COMMUTERS will face some early new year travel pain on the Frankston line while work is undertaken around Caulfield Junction to ensure new High Capacity Metro Trains can run through the junction.
Power to the rail line between Moorabbin and Flinders St on the Frankston line will be switched off from 2 January until 9 January and buses will shuttle passengers to stations to and from Moorabbin between the station and Melbourne station.
“I thank passengers for their patience as we get these works done – to run bigger trains, more often, every day on a modern network,” Victorian Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan said in a statement.
People travelling to Melbourne during the works are advised to allow an extra 40-75 minutes depending on journey distance to arrive at a destination.
Frankston line passengers will unfortunately not benefit from the new High Capacity Metro Trains in the short term, due to first run on the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines from mid-2019.
The new trains can carry 20 per cent more passengers than existing Metro Trains. The High Capacity Metro Trains are being built under a public-private partnership between the Labor state government and the Evolution Rail consortium.
The consortium includes the Downer Group, CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles and the Plenary Group.
Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen wrote on his personal blog that it is unfortunate that authorities including Public Transport Victoria do not give more than a couple of weeks’ notice about line closures so city workers can plan to take leave or work from home instead of travelling on buses.
“Trust me when I say that as a Frankston passenger, this is not going to be fun,” he wrote.
“Some of these projects are years in planning. It beats me why authorities don’t flag them further in advance more than a couple of weeks.”
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 13 December 2017
