayton Road and Centre Road (due to the availability of space within the railway reserve being on different sides at each crossing) or a certain purveyor of commercial catering equipment will need to find a new home very quickly. The description of what is proposed suggests that the piers for the viaducts will be built either side of the existing tracks.

(Oh, and I noticed that the most vocal opponent of the elevated line option on social media just so happens to work in corporate communications and public relations. Still fully expecting the obligatory railing against "government spin doctors"...)
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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by willister »

Alex on the Bus wrote:The Clayton section would have worked either way as that section is all but flat - it is the other two sections that pretty much had to be elevated on account of the topography. That said, if the usual way of lowering rail lines in Victoria was to be employed (digging a trench alongside an active line, laying down lines then cutting the new alignment in), either the trench would have to swap sides between Clayton Road and Centre Road (due to the availability of space within the railway reserve being on different sides at each crossing) or a certain purveyor of commercial catering equipment will need to find a new home very quickly. The description of what is proposed suggests that the piers for the viaducts will be built either side of the existing tracks.

(Oh, and I noticed that the most vocal opponent of the elevated line option on social media just so happens to work in corporate communications and public relations. Still fully expecting the obligatory railing against "government spin doctors"...)
I was pretty surprised when it was revealed that the Clayton/Centre Road section needed to be elevated....I always thought the elevated section would have been from Caufield to Oakleigh (now just Hughesdale) and then from Noble Park and beyond. I thought thought that part would have been elevated.

Living in Clayton between Clayton Road and Centre Road, it would directly affect me, initially I was in the NIMBY camp but to be honest after seeing concept drawings and having seen different designs internationally, I'm a bit more open to the idea, especially now since it is a near reality anyway, you can only make the most of a less than ideal situation. I just really hope they don't cut corners and go cheapass...the only real concerns I have is around security, not so much privacy (I used to travel on the Glen Waverley line, major swathes of it - you can clearly see through a LOT of backyards...)...how will they police and manage the areas beneath the rail is the key that will either turn this as a success and model for future xing removals or a total failure.

I wouldn't exactly hold my breathe on actually those design concepts being reality they look glossy and attractive on paper but I've traveled to Japan and Taiwan and they have an extensive network of elevated tracks and it is starkly different. In the hotel I stayed in Taiwan it was near Yuanshan station (google map it)...whilst is has some greenery beneath the tracks, I hardly saw anyone really using it. In Japan, it was mostly food/snack stalls that operated beneath it, somewhat it gave me a very ghetto/filthy feel of Japan when the rest of Tokyo was spotlessly clean...You don't want it to turn into a LA like ghetto with gangsters dealing drugs in the basketball courts beneath the rail line. Judging by examples of what happens beneath freeways and road over examples, it appears it will just end up to being a massive car park (commercial and council). A 12km bike track again is in the plans, but I really do worry about how secure they would be. Bear in mind that in Asia they have very strict laws so there is very little if any graffiti, compare this to slap on the wrist type penalties in Australia where people will graffiti all over the pylons before the cement has dried.

Above ground stations on paper look much better and you probably add shops to it vs the almost unused spaces of underground stations - they look drab.

Having said the above, honestly having a look at examples of Springvale, Nunawading & the newly complete Gardiner Station - I'm not really sold on the that idea of semi underground either, I don't know if it's me, but that area still gives me that ugly industrious vibe and there is zero usage of the land adjacent to it...Then again, I'm not totally convinced sky rail is the answer either in bringing communities together and removing the divide itself...
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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by BroadGauge »

V981 wrote:and then finish the day off with a Chicken Parma at a couple of pots at Aherns Bar at the Highways Tavern.
Ahh yes, why do we need Las Vegas when Noble Park has it's own Mini Vegas where you have two of Victoria's busiest pokies venues directly opposite each other at the corner of the Princes Highway and Corrigan Road?

Why go all the way to the states just to hop between the MGM Grand Casino and the Hard Rock Hotel when you can just pop down to good old Highways and if you're not having any luck there, join the crowd at the traffic lights waiting to give the nearby competitor a go? And if you've got some filthy drug money you'd like to try your luck with, down there they don't discriminate like those snobs in other places - we have a racing club with a venue waiting for you.

