Melton City Council has voted to explore a public-private partnership for Thornhill Park and Mt Atkinson train stations, including whether parking charges could raise revenue. The council will ask the state government if it’s interested and consider partnering with it directly. For residents facing crowded trains and full car parks, the first step is another round of talks over who will pay.
Mt Atkinson resident Jaksha Shah said she bought into a future that included a train station, but “the reality is very different.” Congestion affects her morning commute, she said, and the nearest supermarket is a 40-minute drive in peak-hour traffic. “We kind of need what we were promised and we deserve it,” Shah said.
A growth bill pushed onto councils
Melton’s annual growth rate is 6.61 per cent, more than three times Melbourne’s average of 2 per cent, according to council data. The Mt Atkinson residential development is expected to reach 32,000 people by 2051. State government planning documents included a station there in 2017, when planners laid out the suburb, and have mentioned it since the suburb plan first appeared that year.
The council says the stations and electrification of the Melton line would mean 12,000 fewer cars on the road each day by 2041 and 15,000 more commuters. Its advocacy booklet says the stations are needed to ease pressure on nearby Caroline Springs, Rockbank and Cobblebank, where trains are crowded and car parks are “at capacity by 7:30am.” West Tarneit station has been open less than a month, yet its car park regularly filled by 8am.
National Growth Areas Alliance chief executive Bronwen Clark said train stations and community centres hadn’t kept pace with outer-suburban growth. “There is a lack of ongoing state government funding or support for the infrastructure that communities need and economies need to thrive,” she said. Clark said councils such as Melton and Wyndham were left to fill the gap, pointing to a Melton aquatic centre built without state government investment. “The lack of state government investment is really changing the way councils operate,” she said.
Promises, pledges and election arithmetic
The two stations on the Ballarat V/Line are among Melton council’s election priorities, along with road upgrades and electrification of the Melton rail line. Deputy Mayor Phillip Zada said the motion asks whether the state government would consider working together. “Our community has been advocating for Thornhill Park and Mt Atkinson stations for years, and council continues to identify both as priorities in its transport advocacy,” he said.
Melton is part of Labor’s so-called “red wall,” a line of ALP-held seats across Melbourne’s west and north where the population is rapidly expanding over what was once agricultural land. Labor suffered a setback in some of those seats four years ago, and pollsters say the party’s under threat again at this election, particularly in Melbourne’s west. The council’s vote opens preliminary discussions; it doesn’t commit the state to building the stations.
Victorian Transport Minister Vicki Ward said Labor was building the Sunshine Superhub project, which she said would “allow for Melton line electrification and get more trains running in Melbourne’s west.” Site investigations to finalise the project design are ongoing, she said. Ward said: “Jess Wilson’s Liberal-One Nation Coalition are promising $40 billion in cuts and if elected, they will cut trains to Melton and send Victorian jobs overseas and buy expensive, foreign trains that don’t suit our network.”
The Coalition has pledged $1.7 billion for 25 new hybrid diesel-electric trains on the Melton and Wyndham Vale lines if elected on November 28. It has committed to manufacturing the trains in Victoria and would aim to deliver them by 2030. Residents still have to navigate the gap between party pledges and the infrastructure council says their growing communities need.