Regional Rail Link

[Dan26]

The regional rail link seems to be going up in leaps and bounds. I live near where it will go, and have been watching and visiting the construction areas around Werribee. Not sure whetehr it will be cost effective, but after it's completion, apparently an extra 23 trains will be able to run peak hour from Werribee and 10 from Geelong on V-Line due to V-Line and the met not sharing the tracks.

It's pretty exciting to have the first new rail line (as opposed to extending an existing line like the Broadmeadows line) apart from the City Loop for decades.

Below is a video of the route the rail link will take.


This is a design animation of Wyndham Vale station



Tarneit Station


What do you think of this project?

 

[rayven]

Is this link going to stop yuppies spending 50 grand on an SUV that they use to commute to work in, yuppies who think they own the road, as a result jack up license and rego fees, fuel costs and add to the over all angst on our roads everyday? Who cut off cyclists and racialy slur those who use public transport?



Well is it mr i know more about climate change than anyone qualified ?

or would a tax on 4wd's been better? maybe a law where you cant commute more than 7 k's to work,in your own car, on your own, more than twice a week, to a place that public transport could deliver you?

 

[radiojake]

Certainly looks like a good idea -

Do you think you'll use the service, Dan, or continue to drive to work?


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Now we just need an express train network between the cities - Along the east coast at a minimum and preferably Adelaide too...

get planes out of the air

 

[rayven]

Do you think you'll use the service, Dan, or continue to drive to work?

Dan seems the type who thinks the earth is cooling and drives thier car as much as possible to try and warm it up..


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Now we just need an express train network between the cities - Along the east coast at a minimum and preferably Adelaide too...

get planes out of the air

Maybe if we embrace the NBN and use video conferencing to conduct meetings,appointments and such, as much as possible, we could cut down interstate and intrastate travel?

 

[radiojake]

Maybe if we embrace the NBN and use video conferencing to conduct meetings,appointments and such, as much as possible, we could cut down interstate and intrastate travel?

Well, yeah, there is that too - But you also have ex-pats who return back home for weekends and bands that go on tour - Would love to be able to do it in fast efficient trains over driver or flying

 

[Smoooothy]

Now we just need an express train network between the cities - Along the east coast at a minimum and preferably Adelaide too...

get planes out of the air

will never get to adelaide - the numpties in the adelaide hills would never allow it

also, the hills are a pretty big problem, you'd need to go around them or dig through them. would require a massive investment.

can see it happening between melbourne and brisbane though

 

[Copernicus]

Am I the only one who finds these flyovers and animations oddly relaxing?

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

will never get to adelaide - the numpties in the adelaide hills would never allow it

also, the hills are a pretty big problem, you'd need to go around them or dig through them. would require a massive investment.

can see it happening between melbourne and brisbane though

I'm not even sure about that. Brisbane to Wollongong is about as far as I see it.
Beyond that the distance between decent sized cities would probably make it difficult to justify the expense on. The NSW north coast is fairly densely packed in comparison with other stretches between Brisbane and Melbourne, and for a high speed rail you only want stops in larger towns or it defeats the purpose.

Then again, it would politically difficult to link Sydney and not Melbourne. The vast bulk of people will probably still fly though, we simply don't have the European style rail culture. Our nation has basically grown alongside the car and the aeroplane.

 

[HappyChappy35]

Now we just need an express train network between the cities - Along the east coast at a minimum and preferably Adelaide too...

get planes out of the air

The problem with that is the car and plane based culture we have in Australia, otherwise I think that isn't such a bad (albeit very expensive) idea. Just one question though- what's so bad about planes flying in the air?

One thing I'd like here is a network of freeways between major cities similar to the one in the US, just on a lesser scale.

 

[carn tigez]

 

[Poseidon]

Am I the only one who finds these flyovers and animations oddly relaxing?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_sensory_meridian_response

 

[MaddAdam]

I The vast bulk of people will probably still fly though, we simply don't have the European style rail culture. Our nation has basically grown alongside the car and the aeroplane.

That's because we are the size of America not Europe.

 

[BotsMaster]

Hopefully they'll put the new rail link in Train Simulator 2014.

 

[Copernicus]

That's because we are the size of America not Europe.

Australia is actually about the same size as Europe, maybe a touch smaller, if you exclude the Russian section. But of course the population density is vastly smaller than both Europe and the US.

Of course you can turn that on its head to a degree when you remember that most of the population is concentrated on the corridor from Melbourne to Brisbane along the coast. So I think that a fast rail service is feasible along there, but really nowhere else. Given that the Melbourne-Sydney air route is one of the busiest in the world, I still feel that a proper rail link between those cities is a worthwhile option.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

That's because we are the size of America not Europe.

