If there is one thing that property developers love to spruik, it is the proximity of their new housing estate to public transport. In the case of Regional Rail Link, the companies developing land adjacent to the new railway line didn’t even have to wait for the trains to start running.
‘The Reserve’ is located across the road from the future Tarneit station, and in 2013 proponent Asset1 Developments were selling the connection hard.
The same applied down the road at ‘Manor Lakes’, where the Regional Rail Link tracks run through the middle of the Dennis Family Corporation developed estate.
As work on the project progressed, artists impressions of the actual station appeared in their advertising, such as billboard at the estate entrance in December 2013.
Back in 2013 research by real estate agent PRD Nationwide found a $40,000 difference in median prices for houses in Melbourne’s western suburbs with rail access, versus those without. I wonder how much property prices have risen around the two new Regional Rail Link stations?
Footnote
I took the lead photo back in 2009 from Manor Lakes Boulevard, looking south towards Lollypop Creek and Greens Road. Back then it was just a future ‘transport link’.
While today it is a ten metre deep concrete walled cutting, with a pair of railway tracks running down the middle.
It will be interesting to see what use they actually get given they have ‘country’ services for lack of a better term. In the past commuters have never embraced the likes of Ardeer and Deer Park en masse services by Bacchus Marsh services although these appear to be getting a lot better frequency. What it may do is push the mooted extension of Werribee services around the corner to Wyndham Vale
With the off peak V/Line trains to Geelong operating every 20 minutes, the service provided matches the worst that Metro provides to the suburban area – I wonder if it will lead to the end of the ‘diesel and electric trains can never mix’ phobia seen in Victoria since the demise of the Public Transport Corporation.