Goya Dmytryshchak
Hobsons Bay council is lobbying the state government for new train stations to service the areas of Altona North, Newport west and Brooklyn.
Altona North’s population is set to boom with the development of the former Don Smallgoods site, known as Precinct 15.
The precinct, which is half the size of Melbourne’s CBD, is being developed in to 3000 dwellings for about 7000 people.
Deputy mayor Daria Kellander moved a motion at last week’s council meeting that the council campaign for a new passenger train link on the existing freight train line from Sunshine to Newport, with a new train station to be built in the vicinity of Altona North/Brooklyn.
“Residents in Brooklyn at the moment need to drive further out to stations such as Tottenham, West Footscray, Yarraville, Spotswood or Newport in order to access any type of train commuter network,” she said.
A station in this vicinity could also serve future residents of the Bradmill site on the northern side of the West Gate Freeway at Yarraville.
Cr Tony Briffa said the former Paisley station, near the Millers Junction shopping centre at Altona North, could also be reinstated. The station closed in 1985.
Cr Briffa moved a motion that the council work with the Altona, Seaholme, Altona North, Brooklyn and Newport west communities on a public campaign to advocate for the reinstatement of a train station in Altona North or Newport west on the Werribee line.
“”It would serve the Altona North Millers Junction very well if it was in the Altona North area, particularly if it was near where Paisley station was,” she said.
“With Precinct 15 and the addition of 7000 residents – my god – the impact of the West Gate Tunnel and the impact of that on our local roads, it makes sense to increase capacity of trains/public transport in that area.
“The train line already goes there – the Werribee line – so this is not a big infrastructure spend/build by the state government.”