Partly, but its also because we are a new nation. By the time our colonies were joining, the aeroplane was just about to come into existence. We didn't have a long time of building long distance infrastructure before we started building airports and people had access to cars.
Protectionism between the colonies resulting in different rail guages played a part, along with the fact that we have just a few large cities and relatively few mid-sized cities and towns a long way apart, meaning rail was never as viable as in the eastern United States or in Europe.

 

[Dont be a lemon]

I don't think passenger flight became mainstream until about 50 years after Federation though. People were using trains to get between the eastern cities until then. They sailed to/from Perth until whatever year it was they built a track. Then flight as mass transport took off plus the middle class could afford to own cars so it became less needed.

 

[Simple Jack]

I don't think passenger flight became mainstream until about 50 years after Federation though. People were using trains to get between the eastern cities until then. They sailed to/from Perth until whatever year it was they built a track. Then flight as mass transport took off plus the middle class could afford to own cars so it became less needed.

Yeah, getting multiple trains because the gauge differences were an unmitigated disaster for rail transport (both pax and freight) in Aus.

 

[cancat]

The regional rail link seems to be going up in leaps and bounds. I live near where it will go, and have been watching and visiting the construction areas around Werribee. Not sure whetehr it will be cost effective, but after it's completion, apparently an extra 23 trains will be able to run peak hour from Werribee and 10 from Geelong on V-Line due to V-Line and the met not sharing the tracks.

It's pretty exciting to have the first new rail line (as opposed to extending an existing line like the Broadmeadows line) apart from the City Loop for decades.

What do you think of this project?

I don't think it's a good solution. It adds 12 extra kilometers and 2 extra stations to the journey. The route and location of the extra stations seems to have heavily influenced by the proximity to shopping centres at Wyndham Vale and Tarneit rather than the needs of commuters. Journey times between Geelong and Melbourne will be slower. In addition the new route will not stop at North Melbourne station which is a major interchange for bus services to the hospitals and the Metro loop into the CBD.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

I don't think passenger flight became mainstream until about 50 years after Federation though. People were using trains to get between the eastern cities until then. They sailed to/from Perth until whatever year it was they built a track. Then flight as mass transport took off plus the middle class could afford to own cars so it became less needed.

Tha is true, but not many travelled interstate unless they lived near a border; and the hangover of multiple guages and changing trains existed almost until the 21st century.
These weren't issues in Europe, or even in the USA (which also never really developed a train culture, due partly to its size, one of the issues here as well obviously, but was moreso than here in parts before the car became ubiquitous). Europe in particular had a long history of trains along with the population density and short distances between major centres, Australia very little time before the rise of the car and the plane.

 

[TriX78]

I was gobsmacked when i first heard of the need to change at state borders cause of the gauges.

 

[Doss]

I was gobsmacked when i first heard of the need to change at state borders cause of the gauges.

Google 'Australian break of rail guage' or 'Australian gauge wars' one day.

Serious head in the hands stuff, pretty much because the colonies couldn't co-operate.

Look at the ridiculous route any Melbourne-Adelaide rail traffic is forced to take. Probably adds on 100-150km to the journey, compared to the direct route through Bacchus Marsh and Ballarat.

 

[HappyChappy35]

Have a question. Once this regional rail link is finished, would I travel along it when catching a train to the footy from Geelong? Or would I travel on the existing line through Werribee?

 

[The Speaker]

Google 'Australian break of rail guage' or 'Australian gauge wars' one day.

Serious head in the hands stuff, pretty much because the colonies couldn't co-operate.

Geoffrey Blainey explains it pretty well in The Tyranny of Distance.

 

[Senatorguesty]

Have a question. Once this regional rail link is finished, would I travel along it when catching a train to the footy from Geelong? Or would I travel on the existing line through Werribee?

New line, V/Line will not go through the current track after the RRL is opened.
its a stupid expensive exercise created to "win" votes and nothing more.
It SOUNDS like a good idea but in truth is a horrible idea.
You are congesting the 2 busiest lines on the V/Line network into one section of track, a section of track that has alot (albeit not as much as Werribee) of metro traffic and extending ALL travel times between Melb - Geelong by a considerable amount.
On top of that the Geelong corridor is so busy we have zero room for more passengers yet will pick up and drop off at an addition 4 stations (Werribee and Newport being metro stations). Good luck getting a seat lads....
Similar to myki which is beyond a disaster and will cost the state BILLIONS of dollars.

 

[MisterMarcus]

Google 'Australian break of rail guage' or 'Australian gauge wars' one day.

Serious head in the hands stuff, pretty much because the colonies couldn't co-operate.

Look at the ridiculous route any Melbourne-Adelaide rail traffic is forced to take. Probably adds on 100-150km to the journey, compared to the direct route through Bacchus Marsh and Ballarat.

.

That has to do with the grades being too steep between Ballarat and Bacchus Marsh, not the guage.

Freight goes through Geelong and 'round the back way' because it is flatter.