Melton City Council will explore a public-private partnership for two proposed train stations, with parking charges among the possible ways to generate revenue. Last week, the council voted to hold preliminary discussions with the state government about Thornhill Park and Mt Atkinson stations in Melbourne’s outer west.
Mt Atkinson resident Jaksha Shah said congestion affects the morning commute, while the nearest supermarket is a 40-minute drive in peak-hour traffic. “I bought into a future where there was going to be a train station where I live, and the reality is very different,” she said. “We kind of need what we were promised and we deserve it.”
Deputy Mayor Phillip Zada said the motion asks whether the state government would consider working with council. Residents have advocated for the stations for years, he said, and council continues to identify them as priorities in its transport advocacy.
Who Pays for the Gap
Melton’s annual growth rate is 6.61 per cent, according to council data, more than three times Melbourne’s average of 2 per cent. The Mt Atkinson residential development is expected to reach a population of 32,000 by 2051. State government planning documents included a station there in 2017, when planners were preparing the suburb, and have retained it since the suburb plan was first published that year.
Council says the stations, together with 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 new stations are needed to ease pressure at Caroline Springs, Rockbank and Cobblebank, where trains are crowded and car parks are “at capacity by 7:30am.”
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, citing a Melton aquatic centre built without state government investment. “Councils are having to fill the gap, and it’s a significant gap that councils are having to fill,” she said. “The lack of state government investment is really changing the way councils operate.”
State Projects and Election Pledges
Victorian Transport Minister Vicki Ward said Labor was building the Sunshine Superhub project, which would “allow for Melton line electrification and get more trains running in Melbourne’s west.” Site investigations to finalise the project design are ongoing, Ward said.
Ward said Jess Wilson’s Liberal-One Nation Coalition was promising $40 billion in cuts and, if elected, would cut trains to Melton, send Victorian jobs overseas and buy expensive foreign trains that don’t suit the 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.
Melton is part of Labor’s “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 is under threat again at this election, particularly in Melbourne’s west.
Crowded station car parks affect outer growth areas across Melbourne. West Tarneit station, open less than a month, already regularly had a full car park by 8am. Melton council plans to sound out the state government’s interest in a partnership and consider whether the proposal could generate revenue, including through station parking charges.