A frustrated Caroline Springs commuter has welcomed calls for the suburb’s stalled railway station to be completed.
State Transport Minister Terry Mulder shelved plans for the station in May 2011 after preliminary work at the south end of Christies Road had begun in late 2010.
The station was to include a bus stop, taxi rank and pedestrian and bicycle paths.
Last week, federal Gorton MP Brendan O’Connor said it was time Caroline Springs’ 100-metre “road to nowhere” had a station built at the end of it.
“Caroline Springs is one of the fastest- growing communities in Australia yet is a community with some of the worst access to public transport in Melbourne,” he said.
Caroline Springs commuter Simon Beach said that with more than 24,000 residents in the area, a railway station was needed desperately.
“Proof of that is watching the congested traffic stream out every morning and back in every night,” he said. “Caroline Springs station needs to be built as a priority … it should have been built a decade ago.’’
Mr Beach said building the station would reduce congestion and pollution and provide residents with a real transport alternative.
“Why have there been in-fill stations built on other lines like Williams Landing, where stations are already within two kilometres, when a major suburb like Caroline Springs doesn’t have one for at least eight kilometres?
‘‘I understand funds are tight, but projects like these provide jobs and opportunity, improve productivity and economic capacity, reduce congestion and benefit road users generally. Roads and public transport need to be done in unison.”
A Transport Department spokesman last year said a station design had been prepared and environmental approvals were in place.
The state government has made no further commitment to building the station and did not respond to requests for comment.
