Work on the new Clayton Station in Melbourne’s south-east is pushing towards completion, with the first trains to set to service it on Monday 16 April.
Since the end of March, work has been carried out on connection power and signalling along the elevated track situated above the road.
The elevated station’s curved canopy has been completed, and work is currently underway on platform areas, lighting, CCTV, and passenger facilities.
Further works will continue on the station’s ground level buildings following the removal of the old train tracks under the station.
The construction of the elevated station is part of the Caulfield to Dandenong project, which is removing a total of nine level crossings and building another four new stations – at Carnegie, Murrumbeena, Hughesdale and Noble Park – on a new elevated stretch on the Cranbourne-Pakenham line.
Noble Park station has been opened alongside the first 1.5 kilometre stretch of elevated rail, which has eliminated three level crossings already. The remaining level crossings between Caulfield and Dandenong will be removed by the end of the year.
At Clayton the erection of a new elevated station is being accompanied by the removal of level crossings at Clayton Road and Centre Road.
The boom gates at the latter, which were regularly down for up to 75 minutes during the morning peak, have just been removed, reducing congestion on the busy route.
The growing suburb – the location of Monash University and Monash Hospital – is the largest area of employment in Melbourne outside the CBD. Clayton Station services approximately 5,500 passengers every day.
“Clayton is a booming centre for shops, services, education and medicine. Thousands of people use this station every day and we are building the station they deserve,” Victoria’s premier Daniel Andrews said.
“It’s not acceptable for people who live, work and travel here to have boom gates down for 70 per cent of the time in peak hour. This crossing is a nightmare – and it’s time to go.”