First look at Coburg and Moreland station designs created by grassroots activists
Sick of waiting for updates, a community group has created its own artist’s impressions of Coburg and Brunswick stations after level crossing removal. And their designs are proving more popular than official plans. SEE PICTURES
North West
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A fed up community group has developed its own designs for the look of sky rail in Coburg and Brunswick after being left waiting for updates from the Level Crossing Removal Project.
The Upfield Corridor Coalition commissioned its own images of how the crossing removals could look at Moreland and Coburg train stations, as well as at Moreland Rd.
The designs were created with money supplied to the coalition by Moreland Council for activism on the removals.
They show open spaces beneath the rail, used for dining and cafes, with marked lanes for bicycle riders.
Coalition spokesman James Conlan said they weren’t final designs but created a chance to get the community speaking about what they want to see from the works.
He said there were fears completed designs wouldn’t be released by the LXRP before construction begins and proper consultation wouldn’t take place.
“That’s why, as a community, we’ve been proactive in creating our ideas of what we want and to visualise those through imagery,” he said.
“Our images are simply an attempt to bring our community vision to life, and to encourage people to think about what they want to see from the project.”
The vision created by the coalition lists five key demands — heritage protection, public transport connection, making use of open space, safety and residential amenity and cycling and pedestrian access.
North West program project director Michael Caink said the LXRP would gather more feedback soon to continue to shape final designs.
“The new stations will provide modern facilities for both pedestrians and cyclists and improve how people move around the area,” he said.
The images were revealed at a public meeting on July 28, attended by more than 100 people.
Leader readers clearly favoured the look of the coalition’s design over images released by the State Government in June.
A Moreland Leader Facebook poll gathered 619 votes, with the public design favoured with 65 per cent of the vote, but commenters were mixed.
No Skyrail Upfield Line treasurer Vanessa Birch said she didn’t approve of either option as they didn’t preserve the heritage outlook of the stations.
Neither design featured a cycling veloway and Ben Crowe commented that without one, the project would be too car focused.
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