Victoria

Vic’s roads, transport departments merged

VICTORIA KICKED OFF THE NEW financial year by merging its VicRoads, Public Transport Victoria and Department of Transport entities into a single department.

The move is slated to help manage disruptions to the transport network during Victoria’s $57 billion ‘big build’ program of transport infrastructure projects. The change will mean a single department will be in charge of suburban road upgrades and the state’s complex train and freeway networks. With the changeover expected to take months, PTV and VicRoads’ websites will remain unchanged for now.

VicRoads will continue provide vehicle registration and licensing services, and to operate 40 customer service centres across the state. Regional Roads Victoria will remain as an arm of the new department. But a more integrated platform is hoped to help with one of the biggest development programs in Australia’s history, with projects like the North East Link, the M80 Ring Road, Melbourne Airport Rail, the Metro Tunnel, new rollingstock and more all coming under one banner.

“[The change] will allow us to respond much faster and give people the information they need to make the best travel choices

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDIT: RAIL GALLERY

to get where they need to go sooner,” the government said on July 1.

“By 2050, there will be 38 million trips taken every day in Victoria. We are planning for this by creating a properly integrated transport department – in step with other global cities. Our focus is on making it easier for Victorians to move around the state and stay connected to jobs and each other, whatever way you travel.”

The state government says the combination will help it deliver a huge pipeline of transport projects.

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Three shortlisted for North East line upgrade

MAJOR UPGRADE WORK ON Victoria’s North East line is expected to begin later this year after the list of candidates to deliver the $235 million project was shortened to three. Shortlisted candidates John Holland, McConnell Dowell, and a Coleman Rail/ Rhomberg Rail joint venture were named this week to potentially deliver the main works contract for the federal government project.

Work includes ballast depth improvements, track resurfacing, drainage upgrades, level crossing upgrades and rail bridge upgrades.

The overall aim of the North East Rail Line Upgrade is to improve track reliability, provide smoother journeys and help reduce major delays to passenger services between Melbourne and Albury. Once complete, the line will be up to the same standard as other long-distance passenger railways in regional Victoria.

Ed Walker, general manager for the Australian Rail Track Corporation, said the shortlist was generated from a rigorous expressions of interest process, which drew

The North East Line uprgrade will improve track reliability.

an “extremely high standard” of responses. “We expect to award the contract and for main works to start by the end of the year, with project completion in 2021,” Walker said.

Early work is already underway. “So far this year over 1900 metres of priority mudholes have been removed, as well as the completion of a 15-day track tamping program. Further mudhole removal works and tamping will be carried out in parallel with the main contract development.”

More than 110 level crossings and 120 bridges will be improved along the line to

ensure it meets a Victorian Class 2 track standard. The ARTC has already upgraded eight bridges and nine crossings towards those totals.

The scope of the project is the railway between Spencer Street Junction in Melbourne and the state border at AlburyWodonga.

Federal funding was granted in October 2018, and early works began early in 2019. The trio of shortlisted parties has now been asked to submit a formal tender for the upgrade program. A winner is expected to be announced in November or December.

Metro Trains’ May performance impacted by wire collapse

PUBLIC TRANSPORT VICTORIA’S reliability suffered a drop for the month of May across its Metro Trains, Yarra Trams and V/Line services.

PTV chief executive officer Joroen Weimar in mid-June reflected on May as a challenging month for Melbourne’s train network, citing an overhead power issue at Laverton Junction that impacted Werribee line services over a four-day period. A small segment of wire that fell from a corroded section of the overhead power structure became tangled in a passing train, which removed a further section of wire.

The incident led to PTV’s decision to replace all insulator connection on the Werribee line on top of its existing routine maintenance.

This incident led to Metro Trains falling short of its monthly reliability and punctuality targets, with reliability defined

as the number of scheduled trains that ran and punctuality the number of trains that ran on time.

Metro Trains achieved a 90.4 per cent punctuality rate and 98.2 per cent reliability rate in May, short of the targets by 1.6 per cent and 0.3 per cent, respectively.

Yarra Trams and V/Line fared better, however. Yarra Trams exceeded its monthly reliability target in May, delivering 98.7 per cent of all scheduled services but missed on punctuality, delivering 79.2 per cent of services on time compared to an 82 per cent target.

Yarra Trams received a boost in May in the south east of the city due in part to the temporary closure of the Sandringham rail line to accommodate works on the ongoing Metro Tunnel project. Yarra Trams delivered 215 additional peak

weekday services on three routes from May 22-31 to help compensate for this.

V/Line delivered 86.5 per cent of its services on time and 97.1 per cent of its scheduled services in May. In particular, the Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo lines all showed significant year-on-year improvements, according to Weimar, with Bendigo securing the biggest leap at 87.3 per cent, up 10.3 per cent from may 2018. “We continue to work hard to deliver a service that our regional passengers can rely on while maintaining the network improvements we have seen over the past 12 months,” Weimar said.

“We’re working with all operators to improve their punctuality and reliability as well as enabling the major program of essential infrastructure upgrades to the state’s public transport network to be delivered.”

The upgrade includes major work at railway stations on the line.

Ballarat Line Upgrade progressing well

THE VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT SAYS its half-a-billion-dollar upgrade program for the Ballarat Line will be complete by the end of 2019, with almost a million hours of work clocked so far.

Premier Daniel Andrews on June 21 visited the new Cobblebank station, delivered as part of the Ballarat Line

Upgrade to provide a transport link for a suburb expected to reach a population of 55,000.

He said crews have so far laid 26 kilometres of track, 40,000 concrete sleepers and 100,000 tonnes of ballast over more than 100 kilometres of the Ballarat line. The project includes track duplication, station upgrades and passing loops, to boost reliability and enable more frequent services in the peak.

“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,” the premier said.

Next steps for the Western Rail Plan include delivering two new electrified metro lines to Melton and Wyndham Vale, and upgrading the Geelong and Ballarat lines to deliver fast rail to regions.

As part of the push to complete the Ballarat Line Upgrade by the end of 2019, coaches are replacing trains for two weeks to allow a 400-strong workforce to undertake critical construction work around the clock.