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    • kitchgp posted
    Posted in Melbourne suburban » Rail link to Doncaster

    It seems very doubtful there will be any room left for a rail line after the project is complete.

    This description of the busway implies the median strip has been retained for a rail line:
    Starting at Doncaster Park and Ride, the busway would:

    • Run in dedicated lanes on the northern side of the Eastern Freeway towards the city
    • Connect with a proposed new Park and Ride next to Bulleen Road to improve local access to fast, reliable bus services. Local services would also be able to get on and off the busway at Thompsons Road
    • At Chandler Highway, the busway would split and run on the outside edges of the Eastern Freeway to connect into the existing bus lanes on Hoddle Street.
    https://northeastlink.vic.gov.au/project/doncaster-busway


    However if you look at the ‘Early Design Schematics  and Artist Impressions’ for the NE Link the schematic on Page 3 shows a median strip west of Bulleen Road whereas the artist impression on Page 40 doesn’t show a median strip east of Chandler Highway.
    https://northeastlink.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/328465/EarlyDesignSchematicsAndArtistImpressions-Sept-2018.pdf

    The width of the lanes in the busway will probably need to be wider than normal as the buses will have a closing speed of 200 km/h and there will need to be space to accommodate breakdowns. As it is at the moment the median strip only runs as far as Bulleen Road anyway, so a rail line would require a far bit of tunnelling and land acquisition no matter what happens.

    Edit history

    Edited 09 Feb 2019 13:47, 2 years ago, edited by kitchgp

    It seems very doubtful there will be any room left for a rail line after the project is complete.

    This description of the busway implies the median strip has been retained for a rail line:
    Starting at Doncaster Park and Ride, the busway would:

    • Run in dedicated lanes on the northern side of the Eastern Freeway towards the city
    • Connect with a proposed new Park and Ride next to Bulleen Road to improve local access to fast, reliable bus services. Local services would also be able to get on and off the busway at Thompsons Road
    • At Chandler Highway, the busway would split and run on the outside edges of the Eastern Freeway to connect into the existing bus lanes on Hoddle Street.
    https://northeastlink.vic.gov.au/project/doncaster-busway

    However if you look at the ‘Early Design Schematics  and Artist Impressions’ for the NE Link the schematic on Page 3 shows a median strip west of Bulleen Road whereas the artist impression on Page 40 doesn’t show a median strip east of Chandler Highway.
    https://northeastlink.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/328465/EarlyDesignSchematicsAndArtistImpressions-Sept-2018.pdf

    The width of the lanes in the busway will probably need to be wider than normal as the buses will have a closing speed of 200 km/h and there will need to be space to accommodate breakdowns. As it is at the moment the median strip only runs as far as Bulleen Road anyway, so a rail line would require a far bit of tunnelling and land acquisition no matter what happens.