Regional Rail Link

We start the month like many others, with progress on the Regional Rail Link project through Melbourne’s west.

The old West Footscray station was still in place beneath ‘Mount Mistake‘.

But the new station to the west was well underway.

Being constructed clear of the existing tracks to avoid disruption to Sunbury line services.

Down the line at Sunshine similar thoughtful works were underway – the level crossing at Anderson Road had been relocated clear of the grade separation works.

So that the future rail bridge could be constructed clear of the tracks, and slid into place when complete.

Meanwhile on the greenfield section of the route, the new Tarneit station had everything in place except for tracks!

Ballan Road had a road bridge passing over an incomplete rail cutting.

Wyndham Vale had pedestrian bridge ready to cross a future four track, four platform station.

And Manor Junction had a massive flyover in place over the Geelong line tracks, but with nothing connecting at either end.

Other train bits

One evening I passed through Newmarket station and found it in the dark – a tree took out the mains power supply to the station.

So somewhat surprisingly, electricians were sent out to connect a generator to the switchboard.

After sitting empty for a decade, in 2013 work finally started on the office towers above the west end of Southern Cross Station.

699 Bourke Street at the north end was first to be completed in 2015, followed by 664 Collins Street at the south end in 2019.

I also paid a visit to Dandenong South, where I found something different sitting dumped beside the tracks.

Comeng carriages 305M, 1003T and 306M stored in the Membreys Transport yard, after being damaged in the November 2012 level crossing crash at Abbotts Road in Dandenong South.

Ding ding

Preparation for the introduction of the new E class trams was underway on route 96, with the inaccessible safety zones along Nicholson Street being extended so the rear doors of the longer trams would not overhang into traffic.

This interim fix remained in place until 2018, when they were finally replaced by accessible platform stops.

And the other bits

On Swanston Street in the CBD I found the Victoria Police bicycle squad on patrol.

But they didn’t seem to be making much of a difference to the dingbats driving down the bike lanes.

Out at Maribyrnong a brand new two-storey Bunnings Warehouse opened – the $45 million store being located around the corner from the old one at Highpoint, and at more than 17,000 square metres, was three times the size of the old one.

And around the corner at West Footscray another Bunnings Warehouse was being constructed – on the former Southern Can Company factory site, with the front office block retained, but the warehouse being being demolished to make way for a hardware store with basement car park.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

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While a competing property developer says “don’t pay a premium for facilities you may never use”.

You’ll find the water park at ‘Jubilee‘ estate – located on the very edge of Melbourne at Wyndham Vale.

Between Ballan Road and the Regional Rail Link tracks.

The $10 million water park features water slides, a splash zone for children, leisure pool and 25m lap pool.

While the cheaper ‘New Gardens‘ estate is in the dirtbowl between Rockbank and Melton.

They promote a ‘future train station’ on their masterplan.

But trains won’t be stopping there any time soon – so you’ll need to drive 3.5 kilometres down the road to the recently opened Cobblebank station instead.

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Planning the new railway

During construction of the new railway, the Regional Rail Link Authority was selling a “no freight trains” message to interested parties, such as former PTUA president Daniel Bowen:

Freight will not be permitted on the new line between Manor and Deer Park – sounds like the relevant authorisations under noise standards only cover passenger trains.

The Regional Rail Link Authority “Noise Impact Management Report” dated 9 December 2010 intentionally ignored rail freight, as freight trains were not intended to use the new railway (bold is my emphasis):

This Noise Impact Management Report is for Section 2 of the RRL, from the Deer Park
Bypass to West Werribee Junction. This section of the RRL is predominantly a greenfield
corridor, with no existing railway infrastructure, except near the tie-ins to existing track
infrastructure at each end.

Rolling stock that will use the RRL alignment will include:

• VLocity and Sprinter diesel multiple units (DMUs)
• N class locomotives
• P class locomotives

It is expected that newer VLocity type rolling stock will eventually replace the older N and
P class locomotives and carriages that are currently being used. Freight is not proposed for the RRL and has not been considered as part of this study.

