Cox Architecture – Caulfield to Dandenong Corridor MGS Architects in partnership with Jacobs – Rosanna Station Grimshaw – Ormond Station
When the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party announced from opposition that a key plank of their 2014 election platform would be the removal of fifty level crossings across Melbourne, over two terms of government, few realized what a dramatic and transformative project this would become.
The need to remove urban level crossings is a legacy of railways having been built expeditiously without concern for their performance. Level crossing removals allow fast, frequent rail services unrestricted by road-based transport. This public transport-focused logic must underpin any meaningful attempts by architects, urban designers and planners to transition Australia’s dispersed metropolitan areas to more resilient, low-carbon futures. Building at higher densities alone is insufficient without adequate public transport. Level crossing removals focus attention on the fine grain of building more sustainable cities.
Melbourne’s first metropolitan strategy, the 1929 Plan for General Development, identified sixty-six level crossings in urgent need of removal from the 155 then in existence across the commission’s study area. The infamous 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan included $95 million for removing eighty crossings and a proposal for tunnels that
