Melbourne Public Transport News & Discussion

[tayser]

We were drip-fed a bit more information on the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) yesterday.

New animation and media statement saying the line will be operationally-independent from the existing network and will have a smaller scale - 4-5 car trains. Business case/design is still underway (not going to be released til mid next year) but it looks like the State Government is slowly defining what the system will look like.

The size/scale of the trains, espeically if you're to use the video as a guide, looks to be similar to Vancouver's skytrain (older parts) or Copenhagen's metro.

• Video Link

Media release: https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/new-d...ban-rail-loop/

New Dedicated Trains For Standalone Suburban Rail Loop
24 November 2019

The Suburban Rail Loop will be a twin-tunnel, standalone line that will fully integrate into our existing public transport network, and include a dedicated fleet of quick, high-tech trains to transform how Melbourne moves.

Marking a year since the Andrews Labor Government was re-elected, Premier Daniel Andrews joined Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allan to announce new details of the Suburban Rail Loop, following 12 months of intensive technical, planning and design work.

The 90-kilometre rail ring will connect every major rail line from the Frankston line to the Werribee line, making it quicker and easier to get to Melbourne’s major health, education and employment centres.

It will be built as a separate rail line, meaning it can use state-of-the-art systems from around the world without having to retrofit technology into the existing network – saving time and money.

Passengers will be able to easily transfer across both networks, with the same ticketing system servicing both and up to 12 new stations connecting the existing rail system with the new standalone line.

Being a dedicated line also means the design of the trains that use the line won’t be constrained by the requirements of Melbourne’s hundred-year-old train network.

As a result, the new trains will be four to five carriages long and faster than the existing fleet. Being smaller, means they can turn up more often, and that the platforms will be shorter – reducing the distance passengers need to walk at the station each day to get on the train.

Pre-construction work on the Stage One route from Box Hill to Cheltenham is gathering pace, with geotechnical drilling well underway. Fourteen boreholes have already been dug, with close to 100 to be drilled by mid-2020.

The information collected will help determine the final alignment and station locations for the project, and how it will be built.

Community consultation and market engagement will ramp up next year and construction on Stage One of Suburban Rail Loop is expected to begin in 2022. For more information, visit suburbanrailloop.vic.gov.au.

Quotes attributable to Premier Daniel Andrews

“A year ago Victorians voted for the Suburban Rail Loop and we haven’t wasted a moment getting on with it.”

“This standalone line with purpose-built trains will fully integrate into our public transport network and deliver ‘turn-up-and-go’ services – better connecting people to jobs, education and each other.”

Quotes attributable to Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allan

“The Suburban Rail Loop will be a dedicated line with dedicated trains – and it will change the way our city and state moves forever.”

“We’ve removed 30 level crossings, we’re building the Metro Tunnel, and we’re doing the vital planning and design work for the Suburban Rail Loop.”

[tayser]

Take an intercity journey from Geelong's southern suburbs to the centre of Melbourne.

A great driver's training video that's been put on youtube recently.

• Video Link

[mousquet]

^ Just took a couple of minutes to see what it looks like.

It seems there are bridges in small towns here and there so roads are safer over these areas, but then there is a number of road level crossings along the route, which is wild, isn't it?
It probably would cause a massacre in my country. Granted, many drivers in France are notoriously undisciplined like dumb irresponsible people. Unfortunately, we are not the Swiss in that respect. That's why our traffic laws have to be pretty strict and harsh. That's also why road level crossings have been replaced by bridges or tunnels whenever budget would allow it. That means over areas that are populated densely enough.

You'd better be super careful when approaching such level crossings by car, and always take a few seconds to stop.

[tayser]

There were roughly 150 level crossings in the Melbourne Metropolitan area ~6-7 years ago and the current statate government, first elected in 2014, came into govenrment on a policy of removing 50. At the 2018 election they expanded their policy and list of level crossing removals to 75 - 3 of which are actually on the line this video takes (see below). 30 of those 75 have already been completely removed.

For rural and regional areas there's been no solid commitment to remove more but the projects that will likely get underway will start ranking them / put pressure on gov to remove them in regional cities like Geelong as well.

The first 12 minutes of that video are in Geelong's southern suburbs (single track) and $700 million has been committed to duplicate the track and remove the Surf coast highway level crossing (2m30s into the video) and Fyans St (labelled Wood St at 7m27s into the video) level crossing. The Fyans St one is especially dodgey cos it's a roundabout with a level crossing (there's one of them in metro melb too!).

All the level crossings from North Shore northwards (from 17m43s in the ivdeo) were upgraded as part of the regional fast rail project from last decade that saw track speeds increased to 160kph (and introduction of the Vlocity trains - the train this video is filmed from) - AFAIK, the boom gates on those crossings are triggered earlier than normal.