Come down on a Wednesday or a Saturday and we even have Sportingbet Park waiting for you to punt on the horses - and with free entry on a Wednesday, why not put the savings from your entry fee into visiting Little Dublin in Noble Park for a hot meal fresh from the microwave!

(I think I just identified the area's #1 tourist attraction!)

--

Back on the topic of the rail line, it's great to see that this project has been confirmed, but doesn't this pretty much lock in the line into only ever having two tracks? It's kind of a now or never thing if they're going to build these huge viaducts and not bother with any sort of track amplification.

Perhaps if the system here was slightly more efficient then it might work with high capacity signalling and trains overtaking. I saw that happening in Hong Kong on the East Rail Line last year with the trains to mainland China overtaking the very frequent suburban services at stations, but with a high frequency of local trains (like already runs on the Dandenong line in peak hour) it's still a lot slower than just having express trains running on their own tracks :twisted:
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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by Dennis Dart »

Alex on the Bus wrote:Well, it's now (pretty much) official:
The Age wrote:$1.6 billion elevated rail project to replace level crossings on Dandenong line

The elevated railway line will also free up an extra 225 square kilometres - equivalent to 11 MCGs - of public open space.

The reference to an extra 225 square kilometres was removed quite promptly from the on-line article. In fact it was overstated by a factor of 1000. The actual area is 225,000 square metres which converts to 0.225 square kilometres.

The concept drawings that accompanied the press release show the method of construction. The concrete columns will be built outside the current two tracks enabling the train service to continue during the construction phase. Unlike other sections of raised lines, this will result in two separate lines with a gap of perhaps 10 metres.

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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by Alstom 888M »

Would 10m be sufficient to install a 3rd or 4th track at a later date or would future expansion require to be built either side?
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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

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Alstom 888M wrote:Would 10m be sufficient to install a 3rd or 4th track at a later date or would future expansion require to be built either side?
It wouldn't matter if it was 100 metres. Stations with island platforms, enclosed in pods, mean there will never be any track amplification.
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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by Alex on the Bus »

system improver wrote:It wouldn't matter if it was 100 metres. Stations with island platforms, enclosed in pods, mean there will never be any track amplification.
Repeat after me: an artist's impression is not a confirmed design, an artist's impression is not a confirmed design, an artist's impression is not a confirmed design...

The reporting is that there will be "passive provision" for amplification - most likely the piers will accommodate a second set of girders on each side to add two extra tracks. My guess is that side platforms would be built (if required) at each of the elevated stations, and those pods - if they actually get built - would be light enough to be easily dismantled and/or expanded.
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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by pakenhamtrain »

system improver wrote:
Alstom 888M wrote:Would 10m be sufficient to install a 3rd or 4th track at a later date or would future expansion require to be built either side?
It wouldn't matter if it was 100 metres. Stations with island platforms, enclosed in pods, mean there will never be any track amplification.
I believe it will be designed to allow for another two tracks.
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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by Leyland B21 »

After reading a news article, I was under the assumption that 4 tracks will be in place as part of the construction to allow for express trains to operate again and more vline movements
You can take the boy out of Armadale W.A but you cant take Armadale out of the boy!!!
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Re: Secret Proposal Leaked To Construct Elevated Rail Line!!

Post by jarf »

^ Not initially. There's "passive provision" for them, which effectively means space to construct them when required.

The entire corridor is effectively going to move slightly to the north of its current position. Following completion, there would be enough space on the south side of the line between Clayton and Noble Park for additional tracks. The intermediate stations would effectively be like Tottenham, with an elevated island platform and two express tracks.

Huntingdale would probably need to be rebuilt, which would need to happen anyway if a line to Rowville is ever built. Oakleigh would probably get an additional track punched through on the north side, turning platform 3 into an island.

West of Oakleigh is where it gets a little complicated. The corridor mostly isn't (and without serious properly acquisition, won't be) wide enough for four tracks. It's quite possible any new tracks would just follow a completely new alignment, since squeezing in additional tracks west of Caulfield would be a nightmare too.

Could provide a good excuse to build a new line via Chadstone, then across to St Kilda and the CBD. Slight gunzel fantasy. :wink:
Random Gunzel Insanity - http://jarfness.blogspot.com/
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