Current state

The City Loop isn’t one tunnel but a network of four separate tunnels that encircle the Melbourne CBD, with train services from different lines taking different routes around it at different times of day, before finally arriving at Flinders Street.

A result of this is that inbound trains full of passengers will slowly empty out as they make their way around the entire loop.

Before arriving at Flinders Street Station almost empty.

A loading pattern shown in this diagram from the 2012 PTV Network Development Plan.

Figure 16-2: Existing City Loop operation and train loadings – 2012 PTV Network Development Plan

Which goes on to say:

Constraints in the Northern Group revolve around the need for Craigieburn and Upfield lines to merge in the City Loop, thereby restricting the combined frequency to 24 trains per hour.

On the Burnley Group, the terminating and turning back of Burnley local trains at Flinders Street limits capacity on all Burnley Group local lines.

The current routing and efficiency of the loop and terminating lines in the city is an inefficient use of resources (trains and infrastructure), as demonstrated in Figure 16-2. The line thickness designates an indicative train loading for the AM peak period.

From the above figure, it can be seen that the loop operation is inefficient because all trains entering the loop will be overloaded. However, by the time they run across the viaduct between Flinders Street and Southern Cross, they will be nearly empty, which is a waste of valuable central area track capacity.

In addition, Burnley local services (the Glen Waverley and Alamein lines) that run direct to and terminate at Flinders Street will be underutilised as many passengers will transfer onto loop services at Richmond, which again is a sub-optimal use of trains and infrastructure.

And a solution?

The 2008 East West Rail Link ‘Analysis on Rail Capacity’ report introduced a solution – reconfiguring the City Loop tunnels.

Northern – Burnley loops connected

The existing four city loop tunnels operate independently from each other. Rather than operating each group independently, this option would see trains running between North Melbourne and Richmond, either via Flinders Street (FSS) and Southern Cross (SXS), or via the Melbourne Underground Rail Loop (MURL). For this option, the following operations could be achieved:

• Sydenham to Glen Waverley / Alamein / Blackburn via FSS, SXS
• Craigieburn / Upfield to Belgrave / Lilydale via MURL

Operations would assume that layovers and crew changes would take place at suburban termini rather than at Flinders Street or Southern Cross.

By allowing Burnley and Northern trains travelling in the Melbourne Underground Rail Loop (MURL) to continue on to North Melbourne or Richmond respectively rather than looping around to Flinders Street, track and platform capacity at Southern Cross, Flinders Street and across the viaduct would be released. In association with discontinuing the practice of reversing trains at Flinders Street station, this would allow for direct services from each group to be linked.

The spare capacity at Flinders Street station could be used for services from Caulfield and Clifton Hill groups, and allow for network expansion.

The infrastructure works required to enable Northern-Burnley operations as shown include:

• new tunnel connection from the Burnley loop tunnel west of Flagstaff to the existing western loop portal south of North Melbourne;
• new tunnel connection from the Northern loop tunnel south of Parliament to a new portal situated in the Jolimont rail yards and connected to existing Burnley down track;
• new platform 7 at North Melbourne, forming an island platform with existing platform 6;
• track slewing on either side of North Melbourne to enable sectorisation of lines.

Passenger impacts would need to be carefully managed due to need to terminate Werribee/Williamstown trains at Southern Cross. Furthermore, this option does not offer new travel opportunities or CBD connectivity, and introduces some risk of overcrowding issues which would need special attention during the design of this option.

This option would allow the metropolitan rail network to transport around 114,000 passengers into the CBD in the morning peak hour.

And the concept was further refined in the 2012 PTV Network Development Plan.

The removal of loop operations on the Northern and Caulfield loops and the connection between specific lines on each side of the city will result in the creation of two new Cross-City lines, with capacity for an additional 30 trains per hour in the peak (Craigieburn – more than six trains per hour, Upfield and future Northern lines – more than 18 trains per hour and Burnley local lines – more than six trains per hour)

High level scope of works:

• New tunnel link between Flagstaff (Caulfield loop) and North Melbourne platform 2. This will enable trains from Craigieburn to run into the Caulfield loop to Flagstaff, then exit via the existing portal at Richmond platform 5 and continue on to Frankston via Parliament
• New tunnel link between Parliament (Northern loop) and Richmond platform 3. This will enable trains from Frankston to run into the Northern loop to Parliament, then exit via the existing western portal at North Melbourne on to Craigieburn via Flagstaff
• Enabling works for new tunnel link from City Circle loop to down Burnley Through line to facilitate through running from Clifton Hill Loop Line to Ringwood Loop Line for the purposes of stabling and maintenance
• New fly-over from the Upfield line onto the through suburban lines at North Melbourne (over other Northern Group tracks)
• Bi-directional signalling at North Melbourne platform 1 to enable operation of city-bound and outbound Seymour services to Southern Cross

The package of works identified for this period will provide the following benefits:

