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Mont Albert Tram to be extended
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The Whitehorse Road tram service is to be extended as far as Market St. Box Hill as part of $42 million of new public transport infrastructure improvements.
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Cnr Whitehorse and Union Roads, Mont Albert |
The track will be extended 2 kilometres from its present terminus at Union Road to a new Box Hill terminus likely to be built on the southern side of the Whitehorse Rd median adjacent to Market St.
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Whitehorse Road, Box Hill, opposite Market Street |
The project will cost $9 million and is due for completion in June 2002.
The extension will bring the tram service directly to Box Hill Central, which is already the largest transport interchange in suburban Melbourne, serving 18 different bus routes and the Lilydale and Belgrave train lines. The interchange presently caters for 17,000 train travelers and 3,700 bus patrons. The new tram service is estimated to carry 1620 passengers daily, or 330,000 per year.
The public transport benefits include:
- a direct service to bring Kew and Balwyn residents to Box Hill for shopping and business;
- improved access to Box Hill TAFE and Box Hill Hospital;
- access from the Kew Corridor to the northern (Doncaster, Donvale, Templestowe) and southern areas (Chadstone, Oakleigh, Moorabbin, Mordialloc) bus routes
- improved service for school students travelling to the schools in the Hawthorn/Kew areas.
It is proposed to provide six principal tram stops along the route, with four stops between Union Road and Elgar Road.
The first cable tram along the route opened in 1916 and ran from Kew to Union Road. The extension of the service to Collins St. co-incided with the introduction of electric trams in 1929.
Other transport infrastructure announced includes:
- the $27 million electrification of the train line from St Albans to Sydenham;
- the extension of tram services from the CBD to a new $2.5 million terminus at South Melbourne;
- $3.5 million track upgrading at North Melbourne to improve train movements to and from city stations.
All of these works will be undertaken by the new franchisees of Melbourne's public transport services, who will be obliged to include the projects as a condition of their competitive tender.