Victoria’s Level Crossing Removal Project will see 10 additional level crossings removed by 2025, bringing the total to 85 level crossings removed from the earlier plan of removing 75.
The additional level crossings will be removed on the Pakenham, Lilydale, Belgrave, Frankston, Sunbury and Mernda lines, with the projects expected to create up to 4000 new jobs.
Removing these extra crossings will make the Cranbourne/Pakenham and Lilydale lines level crossing-free, allowing more trains to run on the network, more often, without frustrating boom gate delays.
The Level Crossing Removal Project authority came to the decision to utilise the existing crews on the ground to extend the work, noting that it would use existing contracts to remove the additional 10 crossings.
The project will also see five new stations built at Croydon, Keon Park, Narre Warren, Parkdale and Ringwood East.
On the Pakenham line, the last five of 22 crossings will be gone for good, including two crossings in Beaconsfield and another in Narre Warren. A new train station will be built in Narre Warren.
The last level crossings on the Lilydale line will go in Ringwood East by building a rail trench and a new station, and in Croydon with a rail bridge over the road and a new station.
On the Belgrave line, there’ll be no more boom gates between the city and Ferntree Gully once the crossing in Ringwood is removed by building a rail trench under Bedford Road.
One of the Sunbury line’s most congested level crossings at Calder Park will be removed with a new road bridge over the rail line – saving travel time for the 11,000 vehicles going through the crossing each day.
On the Frankston line, two more dangerous and congested crossings will be removed at Mentone and Parkdale, with the preferred solution to build rail bridges between Mentone and Parkdale and a new station at Parkdale, creating almost two MCGs worth of new community space with playgrounds, recreational activity facilities and shared user paths. It will also improve local connectivity with the beach.
The dangerous level crossing will be removed in Keon Park on the Mernda line by building a rail bridge over Keon Parade and a new Keon Park Station to address the alarming safety record at this crossing where there has been one collision and 24 near misses in the past nine years. A new train station will be built at Keon Park.
Since 2016, the Victorian Government has removed 46 level crossings, with the number expected to reach 50 before the end of the year. On average, one level crossing is being removed every four weeks in Melbourne.
Further engineering assessments and community engagement will be undertaken on these projects.
Site investigations will begin in the coming months, followed by early works, with construction to be completed by 2025.
For more information about the project, please visit here.
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