The Framework

The Framework The Victorian Government has adopted a selection framework for future level crossing removals. Under the framework, crossings are prioritised for removal based on the following key principles:

Safety

Sites with a record of incidents and a high risk of incidents.

Movement

Sites with excessive delay, congestion and unreliability, caused by high train frequencies and high traffic volumes.

Place

Sites where high train frequency significantly limits connectivity between communities and impedes access to important facilities.

Delivery efficiency

Sites where there is an opportunity to increase investment efficiency and minimise disruption through leveraging delivery of other projects across the network.

Using this framework, the crossing at Gap Road in Sunbury has been identified as a priority site for future removal.

Site analysis

About 19,000 vehicles currently travel through this crossing each day. That figure is forecast to grow by about 42% to about 27,000 vehicles by 2026.

The boom gates at Gap Road can be down for up to 26% of the 7am to 9am morning peak, when up to 24 trains run through the crossing. Current network plans involve increasing trains running on the Sunbury Line, which would mean even more boom gate downtime.

This crossing also restricts access to important local places – making it difficult for locals to reach the train station, shopping centres and other important local facilities. As part of the Metro Tunnel and High Capacity Metro Trains projects, the Sunbury Line is being upgraded with power, track, platform and signalling upgrades. Removing the Gap Road level crossing with these works would be more cost effective and limit disruption to road and rail users.

Sunbury Line

Along the Sunbury Line, 3 level crossings have already been removed under the current Level Crossing Removal Project at Main Road and Furlong Road in St Albans, and at Melton Highway in Sydenham.

The removal of the Gap Road level crossing in Sunbury would be the 4th to be removed along the Sunbury Line, which would leave only 4 level crossings remaining between Sunbury Station and the city.

Design and next steps

Early investigations suggest the most likely design to remove the Gap Road level crossing would be to lower the road under the rail line. This option would be subject to further engineering assessments and community consultation.