For commuters caught on another late train, fretting about an appointment or a rebuke from the boss it is often hard to envisage the big picture. Given the dreadful punctuality results many commuters have experienced on the Ballarat line in the last few months this is understandable. Unfortunately much of the $518 million of work the State Government is tendering on the line doesn’t fit into the “sexy” category or even offer demonstrable proof of improved service performance. Nevertheless this is critical work because it is these building blocks that will ensure anything close to a faster service is possible. More critically it is the vital infrastructure necessary to catch up with the decades of growth and passenger uptake which have found the system wanting.
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For the perfect example of this infrastructure lag and how it impacts everyone take the the City Loop. Until Melbourne Metro, there has been no metro rail project half as big yet in that fifty years the population of Melbourne has more than doubled. Meanwhile the sprawl of Melbourne and its attendant congestion has made the impact of infrastructure delay even more severe as desperate suburban commuters have caused metro rail uptake to double in only the last ten years. Not coincidentally that is also the last time the Ballarat commuter service achieved an under one hour journey. It is when this increased rail traffic converges in Melbourne’s centre that the system is now at bursting point. It is a key cause of regional service delay and a major barrier to adding any further capacity to the metro system. Given the massive growth in the west of Melbourne this in turn throws more capacity back onto the regional services. The more the urban corridor from Deer Park through Caroline Springs and onto Rockbank and Melton grow, and there is at least 100,00 people slated for the Toolern Vale in-fill area alone, the slower the Ballarat trains will go.
So these seemingly minor “nine steps” of a $518 million upgrade represent a major milestone in the “bigger picture” journey toward that sub-hour commute and accommodate growth for decades to come. We know full duplication and electrification to Melton are the high priorities beyond this to accommodate Melbourne’s exploding west. So just to hear the Government using the new language of “paving the way for the electrification to Melton” is recognition the upgrades are the first step in many, a declaration of what is necessary if not mandatory for the good of everyone in the west.
