Revealed: Geelong’s CBD underground rail plans

An underground rail loop connecting Geelong’s CBD could solve its car woes, according to a leading urban planning group. SEE THE DESIGNS

13-02-2023 Future Geelong – Nat Anson from Urbis at Geelong railway Station. Picture: Brad Fleet

A rail loop beneath Geelong’s CBD could solve the city centre’s car woes, according to a leading urban planning group.

Under the proposal, the subterranean stretch would begin at Geelong train station, connect to Westfield and Geelong hospital,including the future Barwon Women’s and Children’s Hospital and nearby medical facilities before terminating at South Geelong.

Urbis Geelong director Nat Anson said the big-picture project could link residents from stations at Lara, Winchelsea or Waurn Ponds directly to the hospital.

“Underground rail allows for connection to much more of central Geelong than what is possible with the existing Geelong stationon the edge of the CBD,” he said.

Map of proposed future Geelong rail loop

“An underground rail loop has the capacity to access the core retail precinct focused on Westfield and Market Square, whichwe expect to become an even more significant destination for retail, commercial and residential development in the future.”

Major cities like Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane all have underground rail.

Melbourne’s suburban rail loop will connect every major train service through 90km of new track via Melbourne Airport.

The Geelong proposal would add an additional 2-3km of track under the CBD.

Mr Anson said the underground rail loop and other public transport investments were important conversations for a city thathad become reliant on cars. “You’re not necessarily talking about undergrounding an entire rail corridor,” he said.

“I think it’s important we have a real conversation about the potential of this type of project.”

Greater Geelong councillor and longtime rail advocate Bruce Harwood said underground rail was a critical method to move residentsin cities around the world.

“If you look around the world at the big cities, underground rail forms an important part of their connectivity and the abilityof residents to move around their cities and their regions,” he said.

“Underground rail has a critical role to play.”

Lausanne in Switzerland, with a population of about 140,000, is the smallest city in the world with a fully functioning metrosystem.

Before that system opened, in 2008, the title was held by Rennes in France, which has about 220,500 residents.

Projections have Geelong’s population reaching 500,000 people by 2047, before ballooning to one million by 2075.

Mr Anson said the Geelong underground rail proposal could accomodate city with a population between 550,000 to one millionpeople.

“A proposal of this size relates to a doubling of Geelong’s population, but it’s not far away,” he said.

Recent predictions suggest Geelong’s car dependency could mean a 500 per cent increase in vehicle delays through the regionin the next two decades.

But in the short term, Mr Harwood said the focus needed to be on an ambitious high-speed rail connection from Melbourne andGeelong to the rest of regional Victoria

“What we have needed for a number of years as we watch Geelong’s population grow is much better connectivity to the Bellarine,Surf Coast regions, the major cities and the rest of our regions,” he said.

“At this current time, our rail system runs at 140 per cent capacity. If we don’t have better public transport, we are goingto gridlock the entire region.”

A Department of Transport spokesman said the government had committed $2bn to build the first stage of Geelong fast rail.

“Geelong is thriving and with more and more people moving to the city we are delivering projects to make it easier and moreaccessible to get around and explore what the region has to offer,” he said.

“Victoria leads the way in investment for better rail connections and we are getting on with the job of delivering GeelongFast Rail and the Western Rail Plan – to help people get where they need to go quicker.”

Originally published as Revealed: Geelong’s CBD underground rail plans