I'm so pleased that you know what is in the MARL business case. It's supposed to be a secret.BACK ON TOPIC I HOPE @potatoinmymouth I had time to reflect on your description of the overcrowding for the the west, and your advocacy of MM2 to solve it. A lot of other things are currently in the melting pot and pie in the sky. When I said there are already 2 line for Werribee, you could expand that to 4 if you consider the whole area as a generic whole. Werribee to City Altona Loop to City Wyndham Vale to City Williamstown to City they sure all get squeezed together at Newport(3) then Footscray(4). Then off to SCS and/or City Loop competing for space. Not going to get any more TPH with the existing setup. I'm just not convinced that MM2 is the only answer. As we speak, MM1 is happening. That will remove all of the Dandenong and Sunbury traffic from the City Loop, add back a bit (but not all) for Frankston. The unanswered piece of the puzzle is "what will share the MM1 with Sunbury?". We have contenders MARL Wyndham Vale Melton shock horror! Werribee/Albion/Williamstown - all or some of them. It doesn't really matter which, the point being whichever is chosen eases off the pressure on the other lines and the City Loop. All will be revealed, we hope, with the SRL Business Case. It seems likely that an Airport link tunnel will swallow up 2 (if not 3) of the lines from the west. SCS managers are keen to get as many SHOPPERS (aka passengers) to visit as possible. This leaves Werribee et al in a better position to utilize either City Loop, and some of the paths from Footscray UP. or MM1, bigger trains, and turn back (at Hawksburn ??) Remaining a "minor" squeeze point Newport to Footscray, maybe a 3rd/4th track to enable a lot more express and TPH. There is room. I know I have just crossed over to the dark side of foam. Be kind. cheers John
MM1 will have Sunbury and Metro running through it. Wyndham Vale will run via the Regional Rail Link tracks. Airport Rail, Geelong and Ballarat run via the MARL tracks
MM2 will improve services for Williamstown/Altona while massively improving the Werribee Line Service. Extension to Blackforest Rd/West Werribee will also benefit Werribee passengers.
Quadruplication Footscray to Newport isn’t a better alternative than MM2 because then you have a squeeze at Footscray. MM2 also improves travel times and makes it better to travel with train than over the West Gate fwy
Of course Sunbury and some other Metro will go though MM1.
The point being Airport Rail, Wyndham Vale, Melton, Werribee and Altona will ALL be Metro sparks.
But RRL has no sparks , and probably never will have.
Many choices, and no answers yet. So we build MM2 on assumption and ignorance ?
PS: For those that haven't noticed or forgot. The Geelong/Warrnambool Region trains no longer use the Footscray/Newport/Werribee tracks. Giving capacity back to Metro.
cheers
John