The noise impacts of the project was also examined during the planning and approval process, with an advisory committee was established by the Victorian Minister for Planning. Their final report dated 23 January 2012 raised a number of concerns:

The Draft Noise Management Plan does not provide an appropriate response to operational noise impacts; planned future stabling yards have not been accounted for. The noise consequences of possible freight traffic on RRL2 received only scant attention.

Four submissions to the committee referenced rail freight noise, with the submission from the Dennis Family and Davis Family stating:

The community investment in this rail infrastructure carries the reasonable expectation that it would be used efficiently in order to maximise its utility. It will not always be just a regional service.

Activities and operations that have the capacity to operate on the RRL2 without further approval (for example, metro and freight trains, and increase in frequency) will increase the noise levels experienced and should be addressed

A submission from the Wyndham City Council also held concerns:

The operation of freight trains along the RRL corridor cannot be prevented and rail freight noise mitigation measures need to be considered in the Noise Management Plan, given that Section 251B of the Victorian Transport (Compliance and Miscellaneous) Act 1983 does not apply to any noise emanating from freight rolling stock.

However the Regional Rail Link Authority still dodged the subject of rail freight noise:

The RRLA expressed the view that it is important to distinguish between what is currently proposed and the reservation of capacity by the RRL2 designers for possible future rail infrastructure and submitted that:

• The EES referral explains that RRL2 ‘makes provision’ for the future construction of two freight tracks between Deer Park and Truganina but to ‘make provision’ only means to ensure capacity within the rail corridor
• RRL2 does not include freight train infrastructure nor was such infrastructure included in the EES referral

But the advisory committee called them out, quoting the RRLA’s own Environment Effects Statement referral document:

It is noted that the above description indicates that:

• The works required to extend the metropolitan train service may be completed after the initial construction but there is no suggestion that such an extension will not occur
• The works required will be within the project area and will include construction and use of rail tracks, a station, stabling facilities and depot facilities
• The level of detail provided is equal to, if not greater than, that provided on the proposed regional passenger train infrastructure and services
• The construction of additional tracks for freight at the northern end of the
  project area is likely.

In light of the above, we are convinced that a reasonable reading of the project description would lead to a conclusion that the extension of the metropolitan train service and the additional tracks for freight trains are part of what is being proposed.

Again, these are facilities that might be constructed and used without the need for further planning permission. While the RRLA has suggested that this could only occur if a revised or new noise management plan was prepared and approved, as we have said, we do not believe that the provisions of the Incorporated Document guarantees this. We are therefore of the view that the extension of the metropolitan train service and the additional track for freight trains should also be considered to be part of the project.

Following the advisory committee report recommendations, the Minister for Planning issued a set of directions to the Regional Rail Link Authority to revise their noise management plan, but the requirements didn’t touch on rail freight at all:

The Noise Management Plan was required to:

• Identify the locations where future predicted noise levels at residential dwellings exceed an average of 55 decibels (LAeq,9h) at night or 80 decibels (LAmax) from the loudest train movement and
• Identify the noise treatments required to mitigate noise.

As a result approval came easy – the “Regional Rail Link Update to Noise Impact Management Report” was published in February 2013 and then approved by the minister in June 2013.

V/Line commenced operating test trains via Tarneit and Wyndham Vale in October 2014, with Geelong line passenger services switching to the new route in June 2015.

And the freight trains roll

On 30 March 2016 saw the first freight train use the Regional Rail Link tracks, when the Pacific National operated a Warrnambool to Melbourne service passed through Wyndham Vale and Tarneit just before midnight on the Wednesday, followed by the return movement a few hours later in the early hours of Thursday morning.

These services are normally operated by a single ~3000 horsepower diesel locomotive, leading around twenty container wagons.

Pacific National ramped up their usage of Regional Rail Link a month later, when in the early hours of 20 April 2016 they commenced driver training operations along the route, sending a light engine consist on three return trips between Sunshine and Little River, with a number of freight train drivers onboard to learn the new line.

In the months since, a number of other freight trains have used the Regional Rail Link tracks, including empty wagon transfers between the Port of Melbourne and North Geelong Yard in daylight.

