Over the weekend a year blog post of mine got a mention in the Herald Sun – the subject being the new railway station at Deer Park and the platforms not quite long enough to fit a nine car V/Line train.
The story starts
Opposition transport spokesman and part time gunzel Matthew Guy kicked off the topic with a video posted to Instagram, detailing how the newly built platforms at Deer Park station were 10 metres short of a nine car VLocity train.
Liberal Party HQ also sending a media drop over to the Herald Sun, who published it on Sunday 18 August.
As well as a comment from the opposition transport spokesman who tipped the newspaper off to the topic.
To add to the confusion and frustration, a Freedom of In-formation request by the opposition seeking documents on the nine-car train plan was refused due to the fact it was an “unfunded future project”. The nine-carriage trains, which come in sets of three carriages, are 225m long, and Sunshine station was recently upgraded from 190m to 225m to allow them to stop there. But Deer Park station, re-built during the $234m Mt Derrimut level crossing removal, is only 215m.
Look at who else got a mention.
The oversight was spotted on rail documents by self-described “train nut” Marcus Wong, who described it on his transport blog as a “comedy of errors”.
The blog post in question being my piece “First day at the new Deer Park station” from May 2023.
Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight also drew the short platform in cartoon form for Tuesday 20 August edition.
On the ground at Deer Park
The new platforms at Deer Park are longer than a 6-car VLocity train, with plenty of empty platform beyond the back of the train.
But it turns out they aren’t actually long enough for the 9-car trains currently used on services to Wyndham Vale to stop at.
The new platforms are only 215 metres long – half a carriage (10 metres) too short!
So why can’t they be longer?
The western end of Deer Park station is located hard up against a brand new townhouse development.
The townhouses almost touching the retaining wall that supports the tracks.
So there is no room for the platforms to be any longer at that end.
But what about the city end?
Here the platforms end right where the reinforced earth embankment that the station is built atop also end.
The tracks transitioning to the precast concrete u-trough viaduct.
So why didn’t they make the viaduct a little bit shorter, so that the platform could be made a little big longer?
Personally I don’t know – possibly if they made the viaduct one span shorter, the bus interchange wouldn’t be long enough for the “one stop per bus route, no matter how infrequently it runs” rule PTV follows.
Or the longer station would have taken up space for car parking down at ground level, and “no net loss of car parking” is the one rule that level crossing removals always follow.
Footnote: the other Deer Park platform problem
The new platform at Deer Park was also built to a new platform height standard, which isn’t compatible with V/Line’s Sprinter trains.
OPERATING RESTRICTION – DEER PARK STATION
SPRINTER RAILCARSUpon advice from V/Line Network Engineering, Sprinter Railcars will NOT be permitted to stop at Deer Park Station at KP 17.943.
Any Sprinter Railcars travelling towards/from Wyndham Vale and Geelong or Melton and Bacchus Marsh will be required to run express through Deer Park Station.
The Operating Restriction will apply until further advised due to clearance issues between the Sprinter Railcar and the new Platform when the doors are in the Open position.
You can read about that saga here.
Everyone who lives on that train line hates living on that train line. The service is terrible. Frequent bus replacements and multiple express patterns.
The only timetable with a worse mix of stopping patterns is the Belgrave/Lilydale line.
https://danielbowen.com/2024/04/13/stopping-patterns/
Through between December 2020 and January 2024 V/Line ran a six times daily unidirectional shuttle bus between Caroline Springs / Deer Park because the timetable made such a trip impossible by train.
https://railgallery.wongm.com/kinetic-vline-shuttle/
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the Liberals want East West Link (which didn’t have a business case), which would’ve added more traffic? And didn’t they propose a rail project that was unfunded? And didn’t they try to cancel Caroline Springs Station? People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones Matthew Guy. All these problems that the Liberals wanted to impose, and yet the Herald Sun talks about platforms that are 10 metres too short.
But on the other hand, this is what we tend to get in Melbourne’s west because we are told to be more interested in the latest AFL news or watch some crap like The Voice or The Block, while the rich in places like Toorak or Camberwell are told to be more interested in politics. That is why places like Toorak or Camberwell get something that works, while those in the west (such as this correspondent) gets dodgy. I think it is high time that people in Melbourne’s west follows politics more. But unfortunately, we won’t get it in the Liberal Party front that is the Herald Sun.
The incoming Baillieu government paused work on Caroline Springs station because the “New stations in growth areas” project ran out of money, having to upgrade traction substations at Cardinia Road and Lynbrook so trains could actually stop there in peak times.
https://wongm.com/2013/08/caroline-springs-railway-station-saga/
Great post, when I read your previous post about the Deer Park station I thought (or hoped) that the reason for the short platform might be because they were only considering HCMTs after electrification rather than plain incompetence.
A 7-car HCMT only needs a 160 metre long platform, so they would have gotten away with it!
There are examples where V/Locity trains stop at platforms which are too short. The 12:58 Up from Shepparton stops at Heathcote Junction, the only weekday Up Shep that does. The Up platform is just some 45m long. The conductor usually advises passengers to only alight from the leading car. Same occurs when an Up Seymour is formed by a VL. Only problem is for Sprinter trains which you need to be in the first car before you get there to alight.
Similarly, a double VL set is too long for some platforms between Pakenham & Longwarry, with announcements made not to alight from the last car.
Same at Malmesbury and at Clarkefield. But these are historic limitations (ie the platforms stayed the same length and the trains got longer). It is reasonable to grandfather in the existing short platforms.
However this is a new build. Where did the problem come from? Poor contract management? Poor oversight? Just plain complete incompetence? Maybe all of the above.
[…] But look at what else was happening at the same time – a brand new station at Deer Park was opened in April 2023, with platforms only 215 metres long – half a carriage (10 metres) too short! […]