• Free up two viaduct tracks following removal of loop routing, effectively providing two new tracks through the city
• Provide greater capacity for growing passenger demand on Craigieburn and Upfield lines and all Burnley express and local lines
• Enhance service reliability through the full sectorisation of lines through the city and suburban sections
• Enable quicker travel times for outbound journeys on the Burnley express line through segregation from local stopping services
• Provide faster cross-town journeys by eliminating the need for passengers to backtrack or suffer layover time at Flinders Street
• Extend the network connectivity for Burnley local services by providing direct through services to Southern Cross and the west
• Facilitate easier cross-town travel through the city for all northern lines to employment, education and retail precincts clustered in the east
• Provide a better balance in passenger loadings on trains bound for either the underground city stations (Flagstaff, Melbourne Central and Parliament) or the surface stations (Southern Cross and Flinders Street), as opposed to the heavily loaded loop services and relatively lightly loaded direct services terminating at Flinders Street
• Simplify the rail network by providing direct access to and from all city stations at all times of the day, reducing current confusion and inconvenience associated with daytime loop reversals
• Increase efficiency of train movements through the city by removing loop services
• Reduce train congestion at Flinders Street by eliminating terminating and turnback manoeuvers for Burnley local services, thereby increasing train efficiency through reduced train fleet requirements
• Enable the rationalisation of track and removal of excess point work in the central area to reduce maintenance requirements
• Provide network capacity to enable new rail corridors to be built in future years to serve new developments in the northern outskirts as well as an express link to Melbourne Airport

Along with a clear visual showing how two small sections of tunnel result in such a large uplift in the overall passenger capacity.

Figure 16-3: Proposed reconfigured loop operation and train loadings – 2012 PTV Network Development Plan

While 2021 Infrastructure Victoria spoke of the best time to deliver the City Loop reconfiguration project – now.

The Melbourne Metro Tunnel will enable some new services on Craigieburn and Upfield lines, but these would reach capacity by the mid-2030s. If these new services were introduced without
reconfiguring the City Loop first, they would be heavily disrupted for long periods during the project’s construction, and affect many more passengers.

Reconfiguring the City Loop immediately after completing the Melbourne Metro Tunnel minimises disruptions to passengers, particularly as the realignment of the Cranbourne and Pakenham services through the Melbourne Metro Tunnel upon opening can leave one of the two loop tunnels affected by this project empty. The Victorian Government should start detailed design and planning quickly to identify critical works to undertake before the Melbourne Metro Tunnel is completed. This can avoid significant disruption to the network.

The window of opportunity to deliver the City Loop reconfiguration project will close as demand continues to increase, and the network may only temporarily have enough spare capacity to change train service patterns during construction to minimise passenger impacts.

The Victorian Government should complete a business case for the project within the next two years. Reconfiguring the City Loop would enable more frequent and reliable services by creating two high frequency separated lines connecting northern and south-eastern areas. The business case should consider timing, including starting the project immediately after the Melbourne Metro Tunnel is completed.

Footnote: passenger capacity at the stations themselves

Turns out running more trains isn’t the silver bullet to increasing the number of passengers able to travel – capacity on the escalators and through ticket gates at railway stations is another.

A problem also flagged in the 2012 PTV Network Development Plan:

16.8 City Loop station upgrades

Service frequencies through the City Loop stations will increase with the provision of high capacity signalling on the Clifton Hill Group and better utilisation of existing signalling systems on the other loops. Moreover, the connection of the Northern and Caulfield loops will result in a higher proportion of train loads alighting at the City Loop stations.

Preliminary investigations completed to date, utilising simulation software and focused on Parliament station at this stage, have indicated that some additional escalator capacity will be required as well as an enlargement of the forecourt areas and an increased number of barriers at the main entrances.

At this stage of the investigation, platform capacities do not appear to be an issue even though these are causing some concern at present. This is due to the fact that in future all trains through a given platform will be running to no more than two stopping patterns and destinations.

It is currently considered that additional escalator capacity can be provided by insertion of new escalators into the existing escalator banks. The extension of the forecourt areas is an at-surface construction issue that should not be overly complex.

Key benefits
• Ensure station access and platform capacity can support passenger movements at peak times
• Reduced congestion and therefore improved travel times at key CBD stations.

High level scope of works
• Install new escalators at City Loop stations
• Widen forecourt areas and install additional ticket barriers where necessary to improve throughput.

And which is being addressed at Melbourne Central station as part of the Metro Tunnel project, with two new escalators being installed between the concourse and platform 1/2 to cater for the increased number of interchange passengers once the adjacent State Library station opens.

Further reading

• 2012 PTV Network Development Plan
• 2008 East West Rail Link Analysis on Rail Capacity report
• Infrastructure Victoria Reconfiguring the City Loop
• “Why Melbourne’s outgrown the City Loop” at Melbourne on Transit
• “Melbourne’s City Loop – the work of the Devil” at Under The Clocks

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The story starts back in the 1990s, when the Western Ring Road was built. The first section of the freeway opened to traffic in 1992, with further sections being progressively opened to traffic, with the last section being completed in 1999. The majority of the road had two lanes in each direction.

