By Rachel Eddie
It was 9am when Transport Infrastructure Minister Danny Pearson officially opened the 50th new or upgraded rail station in the decade-long Level Crossing Removal Project at a media event to mark the milestone.
But Goran Torbakov had already woken up at 7.30am on Friday thanks to the announcement blaring into his apartment from the new station platform just metres from his window. “Dear passengers, this station is now open.”
Goran Torbakov at his apartment, overlooking the new station.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
The Keon Park station in Reservoir, on the Mernda line, has been demolished and rebuilt on elevated tracks about 100 metres closer to the city. On Thursday, The Age revealed complaints from residents who now, suddenly, have a station hanging over their balconies.
The estimated gap between the apartments and the station is four or five metres, leading to concerns about lights shining into bedrooms late at night, noise and a lack of privacy.
“This morning, I was woken by, ‘Dear passengers, this station is now open’ from the station master. It was 7.30am,” said Torbakov.
“We’re not against the train station. It’s here, we have to live with it. But at least we want them to start looking after us rather than looking after their spin and the cameras, and how this beautiful station was built here.”
The level crossing removal works on Keon Parade have resulted in a station being moved to within metres of apartments.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Anyone who bought their apartment before the government made the plans public in 2022 can sell to the government. Across the two buildings of 100 apartments, 45 are eligible.
“It’s probably less than 10 so far that have opted in,” Matt Thorpe, general manager of the project, said on Friday.
Residents who bought after the plan for the station was made public are not eligible.
“Obviously, if you’ve purchased after those plans were gazetted, so you moved in after we’ve indicated that we’re going to do this, that’s obviously a different scenario,” Pearson said.
Angela Villella on her balcony as a train passes through the station.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
A couple of residents were peering over their balconies to watch him speak to the media about the new station plonked beside their homes.
“If it’s post-2022, it’s a case of us working with effective residents to understand what we can do,” Pearson said.
Angela Villella, a resident and former Darebin councillor, wasn’t interested.
“You can’t just pay me off,” Villella told journalists after the government press conference in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. “I live in Reservoir. I bought this apartment so I can live next to my mother. I’m her carer. It’s not that easy to just buy and sell.”
Villella, who said people could see into her bedroom from the station, welcomed the removal of the level crossing.
“But we have gone from a single-car-garage-looking train station to something that looks like the Taj Mahal. It’s massive.”
Torbakov, who is also chair of the building’s body corporate committee, said the buyback scheme would just result in more desperate people living with unwanted noise, light and passengers looking into their windows.
“What we said to them is, ‘This is not voluntary; this is a forced buyback,’” he said.
“All we’ve asked them is to install double-glazed windows for us or triple-glazed windows for us to combat the noise and to cover our balconies with some kind of retractable shades to protect our privacy.”
Thorpe said the station had to be rebuilt across the road because of overhead power transmission lines that made the original site unviable, but that the team had tried to work with the community to find the best outcome.
“Where there is an option to actually adapt the design, we do that in response to the community,” Thorpe said. “Some things are not able to change, such as the location of the station. The proximity to these apartments was not something that could be varied.
“And we knew there would be concerns from some residents.”
Pearson said 220 trees and 44,500 shrubs would be planted in the area.
“We’ve worked very closely with the impacted residents,” he said. “I do want to thank the community for their patience while we’ve got on with this project.”
With Tom Cowie
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