Commuters in Melbourne’s east are gonna cop an almighty whack on the travel front over the next week, thanks to a whole mess of construction work that’s set to balloon train trip times out by as much as 70 minutes.
A six-day construction project – carrying a price tag of $42million – is set to severely disrupt the Lilydale, Alamein, and Belgrave lines. Dreaded replacement bus services will operate between Parliament and Camberwell on those lines beginning at 8:30pm on Thursday night, and stretching right through to last service on December 5th.
The Glen Waverley line is also gonna cop it during that period, with buses replacing trains between Darling and Richmond.
The trackwork, which is set to replace infrastructure that in some cases dates back to the freakin’ 1920s, will balloon travel times out from anywhere between 40 and 70 minutes, including in the morning and afternoon peak periods.
The work is the start of a string of delays and disruptions due to on-going improvement works that’ll impact various parts of the train network throughout the summer.
Public Transport Victoria CEO Jeroen Weimar stated that these works were a necessary evil to keep everything humming along as best as possible.
We understand this will be frustrating for passengers, but these works are a crucial part of ensuring we can deliver a reliable service in the long-term for passengers on one of the busiest corridors on our network.
The Hurstbridge line is also scheduled for major delays in the coming months, with the Andrews Government set to announce the planned opening of the new Rosanna station, as well as the removal of level crossings on the line, will be moved forward by six months.
Maybe ah… bring a book, mates. Could be a long trip to and from work for the next little bit.
