New stations in Melbourne's west

Concept design of a new Tottenham Station (Big Build)

A bunch of stations in Melbourne's west are set to be rebuilt for various reasons, and they've recently released draft designs. So a quick runthrough of the designs and what kind of feedback I think they need.

Updated designs for Deer Park Station

The latest render of the new Deer Park Station (via LXRA)

LXRA have released updated designs for the new Deer Park Station to be built as part of the removal of the Station Street/Mount Derrimut Road level crossing. Let's take a close look at the details. 

Level crossing-free lines

Union Rd, Surrey Hills (via Philip Mallis)

The government recently announced they'd be grade separating ten more level crossings, bringing it to a total of 85 pledged and/or delivered under the Andrews government. They also announced they'd be closing four crossings, so it's sort of 89, but their messaging consistently says 85 so let's stick with that. As Daniel Bowen pointed out on his blog, this means about half the level crossings in suburban Melbourne on the 2008 ALCAM list will have been eliminated - very impressive. 

A new station for Deer Park

Draft design for the new Deer Park Station (via LXRA)

A few weeks ago, LXRA announced that the removal of the Mount Derrimut Road level crossing and the revamp of Deer Park Station would be happening a year ahead of schedule - it'll still happen a bit after the Robinsons Road and Fitzgerald Road crossings, presumably to help manage local traffic during construction, but they're now aiming for 2024 instead of 2025. They've also released some draft designs for the new station, and consultation has just opened, so let's take a look. 

Updated drafts for Deer Park level crossings

The new design for Robinsons Rd, looking south (via LXRA)

About nine months after releasing their first draft designs, the Level Crossing Removal Authority (LXRA) have released updated drafts for the Robinsons Rd, Deer Park and Fitzgerald Rd, Ardeer level crossing removals. I made some suggestions when the initial drafts were released, so let's take a look and see what's different. 

Amsterdam Lelylaan: a model for level crossing removals

The current spate of level crossing removals means that more stations are being rebuilt around Melbourne than at any time in living memory. These stations, by virtue of the selection process, are generally adjacent to roads - and often those roads are major public transport corridors, whether for trams or buses. Perhaps because we've gone from zero to 100 so quickly, and therefore don't have a ton of station design experience in our local public service, some of these new stations haven't been ideal from an urban design perspective - in fact in some cases they are worse than the ground-level stations they're replacing. The Dutch, however, are very good at this, so I thought I'd go through a case study to see what lessons Melbourne can learn from it.

Draft designs released for Deer Park level crossings

Concept image looking north over the planned Fitzgerald Rd bridge (LXRA)

On Saturday, the government announced that the level crossing removals at Fitzgerald Rd, Ardeer and Robinsons Rd, Deer Park would be fast-tracked, and set to be completed by 2023; while the Mount Derrimut Rd, Deer Park crossing - and rebuild of Deer Park Station - would happen a bit later, slated for completion by 2025. At the same time as this announcement, they released design concepts for Fitzgerald and Robinsons, so let's take a closer look at these.

What to do with the Lydiard Street crossing?

The crash site (via Luke66683251)

Ballarat Station is right next to Lydiard Street, and the level crossing there is unique in Victoria for its heritage swing gates. Approximately a century old, the gates cross the railway line by default, allowing cars through, and swing around to cross the road and allow trains through when required. At various points in past decades, there have been proposals to replace the heritage gates with more modern boom gates, but the people of Ballarat have been pretty adamant that the gates form part of the heritage aesthetic of the station precinct and they want to keep them for as long as possible.

Late on Saturday night, a V/Line passenger train ploughed through the heritage gates at speed, severely damaging them and only coming to a halt beyond the Doveton Street level crossing, several hundred metres away. The investigation into how this happened will take time - given the stopping distance it seems clear that the train ran through Ballarat station at some speed, but it's not yet clear why. Regardless, though, the extensive damage to the heritage gates will mean we need to think about what the future of this crossing should be.

How best to remove the level crossings in Deer Park?

Project map (via LXRA)

Just before the 2018 election, the Andrews government announced that if re-elected they would remove three level crossings in Deer Park, as part of their second tranche of 25 level crossings. Somewhat unusually, the Level Crossing Removal Authority (LXRA) announced the preferred method of removal for all three almost immediately. These crossings are all on the section of track shared between the Ballarat and Geelong lines, and I also used to live in Deer Park right near them, so I'm keen to make sure they're done right – and the City of Brimbank is doing early consultation on the project, so now seems like the right time.

I'll get the uncontroversial ones out of the way first, then get stuck into the one I think needs to be changed.