There's also a study to increase speeds to Geelong that will likely result in other level crossing removals on that line (especially around Lara/Corio) but the three metropolitan Melbourne crossings that will definitely be going - cos they're on the list of 75. At 48m 05s (Robinsons Road level crossing), 49m27s (Station Road level crossing) and 50m05s (Fitzgerlad Road level crossing) - all three are going to be removed and all three factor into another project called the Western Rail Plan that will see track quadruplication and possible total electrification (definitely half electrification) so that two new metropolitan (electrified) routes can be introduced and the regional (diesel, maybe electrified) trains can stay separate from metropolitan.

FRom 32m15s until Deer Park (47m45s) this is what we refer to as the Regional Rail Link opened only a few years ago (and it has no level crossings!) - it skirts around Melbourne's outer south-western sprawl belt (but is contained within the urban growth boundary - there'll be suburbs on either side of that section in the coming years) and where the video turns off the mainline and onto the link (the huge flyover at 32m22s, there'll be a third side of the triangle added so that metropolitan (electrified) services can swing around onto the possibly quadruplicated track at Wyndham Vale (35m20s).

About 3-4 relatively high-density town centres are planed along the RRL and there's possibly another 2-3 stations to be added, putting pressure on regional services, hence why they want to introduce metropolitan services that are more capable than the smaller regional trains.

There's a huge amount under study at the moment - Melbourne Airport Rail Link (which links in with sunshine: 52m40s), the Suburban Rail Loop (also links at sunshine) and the Western Rail Plan, all the studies are scheduled to be released from early to mid next year and we'll know what will and won't happen.

This is the Vlocity train type (the 160kph trains) on the Geelong line

• Video Link

[tayser]

I just hacked together a map of the route taken in the video (Green line (love my MS Paint skillZ? )- also labelled the Geelong southern suburbs stations in the video with blue text) that uses the map with the Melbourne Airport Rail Link, Suburban Rail Loop and Western Rail Plan ('Fast line to Geelong') projects in context.

[tayser]

Great map created by a former councillor in Melbourne, shows every rail, tram and bus route in metropolitan Melb.

Click to see it full screen

[tayser]

The 31st (of 75) level crossing has been removed - at Reservoir on the Mernda line.

About time too - this was a truly horrific intersection (notwithstanding the level crossing complicating things).

Wasn't so long ago a few people (me included) were gobsmacked that the horrendous intersection, let alone level crossing, at Reservoir was still there.

Not anymore.

from levelcrossings.vic.gov.au











To see how it was, just take a look at google maps / streetview: https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37..../data=!3m1!1e3

[tayser]

A big chunky bit of work is getting done on the Metro Tunnel project this month during the summer period - they're shutting down three lines / replacing trains with buses to get the last of the civil and portal works done at South Yarra.

• Video Link

[tayser]

The next gen of metro trains have also been busy doing night testing on the outer reaches of the Pakenham line between Berwick and the new Pakenham East depot where they'll all go to sleep at night.

Dubbed HCMTs - High Capacity Metro Trains - they're a step change from the existing fleet: they're longer (7 x 20-22m cars, as opposed to current 6 x 20-22m car trains), which increases passenger-carrying capacity. Approximately the same amount of seating capacity as older generations, but far more space for standing room + multiple spaces for wheelchair/disability access.

Daniel Bowen (past president of the Public Transport Users Association) has a good blog and he's done a breakdown of the capacities across the fleet. The official crush figures for the HCMTs aren't included (but other sources are saying 7-car HCMT will be 1380 gross capacity - for planning purposes - and able to crush up to 1800 people).

https://www.danielbowen.com/2017/06/...s-2000-people/



HCMT testing videos thanks to Railways of Doom (lol) YT channel

• Video Link

• Video Link

Re: the table above, this is a Comeng (introduced in 80s, many upgrades since - including one right now) - via reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/c...t_day_of_2020/



This is a Siemens, via flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/camperdown/27711567484



This is an X'Trapolis, via wiki: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F..._10M,_2013.JPG



Siemens/X'Trapolis were introduced in the mid 2000s.

[tayser]

The first of three caverns at State Library station has been complete and had a state gov presser down in it today.





What it'll eventually look like (the other two caverns will be carved out now, and they'll take the trains)





Cross section:



And I added the red circle to this for scale



Town Hall station (to the south) will be built like this too - and the tunnels between them will be dug with road-headers.

Platforms will be 19m wide (huge) and 240m long.

[tayser]

More pics of new Melb Metro stations under construction from the project's own facebook page

Parkville station





stations will be built in order to cater for 10 car trains (220m total length) eventually. Upon opening, trains will be 7-car.

[tayser]

a great video showing you what middle suburbia looks like in Australia. High Streets, railway lines, detached housing but with new builds already present.

This is Cheltenham and the project to remove the two level crossings in the area. It's a 3 platform station that will be sunk below existing road grades and it also happens to the be mooted southern terminus for the Suburban Rail Loop.

Recommend 4K:

• Video Link

There are approximately 25 medium/high-density projects in the planning or construction pipeline for Cheltenham: https://www.urban.com.au/developments/cheltenham-vic