If there are two things that Melburnians hold dear to their hearts, it’s public transport and bragging rights on liveability. While the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) knocked Melbourne from the top spot of their yearly assessment of the world’s most liveable city in 2018 after a seven-year streak, the overhaul of the public transport network […]
Maybe the media would make a fuss about Arden not being used much (because the area around it’s not developed at all) but I think the system will be used pretty well. Honestly I think there will be a big improvement on the burnley and northern groups, because capacity will be freed up by moving Sunbury and Dandenong to the metro tunnel
@Jumuta @maegul Yeah, the lines getting the immediate and substantial capacity upgrade are going to have pretty favourable views of it.
Passenger numbers at Parkville might be pretty impressive pretty quickly.
And the tram users who go past the Women’s will also be pretty happy with the change in tram usage from Parkville station users too.
I used to live on the Sunbury line (2018-2023) and even when I did, I wasn’t a huge fan. I won’t knock it until I actually get to use it, but I really thought it was just going to be annoying to try and connect with trains on other lines, since rather than getting on a train to Flinders then connecting onto my next destination, I’d have to get off at town Hall, then walk to Flinders, then connect to my train. Or even worse would be the connections with the Craigieburn and upfield lines, which will no longer be a walk across the platform at North Melbourne.
It’s not the end of the world, but it’s the sort of thing that would’ve added time to my commute (Sunbury line to Craigieburn line, at the time). It’ll be good to see CBTC/HCS rolled out to Sunbury, though. Some days, they ran so many trains, that the signalling was barely keeping up. Trains were occasionally as close as 3 mins during peak, and a combination of peak hour chaos slowing things down, and trains not clearing signals fast enough mean that they ended up running more like every 5-7 minutes, and always a few mins behind.
@Baku yes, it will be a few minutes slower for some but faster for others. Increased capacity and frequency will assist most
Ok.
Just sharing my perspective.
@Baku sorry, I came off as dismissive of your experience didn’t I. That was rude of me.
Any change of this nature will have winners and losers. Hopefully the losers aren’t getting too bad a deal and there are a lot more big winners.
Very true.
Another aspect of the new Parkville station I’m not sure I’ve seen mentioned much is that it’s not just for the University.
There’ll now be a train station right at the hospital (and surrounding facilities). Which sounds like a big deal to me.
@maegul Massive. Particularly for people with mobility issues (even the good trams aren’t as accessible as a train) accessing the hospital.
Including those with kids in prams!
Yea … and many might not realise, but the entrances and exits to the station, including lifts, are literally right outside the hospital. Like a train and lift will get you straight to the emergency department!
I didn’t realise this until I visited the site recently.