New tram to link Caulfield and Rowville via Chadstone Shopping Centre: planning starting soon

A NEW tram line connecting Caulfield and Rowville via Chadstone Shopping Centre is in the pipeline.

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A NEW tram line connecting Caulfield and Rowville via Chadstone Shopping Centre is in the pipeline.

The state government has announced plans for the new route designed to ease congestion in the busy southeast, with $3 million of planning and design work to begin soon.

Stage one would link Caulfield Station to Monash University’s Clayton campus via Chadstone Shopping Centre then to Rowville via Waverley Park.

The proposed corridor will finish near the intersection of Blackburn and Wellington roads, outside Monash University’s Clayton campus, then extend to Rowville.

It will align with the Australian Synchrotron, the Monash Medical Centre and the future Victorian Heart Hospital.

Planning works outlined in the 2018/19 budget will examine alignments, park and ride options, stop locations, cost and travel time benefits.

Minister for Public Transport Jacinta Allan said the route would give hundreds of thousands of people a fast option to get to work, study or home, while easing traffic on some of the state’s busiest roads.

But Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen said the plans had “seemingly come out of nowhere” and might be different to community expectations.

“Perhaps the government has been spooked by patronage growth and track capacity issues on the Dandenong line ... along with the performance of the 900 Smartbus, which suffers from a slow convoluted route between Chadstone and Huntingdale,” he said.

Mr Bowen said speed would be the key to success and said the new route would need its own lanes, and priority on the roads to ensure trams rarely got a red light.

“Unfortunately, traffic light priority for trams is something that Melbourne does really badly,” Mr Bowen said.

“A quick calculation looking at Melbourne’s route 75 and 86 indicates they get average speeds of about 25km/h on the outer sections where they have segregated tracks.

“They beat cars at peak times, but take up to twice as long at off-peak times.

“To get people out of cars, it needs to provide a fast journey and the key to that will be good traffic light priority.”

The government has also committed $11.6 million to expand and improve Huntingdale Station and bus interchange.