Man, this thread is awesome, even if I do say so myself.
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Ha, I never knew that, hence the Rosetown hotel on koornang Rd.
How the hell do you know any of this? Or are you googling on the fly.
That may be why it is, like W1 said, an arc and not a ring.
Haha I just love useless facts.
The interest in this was sparked when we bought a house in a Carnegie in 2014. One day I found some historical books at a school fete which were on the history of the Caulfield. Haven’t read them all but read up on William Murray. Also I have read the history of the Carnegie Cricket Club (as a past player) and gave some background on the area’s history.
Also to complete the arch back to infrastructure there is a cafe* opposite the newly done Carnegie Station call the William Murray Tavern. So I compared notes on the man with the guys who set up the cafe. There were always heaps of workers from the sky rail project getting there coffees from there.
In the whole trench/tunnel/skyrail debate I was actually all for skyrail over trench, with tunnel my number preference. My justification is that the skyrail connects both sides of tracks back together whereas the trench would have continued to divide. I haven’t actually been back since it was finished, but all our friends love it - even the ones within 6 or so houses of the rail line. The apartments peering into their back yards are a greater concern!
*I’m assuming the cafe is still going since we left Carnegie last November.
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Yep.
The outer circle is still visible in some places around Camberwell/Cantebeury.
Used to walk part of it to get to school from East Camberwell station.
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For me it’s delivering on 2 levels - one giving an opinion on how Melbourne’s transport should be and two allowing me to share my otherwise fairly useless historic facts about Melbourne’s history.
Which reminds we I did do a subject in Year 10 called Melbourne history. Best thing about that was we spent a term on AFL given it was the centennial season.
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Personally, I lived in Carnegie and Ormond for 25 years. Regularly my walking routes would takeon parts of the Rosstown Rail Trail.
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The real problem is that the key years when infratsructure should have been provided - the '50s, 60s and 70s- the Libs were in charge and they just did not want to spend money on stuff like that. In fact they would rather rip it up, like the Whittlesea train line (now restored in part to South Morang).
Hamer’s govt announced big plans for development through that corridor but did not spend anything at all about installing appropriate infrastructure in terms of public transport and roads.
When I was a kid in the 60s we lived out beyond Bundoora, and my Dad said soon there would be a tram line out there. Well of course the Libs were not going to do that, and it wasn’t until the Cain government in the '80s that it was delivered.
Look at the Northern suburbs and it is still essentially based on the droving trails of the 19th century. (My grandmother told me she used to see cattle being driven (i.e. walked) along ST George’s Rd Northcote).
So basically Melbourne’s liveability has been due to the forward planning of Hoddle and others pre-WW2, and infrastructure by Labor govt of the last 30 years.
If we are looking at doubling the population in the next 30 years (which I shudder at the thought) then not doing appropriate planning like installing infrastructure like this is an awful dereliction of duty. Just like the lazy Libs in the '60s and '70s.
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Matthew Guy: dereliction of duty, you say? Well, I’m just the man for that.
Yep, but he would have lots of competition in his party for that job.
When you leave in the western suburbs you get an overpass for the cars to go over the train, or the train goes under ground. come @ me murrumbeena richboiz
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pretty self evident why you’ll never have a ring train (or road) around Melbourne?
Yep, that @wimmera1 nailed it.
Otherwise, could have been a good tourist attraction having a bridge/train ride across the bay. (Which is feasible - China has done it for Hong Kong to Guangzhou but I am doubting Australian govt would spend that kind of money).
Interesting, I’m lead to believe Matthew guy grew up around the Carnegie/east Malvern area too and went to my old primary school (which was recently closed)
Nice slip of the tongue there.
You live in the western suburbs but you really want to leave.
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the ring road makes me want to drive into the sunshine avenue bridge.
make of that what you will.
I agree with you. This announcement is all about Melbourne Metro. The road to Colac is now double lane divided highway all the way. At who knows what cost. In the meantime it’s single rail line all the way. Ridiculous.
Without going into endless detail (hard to keep up with what is public info and what is not) I’ll give an example.
Currently someone walking along Buckley Street (THE east-west spine of Moonee Valley) can cross the railway line at grade on the southern side of the street. There are automated gates to protect those pedestrians from any train that comes along. After the road goes under the rail this pedestrian passage is being removed (note that the remaining service roads remain at the same level as the railway, so there’s no physical reason for the removal). Pedestrians will be forced to use stairs and a narrow underpass with lack of clear sightlines through it OR take a multi-hundred metre detour to find a safe/perceived safe passage without stairs.
The bizarre thing is that there is an un-controlled pedestrian crossing of the railway line between Essendon and Moonee Ponds. So the removal of the existing direct convenient safe pedestrian crossing is because…?
There are lots of other things that are a step backwards (e.g. road-under-rail likely prevents Park Street and Puckle Street ever being treated in the future; the former is a relatively minor crossing despite the three private schools immediately west of it, but fixing the second would be a huge boost). Note that as part of Metro improvements extra trains will run CBD-Essendon, not just CBD-Broadmeadows, so those two crossings are going to get much more congested in the future.
There have been various minor improvements on the original plans, but a lot of it is simply unfixable due to the geometry and space available.
The cynical might conclude that this was chosen because it’s the cheap option that could be completed before this year’s election.
My daughter came home from school the other day and told me Lords reserve ( Carnegie cricket club, Carnegie pool, soccer fields ) was originally going to be Melbourne’s airport. Until Essendon airport beat them too it.
There’s another useless fact for you.
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