MERNDA and Epping North would have train stations by 2033 under a rail plan released last week.
Public Transport Victoria’s Network Development Plan for Metropolitan Rail lists steps to increase Melbourne’s rail passenger numbers to a billion a year by 2031 and ways to tackle a projection that 90 per cent of peak services would be overcrowded by the end of this decade.
PTV chief executive Ian Dobbs said extensions to rail services were pointless before high-speed signalling was installed and bottlenecks in the city were eliminated.
“There are no easy, magic wand solutions,” he said. “The reality is there is no point building extensions in the suburbs unless you can get the trains into the city.”
He said high-capacity signalling, which would allow more trains to go through a section of track per hour, would be installed in stages.
Under the plan a major bottleneck between Clifton Hill and the city would get high-capacity signals by 2023 to increase the number of peak-hour trains to South Morang from eight to 11.
By 2028, the Mernda line would run through a new tunnel from Clifton Hill to a proposed Parkville station and then via Southern Cross to Fishermans Bend.
Mr Dobbs said there would be about 15 trains an hour during peak times.
Eliminating driver changeovers at Flinders Street during peak times would also speed up the South Morang services.
The plan is estimated to cost $30 billion. No funding has been committed. The government is looking at private and public funding.
More high-capacity trains., which have four doors per carriage and nine carriages, are included in the plan and are expected to be in use on the Dandenong corridor by 2017.
Opposition transport spokeswoman Fiona Richardson said passengers would be disappointed with the plan.
“The document doesn’t have any costings, it doesn’t have any detail and it pushes out any major projects well beyond 2023.”
Public Transport Users Association secretary Tony Morton said the plan delivered projects out of sequence.
“What the people of Doncaster, Rowville, Mernda and Cranbourne want is not a 20-year wish-list, they want to see an achievable plan for getting the extensions of the train system built,” he said.
