Three ageing suburban railway stations in Melbourne’s south-east will be demolished and replaced with new station buildings under concept plans released by the Napthine government on Wednesday.
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The plans involve rebuilding the stations at Carnegie, Murrumbeena and Clayton, which would be put partially underground as the Dandenong railway corridor is sunk and four busy level crossings removed.
Crossings at Murrumbeena Road - consistently rated one of Melbourne’s worst in RACV’s congestion surveys - Neerim Road in Carnegie and Clayton and Centre roads in Clayton are to be removed as part of a $2 billion to $2.5 billion upgrade of the Cranbourne-Pakenham rail line.
The project, due to start next year and be completed in 2019, will force the closure of Melbourne’s busiest rail corridor for an estimated six weeks as level crossings are grade separated and stations rebuilt. The removal of the Murrumbeena Road level crossing alone is predicted in project plans to require the Dandenong line’s closure for about five weeks.
Concept designs for the three stations show improved commuter facilities such as new footbridges and commuter car parking, but give no hint of the scope of potential commercial development around the station that is slated to happen as part of the project.
Melbourne’s rail operator, Metro, has negotiated development rights at the three stations, as its Hong Kong-based parent company MTR regularly does in that city.
Premier Denis Napthine and Public Transport Minister were challenged by Glen Eira mayor Neil Pilling to reveal how the station environment at Murrumbeena Station would change. Mr Pillings said residents were concerned “large-scale developments” would go up in the mostly low-rise suburb to help pay for the project, which is being delivered as a public-private partnership.
“One of the concerns that is raised [by residents] is about what sort of development will happen around the station here … there is a lot of VicTrack land here, it’s very important for parking, people drive here from all over,” Mr Pilling said.
Mr Mulder said any future development around Murrumbeena station would be secondary to the needs of public transport users.
“We don’t really want the development opportunities dictating what the station would look like, we want the station precinct, the public transport outcomes … to dictate what we could do with other available land,” Mr Mulder said.
The public has been invited to comment on the concept designs, which can be viewed here.
