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Melbourne’s west continues to grow and develop, and the booming area just hit another major transport milestone, with the opening of a brand-new station and the removal of two level crossings in the growing suburb of Melton. The new Melton Station is now officially open to passengers, following a three-week construction blitz that saw trains shifted onto two new rail bridges over Exford and Coburns Roads. The result? Melton is now officially boom gate free, and there’s a whole lot more in the works.
The Melton Station project marks the 93rd and 94th level crossings removed across Victoria, following the recent removal of crossings at Ferris Road in Melton and Hopkins Road in Truganina. And it's a pretty big deal for local drivers. According to government stats, more than 73,000 vehicles passed through the four crossings every day, with commuters regularly stuck waiting as boom gates came down for almost half an hour during the morning peak.
According to the Victorian Government, the shiny new Melton Station has been designed with the suburb’s rapid growth firmly in mind. The elevated station has four platforms, with lift and stair access via a 16-metre-wide underpass, and the underpass will give locals a much safer way to get from one side of the rail line to the other. The platforms are longer, too, and have been future-proofed for nine-car VLocity trains, which are set to start running to Melton from next year. Modelling says that’ll increase capacity on peak services by a very handy 50 per cent – so commutes will start getting smoother.
And there’s more transport infrastructure on the horizon. The station has been designed with future Melton Line electrification in mind, meaning Metro services will eventually be able to use two of the platforms. Electric trains will also be able to be housed at the new Cobblebank stabling yard, which is currently being built east of the station.
Although trains are now running through the new station, the project isn’t quite finished yet. When the station precinct is fully completed early next year, passengers can expect an air-conditioned waiting room, upgraded toilets and a seven-bay bus interchange. More than 900 commuter car parking spaces will also open over the coming months, and the surrounding precinct is set to get a serious green makeover, with more than 670 native trees and 180,000 native plants, shrubs and grasses being planted.
There is a small catch for drivers in the meantime, though. With trains now using the new station and traffic travelling along the boom gate-free Exford Road, Coburns Road will close to traffic at the rail line from Sunday, September 6 to Thursday, September 24 while crews remove redundant rail infrastructure and reconstruct the road.
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