The exception being a few short sections near interchanges, where three lanes were provided.

Widening of the road commenced in 2009 as part of a $2.25 billion dollar project, with three sections completed so far:

• Calder Freeway to Sydney Road, completed by the ‘Tulla Sydney Alliance’ in May 2013
• Western Highway to Sunshine Avenue, completed October 2013
• Edgars Road to Plenty Road, completed April 2014

These sections are now three to four lanes wide, leaving four sections of freeway in the pipeline for future upgrades:

• Sunshine Avenue to Calder Freeway
• Princes Highway to Western Highway
• Sydney Road to Edgar Road
• Plenty Road to Greensborough Highway

Money from the Commonwealth Government was allocated to widening the Sunshine Avenue to Calder Freeway segment in 2013, but in April 2014 the Abbott Government diverted the funding to the since-aborted East West Link project.

Federal government diverts ring road funding to East West Link
James Massola, Josh Gordon
April 28, 2014

State Transport Minister Terry Mulder and former federal transport minister Anthony Albanese last year promised that motorists travelling on the M80 Ring Road between Sunshine Avenue and Ballarat Road would enjoy a safer ride, with a third lane in each direction to improve traffic flows.

It followed an announcement in the 2013 federal budget setting aside an extra $525 million to complete the project, which was expected to cost $2.25 billion.

The ramifications of the decision to divert $500 million from the project into the second stage of the East West Link are unclear. A final section of the project, upgrading the Metropolitan Ring Road between Edgars Road and Plenty Road, was due to be completed by mid-2014.

So this leaves us in the state we are two – two lanes in each direction on the Western Ring Road between Sunshine Avenue to Calder Freeway, and Tony Abbott saying $1.5 billion in promised federal funding to Victoria is now in a “locked box“.

Some movement

I first started writing this post back a few months ago, but now it is out of date – on May 29 the Abbott Government announced that they would chip in $150 million towards the upgrade of the forgotten section of the Western Ring Road – matching the $150 million already committed by the State Government to widen the road to three lanes, as well as installing overhead variable speed limit signs.

Footnote

In 2001 transport and planning academic Paul Mees published the short paper The short term effects of Melbourne’s Western Ring Road, in which he analysed the claimed economic benefits delivered by the construction of the freeway.

Given the geography of the area, I can’t imagine getting around Melbourne’s west without the Ring Road, but I still wonder how long it will take until the road lobby calls out for yet more lanes to be added.

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Fast forward six months, and look at how the government’s priorities appear to have changed – the advertisement for Regional Rail Link has been replaced by one for the East West Link .

Government propaganda – it never stands still.

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Even the most simple minded freeway advocate would never write something so nonsensical, so I dug deeper into the linked article:

East West link: Coalition will replenish seductiveness from $1bn in early funding
May 27, 2014

The Abbott executive has signalled it’s going to get improved any passion warranted on a $1bn early cost it is creation to a Victorian govt for a 2d theatre of a East West couple project.

Labor lifted questions about a choice to offer a $1bn by regulating 30 June, as officials certified a Victorian executive used to be though to yield Infrastructure Australia with a full trade box and work used to be not as a outcome of start solely late 2015.

The East West couple is an 18km highway endeavour in Melbourne joining a eastern limited-access highway to a Western Ring highway.

The sovereign Coalition betrothed progressing than a choosing to make a grant $1.5bn to theatre one, however Tony Abbott introduced final month a sovereign supervision would flow an additional $1.5bn into theatre two.

No help there – the content is just as meaningless as the headline!

However on further investigation of the website that posted the article, I found an answer in the “For sale” listing by the previous owner:

Turns out the website isn’t a “real” news source – it is just a giant spam factory that takes real news articles from elsewhere, runs every second word through a thesaurus to make the content look unique, and then crams the page full of advertisements to make money from anyone who stumbles upon the website via Google.

That led me into the spammer filled side of the internet, where I found dozens of advertisements touting similar websites as the road to riches.

Some being more audacious with their spiel than others:

You Can Turn $19 Into Thousands with Your Own Automated News Websites Like Google or Yahoo News

Looking for a website that has good earning potential and can operate on it’s own because it’s 100% automated? Well, a News website like Google News, The Drudge Report or Bing News is what you need. These websites receive lots of traffic and earnings because they have news and content from all over the internet. You can literally go to one place and find everything you need.

DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY SUCCESSFUL NEWS WEBSITES ARE MAKING THESE DAYS?

YOU CAN TURN $19 INTO HUNDREDS OR EVEN THOUSANDS!

The news is updated all the time and you can have a website with a broad range of category news topics or a specific niche. Once the traffic starts coming to these types of websites, you are going to be amazed how fast it grows.

Unfortunately for anyone out there thinking you can make money by filling the internet with automatically generated news articles, the engineers at Google are a few steps ahead of you – they’ve updated Google Search to prevent such crap from ranking high in search engine results.

As for me, my route to riches is based on the Underpants Gnome business plan:

1. Spend ages writing about stuff
2. ?
3. Profit

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