Article text (via 12ft.io):

‘Ridiculous in a city this size’: The push to unclog Melbourne’s most infuriating train line

Patrick Hatch August 7, 2024 — 5.00am

Melbourne’s least reliable train line shows no signs of improving under the $12.6 billion Metro Tunnel project, due to the continued refusal of governments to fix a bottleneck that has caused years of commuter angst, critics say.

On the Upfield line, which runs through the city’s northern suburbs, passengers face waits of between 15 and 20 minutes during morning and afternoon peak periods and up to 30 minutes in the evening – the longest waiting times of any major Metro line.

Commuters on the Mernda, Sandringham and Glen Waverley lines wait less than 10 minutes between trains in peak hour, while Frankston trains run every 10 minutes all day on weekdays.

Now, seven local councils representing Melbourne’s northern suburbs are joining forces to call on the state and federal governments to duplicate a section of single track between Gowrie and Upfield that limits how often trains can operate.

Banyule Mayor Tom Melican, who chairs the council alliance, said that Melbourne’s northern suburbs desperately needed more public transport, with the population expected to grow by 500,000 to 1.5 million by 2036.

“At current car ownership rates, that’s about another 400,000 cars in Melbourne’s north,” Melican said. “Our roads are already very congested. But the problem is … the majority of people have no access to decent public transport and their only alternative is to drive.”

Infrequent and unreliable Upfield trains were among the reasons Amanda Olle decided to move last year from Fawkner to Brunswick. Olle still occasionally catches Upfield trains from Brunswick but prefers to use the more regular No. 19 and No. 58 trams.

“It was only three services per hour to the city, which is ridiculous in a city this size,” she said of the trains. “And if you were late or a train was cancelled, it was a big chunk of time and it’d make you late for work.”

The Allan government is promising significant improvements in train services across the network when the Metro Tunnel opens next year. The new cross-city tunnel will remove Sunbury trains from the City Loop, opening up capacity for more frequent Upfield and Craigieburn services.

But Rail Futures Institute president John Hearsch said the Upfield timetable would be limited to trains running every 15 minutes at best until the section of single track was dealt with – either by duplicating it, building a “turn back” at Gowrie or a second platform at Upfield.

“You can’t use the capacity increase that the Metro Tunnel generates in the City Loop to its full potential until some of these changes are made,” he said.

Hearsch said that outside peak periods, there was no reason the Department of Transport and Planning could not improve services from their current 20 and 30-minute frequencies immediately.

The local councils – Banyule, Darebin, Hume, Merri-bek, Nillumbik, Whittlesea and Mitchell Shire – are also pushing the state government to implement long-held plans to extend the Upfield line to Roxburgh Park – to connect it to the Craigieburn line.

That would enable the extension of electric Metro services to Wallan and greenfield growth suburbs such as Donnybrook and Kalkallo – currently served only by V/Line trains – and allow for the building of new stations at Beveridge and Cloverton.

Mitchell Shire acting Mayor Nathan Clark said delivering Metro services to Wallan and a building new station at Beveridge were essential in light of the state government setting a target for the council area to grow from 21,800 homes today to almost 90,000 by 2051.

“We’re all ready to go – all we need now is the state government to come along and pick up the work that’s needed,” Clark said.

An Allan government spokesperson said opening the Metro Tunnel would improve reliability on the Upfield line and was a first step towards introducing more frequent trains.

“We’ve removed five level crossings on the Upfield line with another eight to go, while adding more than 50 weekly services,” the spokesperson said.