Rowville-Rail-Study-Final-Stage-1-Report-FINAL

6. A Rowville rail line concept
Final Stage 1 Feasibility Report
A Rowville rail line concept
Building a railway line to Rowville is a large project covering not only the engineering of the
line itself, but also other initiatives to enable train services to the CBD, improve access and
egress transport provision and integrate the project into surrounding land uses. This Chapter
describes a concept and how it would perform.
In developing the rail line concept described in this Chapter we have taken into account the
views of the community and stakeholders as well as considering the engineering design,
transport services and operations requirements.
6.1 Train operations
A rail line to Rowville would ideally provide high-frequency, direct train services to and from
central Melbourne (this idea was strongly supported by the community and stakeholders).
However this cannot happen without increased rail capacity on the Dandenong line from
Huntingdale to Caulfield and into central Melbourne, as explained below.
There are only two tracks between Dandenong and Caulfield; they carry all the Dandenong,
Pakenham and Cranbourne services, as well as Bairnsdale V/Line trains and freight trains
from the south east. During the morning peak these services presently total 18 trains per
hour in each direction (see Table 7). Peak period trains on the Dandenong corridor are
regularly crowded.
If the frequency of trains is increased without adding more tracks, express trains would have
to be reduced in number, so Cranbourne and Pakenham passengers would probably
experience longer travel times. Also more trains per hour will mean more frequent and/or
longer closures on the four level crossings between Huntingdale and Caulfield 2 , which would
increase the already lengthy delays to road traffic (including buses), cyclists and pedestrians.
The Dandenong line cannot provide much more peak passenger capacity than it does now
without allowing for longer trains, re-signalling and/or additional tracks, and grade separation
of level crossings to avoid excessive delays to road traffic. Furthermore, with ever-increasing
train services on other lines as well, the capacity of the City Loop will soon be exceeded; the
Melbourne Metro Rail Tunnel (a new twin-track rail tunnel and stations through the CBD,
between South Yarra and South Kensington) is intended to address this.
6.1.1 Service frequency and stopping patterns
We have considered a number of train operating scenarios for the Rowville rail line:
Scenario 1: Rowville shuttle – a shuttle service operating every ten minutes between
Rowville and Huntingdale.
2 At Poath, Murrumbeena, Koornang and Grange Roads
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