Residents in the area served by Greensborough station have been receiving the ‘New Greensborough Station Precinct’ leaflet. There is some detail there, but not much more than the LXRP website. The map is a bit clearer because it’s large, but that visual clarity reveals no extra detail of the project. It seems that the electrical sub-station building has relocated from the roadside to an unidentified “station facilities” building between the car park and the tracks, and another unidentified structure is indicated in the car park entry opposite Pope Place. Bike hoops are indicated on the other side of the eastern-most entry where car parks exist currently. The southern drop-off zone will now be on Para Road, rather than the (undesignated) one in the curved car park away from the street, and a small one on the north side off Poulter Avenue. On which, I can see this is might be a disaster. There is room only for one car in the drop-off zone near Poulter Avenue which tells me that the planners have never seen the queue of cars dropping passengers there in the morning peak. The free-for-all will continue as it is; they’ve not resolved that problem. It could work as a one-way system, but the two arrows rather tend to suggest bio-directional.
Car parking seems to be greatly diminished; currently there are about 200 spots (WikiPedia states 212, probably taken from here) including the separate part up near the road bridge in Main Street. This will be reduced to 100. “Planning is underway for 100 car parking spaces at Greensborough…Sixty car parks will be impacted by the changes…” What on earth does “impacted” mean? Can’t they say lost, removed or even exterminated? The loss is significant. The great cause for rejoicing is that Watsonia will get more parking. The message is if you can’t find a park at Greensborough go up to the thieves paradise of Watsonia station car park. It eludes me how a loss of parking at Greensborough can be “offset” by an increased number at Watsonia. This bit of PR was written by an engineer not a train user. Car parking spots will be lost to provide for motor bike spaces, pushbike hoops, and drop-off zones and other construction needs. A new Parkiteer bike shelter will accommodate 26 bikes, which may or may not be the same size as now.
The approximately 50 car spots in the curved car park off Para Road are not marked on the new plan and presumably will be removed. There is no indication what use that road will have. Indeed, it doesn’t need to be there at all unless it’s a VicRoads or council property. Imaginative planners would have used that bit to locate the platforms closer to Para Road - or even build over it - to flatten the curve of the track but no, they’ve left it.
The main problem with the design is that the new station will be in the same footprint as the old, give or take. Platform 2 will be moved up to be almost opposite platform 1. This means that no attempt has been made to integrate the awful (absent?) bus connections in the area by improving station access to Main Street. Instead, “bus facilities around the station precinct will also be improved”, a statement which is meaningless in itself, but indicates that the stops will have some form up upgrade in the location they occupy currently. The disconnection and mess will continue.
In summary, the station building is being modernised and upgraded, but nothing more is being done to address the problems that exist now and will exist for another fifty years until the next refit. The little community consultation we enjoyed has been ignored. The LXRP had this plan all along. They just wanted to know what colour it should be. As the brochure says, the new station will meet modern design standards for accessibility and mobility, but it is still in the wrong position.
Car parking seems to be greatly diminished; currently there are about 200 spots (WikiPedia states 212, probably taken from here) including the separate part up near the road bridge in Main Street. This will be reduced to 100. “Planning is underway for 100 car parking spaces at Greensborough…Sixty car parks will be impacted by the changes…” What on earth does “impacted” mean? Can’t they say lost, removed or even exterminated? The loss is significant. The great cause for rejoicing is that Watsonia will get more parking. The message is if you can’t find a park at Greensborough go up to the thieves paradise of Watsonia station car park. It eludes me how a loss of parking at Greensborough can be “offset” by an increased number at Watsonia. This bit of PR was written by an engineer not a train user. Car parking spots will be lost to provide for motor bike spaces, pushbike hoops, and drop-off zones and other construction needs. A new Parkiteer bike shelter will accommodate 26 bikes, which may or may not be the same size as now.
The approximately 50 car spots in the curved car park off Para Road are not marked on the new plan and presumably will be removed. There is no indication what use that road will have. Indeed, it doesn’t need to be there at all unless it’s a VicRoads or council property. Imaginative planners would have used that bit to locate the platforms closer to Para Road - or even build over it - to flatten the curve of the track but no, they’ve left it.
The main problem with the design is that the new station will be in the same footprint as the old, give or take. Platform 2 will be moved up to be almost opposite platform 1. This means that no attempt has been made to integrate the awful (absent?) bus connections in the area by improving station access to Main Street. Instead, “bus facilities around the station precinct will also be improved”, a statement which is meaningless in itself, but indicates that the stops will have some form up upgrade in the location they occupy currently. The disconnection and mess will continue.
In summary, the station building is being modernised and upgraded, but nothing more is being done to address the problems that exist now and will exist for another fifty years until the next refit. The little community consultation we enjoyed has been ignored. The LXRP had this plan all along. They just wanted to know what colour it should be. As the brochure says, the new station will meet modern design standards for accessibility and mobility, but it is still in the wrong position.
.