Duplicate the Upfield line now! says Upfield Transport Alliance – part of the inaugural Transport Equity Week.
EVENT: Tuesday 19 September at 11am – Gowrie Station
Media Release September, 2023
On Tuesday 19 September at 11am, Upfield Transport Alliance is planning a Community Action at Gowrie Station as part of Australia’s inaugural Transport Equity Week.
The Upfield Transport Alliance, alongside fed up and angry residents from the Upfield train line, will be demanding answers from the Andrews Government on the sad state of affairs that is train travel in the north.
Ben Carroll MP Minister for has been invited to address the residents and explain why the Upfield line has the worst train service in Melbourne (one train every 20 minutes) and why there are no plans to solve the issue.
Residents are demanding the track at the end of the line be duplicated when the line is closed for the second lot of level crossing removals from Jewell Station to the existing skyrail at Moreland station, which will allow trains to pass each other and more timetabled services.
The Upfield line has been closed once already for level crossing removals which was the perfect moment to duplicate the upper section of the track from Gowrie Station to Upfield Station, but nothing was done.
Services on this line are often subject to delays and cancellations and trains between Gowrie and Upfield are infrequent and often run 40 minutes apart due to the single track and disruptions.
But the single biggest issue on the line isn’t infrequent trains but train cancellations.
As soon as a train is running six minutes late, it turns around at Coburg Station (Bell Street) which means a cancellation for every station north of Bell Street and people waiting 40 minutes for a train at peak hour.
The impacts of this are extreme for people who live north of where the Sydney Road tram line terminates – Fawkner, Merlynston, the eastern side of Glenroy, Campbellfield, Somerton and Upfield who don’t have access to any alternative public transport route to the city.
The suburbs along this line are some of the fastest growing in Melbourne, yet the state Labor government has refused to invest in the infrastructure required to meet the community’s growing needs.
The government has said that the new Metro tunnel will allow more services but has not committed to delivering them and plans have indicated more frequent services will only operate as far as Coburg Station (Bell Street) leaving the public transport poor northern suburbs more disadvantaged.
With massive housing developments happening, especially in Brunswick and Coburg and adjacent to the train line and as the Northern growth corridor expands there is an overwhelming need more public transport to meet growth and increased demand.
The Upfield Transport Alliance is calling for:
- Duplication of track from Gowrie to Upfield
- Extension of the Upfield line to Craigieburn & Wallan
- Rebuilding Campbellfield station at Camp Road
- All buses to run from the first train to the last train
- Extend the Upfield bike path to Upfield
As Australian cities get more and more clogged by cars, local councils and all levels of governments are calling on people to shift out of cars to alternative transport. The problem is that there is no systematic attempt by any level of government to develop a public transport system that is extensive enough to provide a real option for people to give up their cars.
For more information please visit: https://upfieldtransportalliance.org/
Transport Equity Week is organised by FoE Melbourne’s Sustainable Cities collective and is a national week of action to elevate the voices of those facing transport disadvantage and communicate these stories to the general public, to demand action from local, state and federal governments to improve transport equity in people’s lives.
More information at – https://www.melbournefoe.org.au/transport_equity_week_blog
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Other Transport Equity Week events: https://transportequity.org.au/getinvolved/
Upgrade Upfield Line 