The Ballarat Line Upgrade is about to clock up one million hours of work as construction on the project heads towards completion by the end of the year – enabling more frequent and reliable services for passengers.
Premier Daniel Andrews today joined Member for Melton Steve McGhie to inspect progress on the new Cobblebank Station, which will provide a vital transport link for families making this suburb home, where the population is expected to eventually reach 55,000.
The station is being built as part of the half-a-billion-dollar Ballarat Line Upgrade and will have two platforms, a car park and a station building with a waiting area. It will also feature an accessible pedestrian overpass, with lifts, ramps and stairs to ensure people of all abilities can move easily around the station.
Plans for Cobblebank Station also include future-proofing to allow for more tracks to be built through the station as part of future rail upgrades.
Planning and design work has already begun for the Labor Government’s Western Rail Plan, to deliver two new electrified metro lines to Melton and Wyndham Vale, and upgrade the Geelong and Ballarat lines to deliver fast rail to the regions.
Track duplication, station upgrades and passing loops as part of the Ballarat Line Upgrade are taking shape, with construction to be completed by the end of the year. The improvements will boost reliability and enable more frequent services in the peak and trains every 40 minutes off-peak for growing communities along the line.
The project will reach one million hours of work in early July and crews have so far laid 26 kilometres of track, 40,000 concrete sleepers and 100,000 tonnes of ballast over a work area stretching more than 100 kilometres.
Coaches will replace trains on the Ballarat line for two weeks from Monday to allow a 400-strong work crew to undertake critical construction around the clock.
Train services will resume on the Ballarat line from Monday 8 July. However, trains will not pick up or drop off passengers at Rockbank Station until late August while the station’s two platforms are demolished and rebuilt.
As noted by Premier Daniel Andrews
“Cobblebank Station will connect this growing community to the train network for the first time.”
“The Ballarat Line Upgrade is the first step of our Western Rail Plan – to deliver more trains, more often to Melbourne’s west and our growing regional centres.”
As noted by Member for Melton Steve McGhie
“This new station will make a real difference for the local community – better connecting them to work, education and other essential services, and getting them home sooner.”