Families to protest over new train stabling yard for Suburban Rail Loop

A train maintenance site planned for Melbourne’s southeast to service the Suburban Rail Loop has families up in arms over fears it will damage homes.

Families in Melbourne’s southeast fear a new train maintenance site planned by the Andrews government will ruin their neighbourhood and damage homes.

The government’s preferred site for a train stabling yard for the $50-100 billion Suburban Rail Loop is in Heatherton, across the road from the world-famous Kingston Heath Golf Course.

Nearby residents have hit out at the plans, and were set to protest on Saturday before being told they could be breaching coronavirus restrictions for public gatherings.

Several homeowners contacted the Herald Sunafter it revealed details of the planned underground rail line’s route and station locations between Cheltenham and Box Hill.

Michelle Hornstein, who runs a website called movethetrainyard.com to provide information to her community, said the stabling site would also be the “epicentre of the tunnelling works” for the 26km project.

“They are going to be doing this work so close to our homes they are going to get damaged,” Ms Hornstein said.

“There will be tooting every few minutes from the trains and all the worst aspects of living near a rail line — and there won’t even be access to a station.”

Bronwyn and Leigh Davies with Fletcher, 8, Henry, 10, and Lewie, 6. Picture: Josie Hayden

Families are angry land that was supposed to be converted into parks is now being proposed to house trains for the Suburban Rail Loop. Picture: Josie Hayden

Stations for the mega-project are planned at Cheltenham and Clayton, both several kilometres from Heatherton.

Mother of three Bronwyn Davies said her family was devastated, and houses nearby were already on the market because people had moved to the area for quiet streets and parks.

“With three young boys, it was a huge drawcard for us. There’s a semirural feel out here,” she said.

“No one ever thought this could happen, given we are three or four kilometres away from a train station.”

Six properties are set to be acquired for the stabling yard construction, but Suburban Rail Loop Minister Jacinta Allan said the Heatherton location was chosen to minimise the loss of “homes, businesses and parkland”.

“You can’t build a turn-up-and-go rail network through Melbourne’s middle suburbs, without a facility nearby to service and clean the fleet of trains. And it will deliver more than 200 local jobs,” she said.

Opposition transport infrastructure spokesman David Davis said the government must find a different location.

“The government has torn up the green wedge and clearly decided that the regional sporting facility that was proposed for this site should be sacrificed,” Mr Davis said.

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Originally published as Families to protest over new train stabling yard for Suburban Rail Loop