Trains on the Melton line will not be electrified until at least the 2030s, with commuters in some of Melbourne’s fastest-growing suburbs on the Wyndham Vale line destined to wait even longer for higher-capacity, Metro-style trains.
The state government is even investigating running battery-powered trains to Wyndham Vale, on the line which runs through boom suburbs including Tarneit and Truganina, instead of delivering on the promised, but potentially more costly, electrification of the line.
This is surely to be yet another disaster in the making. What does this governmewnt and Transport Victoria have against electrification the basis of all network expansion all over the world. With electrification the speeds can increase between the locations.
There is absolutely no point in building to Melton when the entire line should be electrified removing polluting diesel trains off the Ballarat Line. Electrification to Geelong should have been completed years ago with the RRL. It was not done and around and around and around we go.
Electrifying the Ballarat and Geelong lines would provide the opportunity to decarbonise the network on both routes adding new rollingstock such as the Mariyung Trains being used in NSW and create many more jobs in Ballarat in the maintenance facilities.
The Andrews government pledged in the 2018 election campaign that it would electrify lines to Melton and Wyndham Vale, which both rely on regional V/Line trains while servicing the fastest-growing urban corridor in Australia, which is forecast to be home to 1.8 million people by 2050.
Victorian transport tsar Jeroen Weimar told the West of Melbourne Summit on Thursday that the Melton line would be electrified after the $4.1 billion Sunshine station redevelopment was done. The Sunshine station overhaul is due for completion by 2030.
I would not trust this guy to deliver a pizza. There is nothing stopping the delivery of the electrification programme now for Geelong and Ballarat with commissioning to happen around 2030. It needs to begin now as does the ordering of new EMU rolling stock for the network.
Age reporters moderated the West of Melbourne Economic Development Alliance (WoMEDA) summit to discuss a vision for the western suburbs’ success.
Capacity improvements on the Wyndham Vale line would follow some time after Melton line electrification, and might not necessarily involve electrification of the line, Weimar said. They could instead be delivered through the use of the emerging technology of battery-powered trains.
So we are at least 15 years away from a solution or 1/2 a generation. This is so farcical it beggars belief. Battery powered trains have not worked overseas, why do we expect them to work here?
Solve the problem properly and stop looking for inferior solutions which Transport Victoria seem to do on every project.
“There is an order of priority,” Department of Transport and Planning secretary Weimar told the summit. “Get Sunshine done, get Melton [electrification] done, then continue to expand capacity down to Wyndham Vale.”
What a load of rot this man is not fit for the job. He has been hired to manage the spin. Can you image how bad the transport will be in 10 years when these important projects are still not delivered or even in 7 years?
In its economic growth strategy, WoMEDA identified that better transport was needed for the area’s future.
The report said it was essential that the Melton and Wyndham Vale train lines were electrified, so those rapidly growing areas could be served by Metro, rather than V/Line trains. But the group said the Melton project had an uncertain delivery date and Wyndham Vale had been put on hold indefinitely.
I would believe they have been delayed as this is how this muppet works. You need to have high capacity intercity trains on the lines such as the NSW Mariyung Trains with electrification completed between the two regional centres. The Mariyung Trains come in 6 car sets, with 491 seats and have a top speed of almost 180 km/h, perfect for the Geelong and Ballarat Lines. These trains will remove diesels and help the clean up the air quality at Southern Cross Railway Station. They will be faster on the routes, provide 10% more capacity in a 6 car set and will be cheaper to purchase and maintain as they are not diesel trains.
The ongoing project to extend platforms on the Melton line to accommodate nine-car trains, rather than the current six, would provide “a little bit of breathing room” before the line needed further capacity expansion through electrification, Infrastructure Victoria chief executive Jonathan Spear said.
Spear is a fool. The issue is the Vlocity trains are a poor choice for the routes being Geelong and Ballarat. 6 car sets are all that are required. Almost 500 seats in a 6 car set on EMU based Mariyung trains from Korea.
This Spear guy has been a millstone in getting these projects moving. If only we had not wasted the $40B on the project without a business case called the north east link we would have these projects already under way.
With there Mariyung Trains we can have many more on the route providing more services for turn up and go for the Ballarat Line.
“Electrification to Melton is something that our model shows there is super-high demand for, and it’s a logical thing to do once that work around Sunshine station is completed,” Spear said.
Have they modelled to Ballarat to the obvious choice for everyone except them? Why have not not included Bacchus Marsh in this modelling at a minimum?
Why on earth would you rely on diesel trains for the remaining half off the line? Just do the entire line and it is finished. There approach makes no sense and is foolish and will cost more not to electrify to Ballarat.
Concerns about the delivery of key projects promised for the western suburbs come as the Allan government struggles to balance its finances under the weight of an already enormous infrastructure program, including the $26 billion North East Link and $34.5 billion Suburban Rail Loop East, both in the eastern suburbs.
Melton City Council is also pushing for the upgrade of the Western Freeway, which has received $1 billion in funding from the federal Albanese government but has no start date.
Yeah that is going to solve all the problem, but I guess when you have lost all faith in Spears you go to the next obvious option. Lets create a bigger car park on the Western Highway.
Brookfield resident Brad Bonnici left his full-time job as a lift mechanic in June because the daily commute on the Western Freeway was too long.
“It doesn’t matter if you left at 5am or 8am, the traffic was horrendous. Coming home was the same,” he said.
Bonnici, who has lived in the Melton area his whole life, said that the state government had promised upgrades to the road for years.
“We’d just like an upgrade to this freeway. It needs to be a minimum of four lanes … We’re expecting a massive upgrade, not just a Band-Aid fix,” he said.
Oh dear. We just don’t get it do we? I think he said MASSIVE. Not too smart the folk out that way.
“They’re happy to take our votes, they’re happy to take our taxes, but we get nothing out here.”
The state and federal governments committed $10 million each in late 2022 to develop a business case to upgrade the Western Freeway between Melton and Caroline Springs with additional lanes, and new interchanges and overpasses.
Premier Jacinta Allan told the summit the Victorian government had not put the upgrade of the Western Freeway between Caroline Springs and Melton on hold, but declined to provide a date on when works would start.
Allan said planning and environmental approvals were under way.
Just what the state and especially Melbourne needs, more cars going into the city what a shocking and unworkable solution to add 4 lanes on each side of the road into Melbourne. There must be a better way to move people around. Melbourne just seems to keep making the same mistakes.
“The start date is dictated by having in place the planning work, environmental approvals. No one should come out and put a start date out there without having done that work … and that detailed work is still being undertaken,” she said.
Opposition Leader Brad Battin said Labor had long ago committed to, but not delivered, the electrification of the Melton and Wyndham Vale lines.
He said the Coalition had not yet settled on or costed its transport policies for next year’s election.
“But let me assure you, what we say, we’ll deliver. It will be costed, and you will get it, rather than coming out with a press release and building up hopes in the west again.”
Melton City Council chief executive Roslyn Wai said the $4 billion Sunshine Superhub works would open the way for the Metro extension to Melton, but she was concerned about when it and other essential projects would be delivered.
“We know it’s coming, it’s just not coming quick enough,” Wai said.
Original Source: The Age Newspaper
The comments here are well thought through. Why on earth would any rail company electrify half a line and not the other half between two major centres?
Massive electrification projects in Europe and uk none look like this.
Typical response from an Australian bogan from the western suburbs. Just give me more lanes on the freeway for my big RAM truck.