By Shelby Brooks
A two kilometre rail spur from the proposed Pakenham East train station is being hailed a good solution by some residents on Ryan Road and Pinehill Drive.
In February, residents bordering the Pakenham East mega development found out their homes would be compulsory acquired by the State Government in order to extend the metropolitan train line and build a brand new Pakenham East train station.
The site of the station has been identified between Deep Creek and the Princes Freeway, just north of Sharnet Circuit, falling outside the Pakenham East Precinct Structure Plan (PSP).
The Victorian Transport Action Group (VTAG), an independent forum of transport professionals, recommends a two kilometre spur line be built into the town centre of Pakenham East from the proposed station, to keep the community connected.
“Under the proposed location west of Ryan Road, the station will not be viable for passengers and is bound to fail,” the VTAG report reads.
“This station has not been designed to be convenient for passengers and its location is hard to get to with the only access from the end of Ryan Road.”
The Pakenham East station is proposed to be built in a “low density residential area,” rather than within the town centre, VTAG said.
“Melbourne needs to avoid yet another isolated new suburb, lacking rail access and suffering all the problems of past urban sprawl suburbs,” VTAG said.
“There is a chance to get this right by correcting this obvious omission and planning an effective spur line to drive faster development of this new community.”
VTAG secretary Mike Reece said the group saw themselves as advocates for excellence in transport planning.
“Pakenham East first came on the agenda at the beginning of the year,” he said.
“We appreciate there is concern from people living in that area.
“We take a pragmatic approach. It seems quite inevitable (the train station) will go ahead there so that’s why our solution was to build a spur line, or plan to, at a later stage.”
Pakenham East resident Genevieve Shallard said that although most residents would prefer the station didn’t go ahead in the proposed location at all, the VTAG report with the suggested spur line, “looks great”.
“The spur is a good idea,” she said.
“It was our understanding that the Government wanted to avoid backup with the V/Line train line so a spur line on a different track to the V/Line would help avoid the problem.”
Fellow concerned Pakenham resident Gloria O’Connor said the spur line would make public transport “convenient for everyone” by allowing access to the train from the town centre.
“The Pakenham East station will be very close to the current Pakenham Station, it just doesn’t seem like a very clever plan,” Ms O’Connor said.
Bass MP Jordan Crugnale said she passed on VTAG’s report to the Minister’s office for advice and consideration.
“I am absolutely open to other additional solutions, understanding though that the advice that has come from technical experts is that the station needs to be on a straight section of track to comply with network safety standards and has to be located on the main line to support the complex operating environment of both Metro and V/Line train signalling and infrastructure,” she said.
