Southland station edges closer to completion with weekend work

CRITICAL works for the long awaited train station at Southland will shut down parts of the Frankston line this weekend.

An artist impression of Southland train station.

CRITICAL works for the long awaited train station at Southland will shut down parts of the Frankston line this weekend.

Construction work on the platform closest to the shopping centre, including relocating overhead cables, installing service pits, and other signalling works will be done.

To enable this work to be carried out, buses will replace trains between Moorabbin and Mordialloc from 8.45pm tomorrow through to the last service on Sunday.

Bentleigh state Labor MP Nick Staikos said the new station would be up and running late this year, in time for Christmas.

He said the weekend train line closure was “short term pain for long term gain”.

Early last year designs for the $21m station were finalised — more than five years after it was first promised.

Station designs showed ramp and stair access to two platforms, an automated toilet, pedestrian underpass, platform seating and shelter, CCTV cameras and Protective Services Officers facilities.

“The first time I heard about a Southland railway station I was a small child. This government has got on with it and done it,” Mr Staikos said.

The state government has said the new station would service up to 4,400 passengers per day and become the “fourth busiest station on the Frankston line.”

Currently workers and shoppers who don’t drive walk or catch the bus from Highett and Cheltenham stations.

With an underpass joining the two platforms already complete and track drainage and cabling installed, Mr Staikos said the build was now taking shape.