Given the Regional Rail Link Authority instance that freight trains would not use their new line, on 30 April I emailed Public Transport Victoria a list of questions:

• are freight trains currently authorised to use the Regional Rail Link tracks via Tarneit and Wyndham Vale?
• between that report dated 2010, and completion of the project by the Regional Rail Link Authority in 2015, was a decision made to permit freight trains to use the new railway line via Tarneit and Wyndham Vale?
• if the decision was not made before the line opened, has such a decision been made since, and by who?
• was the freight train I saw a one off event, or will it be a regular occurrence?
• if freight trains are going to use the Regional Rail Link tracks via Tarneit and Wyndham Vale on a regular basis, how many freight trains will there be, and at what time of day?
• if freight trains will be using the track on a regular basis, will any enhancements be made to the existing noise mitigation infrastructure?

A week and a bit later, I got my response:

I forwarded on your feedback to our Network Product Development team and ave been informed that:

The freight service was using the RRL for locomotive transfer purposes, although the move was also designed to keep the knowledge of this route by freight drivers up-to-date.

There is no intention to regularly run freight trains via the RRL, although it may be necessary on occasions to direct them via the RRL when the Werribee line is out of action due to trackwork or incidents.

It should be noted that this was not the first time that this type of irregular locomotive move has taken place, and that there may be occasion in the future when it will occur again.

So in the end it appears that common sense has prevailed, with freight trains being able to use the new railway line if there is a need to do so – and the Regional Rail Link Authority has been exposed as telling porkies.

June 2017 update

On June 24, 2017 a Pacific National service ex-Mildura with four locomotives and 50 wagons was sent via Regional Rail Link, due to an occupation on the usual route via Newport.

November 2020 update

Work on the Werribee Street level crossing removal project has been the normal broad gauge freight route between Geelong and Melbourne closed, requiring the daily Warrnambool freight has been diverted via Regional Rail Link.

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The new bus network was up and working, including the new double decker bus for the route 190 service that links Wyndham Vale station with suburban trains at Werribee station.

But there were also plenty of opening day glitches. The first thing I noticed was that none of the next train displays were working – they were either showing inaccurate data, or the default ‘Listen for announcements’ message.

Platform length is also a problem at the new stations. V/Line is currently only operating trains up to a maximum of six carriages long on the line, but Footscray, Tarneit and Wyndham Vale are all setup for nine carriage long trains.

Painted markings indicating where train drivers should stop, but they appear to be used inconsistently – some trains pulled up to the departure end of the platform, while others stop near the platform entrance. Combine that with the lack of information is given to waiting passengers, and dwell times blow out, as waiting passengers run down the platform to meet the train.

Finally, today was the first time that many commuters from Wyndham Vale and Tarneit had ever stepped onboard a V/Line service, so there was some confusion as to how to open the train doors!

A few more points:

• I travelled on a citybound service that commenced at Wyndham Vale, and it was almost empty, while elsewhere there was reports of Geelong services becoming overcrowded once they reached the new stations.
• V/Line now has nobody to blame for themselves for en-route delays, yet my citybound train got held outside the junction at Sunshine, presumably for another V/Line service, and then crawled into the city, arriving 5 minutes late at Southern Cross.

The glitches with the next train displays are hopefully just an opening day bug, as do passengers not knowing how to open the doors. I’m also hoping that once passengers from Wyndham Vale and Tarneit get used to the new service, they will discover that the dedicated short working services are their best bet for getting a seat, reducing crowding on the Geelong services.

However, the inconsistent stopping locations at platforms is something that V/Line needs to address – the Chief Investigator of Transport Safety flagged it as an issue following a ‘signal passed at danger’ event in 2011.

So to summarise – I’m glad to see a new rail line built to serve a growing area of Melbourne, but V/Line and PTV really need to pull their finger out and make sure the public get the most out of the new infrastructure.

Some timetable quirks

Under the new timetables, for much of the day Metro Trains services to Sunshine station are now outnumbered by those provided by V/Line!

• V/Line: 3 trains an hour to Geelong, and 2 trains an hour to Bacchus Marsh, with every second train continuing to Ballarat.
• Metro Trains: 3 trains an hour to Watergardens, with every second train continuing to Sunbury.

In addition, services to Geelong in peak hour now outnumber those on the ‘suburban’ line to Upfield, which only receives a train every 20 minutes.

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