Tara Murray
Sunshine station will double in size and become a “key transport interchange” under plans for Melbourne’s airport rail link, according to Rail Projects Victoria.
Plans for the airport rail project have angered Brimbank council, which envisaged the station precinct being transformed into a super hub that would attract businesses and tourists to Sunshine.
With the next round of engagement set to be released this week, Rail Projects Victoria’s Melbourne Airport Rail project director Ben Ryan and Department of Transport head of transport services Nick Foa sat down with Star Weekly to talk about the project.
Mr Ryan said there had been a lot of interest in the super hub and what it would contain. He described the airport rail development as a game-changer for the area.
“What we define the transport super hub as and what Sunshine becomes over time is a key transport interchange between regional trains and metropolitan trains and other modes of transport,” he said.
“It was always anticipated that it would be a transport super hub that enables those connections between different modes of transport and the regions.
“If you go back to when some of these big announcements were made back in 2018… references to Southern Cross were all in the context of a region to metropolitan connection. It becomes a transport super hub and then grows over time.”
Mr Ryan said Sunshine station would effectively double in size as part of the project, which will include a second concourse and better integration of the station with the remaining precinct.
In much welcome news for the council and residents, there will be urban renewal projects in the surrounding precinct.
A community reference group will be established to increase the engagement between the Department of Transport and local stakeholders.
Mr Foa, who was formerly Brimbank council chief executive, said Rail Projects Victoria wanted to open up important conversations.
“In terms of the transformative nature of the transport super hub that is coming to Sunshine, it’s been the long held vision of the council and the community,” he said.
“The transport super hub needs to be located in a place that is really attractive.
“It’s really important to have that two-way conversation and we’re hoping it will include local residents, local businesses and the council.
“It’s about having a much broader conversation about things that are beyond the project remit, that might be pedestrian connections, urban design, activation of community spaces, which are really important things.
“We would love to see the visions of local communities and business and council realised through a really good precinct project.”
One of the major concerns for residents is the Albion Flyover, with locals calling for that to be rethought.
Mr Ryan revealed Rail Projects Victoria had considered three different route options before settling on the Albion flyover.
He said one of the main reasons they ruled out an underground option was due to a jet fuel line that supplied most of the fuel to the airport.
“Moving that fuel line is very time intensive and takes a very long time to seek the approvals and is a very disruptive process,” he said.
“To achieve a rail under solution you need to remove that fuel line so that it wipes out the solution immediately.”
He said the third solution – at-grade tracks – would have taken a lot longer to build, cause more disruptions to road and rail users, take more space on the ground plains and cost millions more to build.
As part of the scope of works there will be some upgrades to Albion station and the surrounding areas, but not overall station upgrade.
Among works is upgrades to the carpark along with new bike infrastructure.
“The airport rail train was never intended to stop there,” he said.
“There will be some minor upgrades to the station, because some of it is in pretty poor condition,” he said.
“We are doing shared user paths, connections for the part of the bicycle network which are missing, a lot of landscaping and greening up of the area.
“Then on the west side, the side that abuts the flower mill … We want to activate that strip of land so when the development occurs it’s not just an island in its own little area.”
Mr Foa and Mr Ryan said there had been a lot of discussions with key stakeholders, including Brimbank council
“We’ve been working really closely with Brimbank council for some time now, we look forward to continuing working with them,” said Mr Ryan.
“They’ve got a really clear vision for their precinct… From our perspective we want to not only work with them on airport rail, but on the precinct planning.”
The next phase of community consultation is set to start this week and will be based around a number of different scope elements between Sunshine and the M80 Western Ring Road.
Some of the proposed works around the super hub will be part of the engagement.
