Car overload at stations

A REPORT detailing the inadequacy of car-parking at local railway stations will be used by Knox City Council as leverage in its calls for the Belgrave line to be duplicated past Ferntree Gully station.
The council was last week presented with a report stating that the removal of Zone Three fare classifications – in March this year – had resulted in a vehicle overload at Knox railway stations, with commuters keen to take advantage of cheaper fares.
The report, which included patronage figures and on-site parking assessments, concluded that “car parking around the railway station is at a premium with overflow now encroaching onto vacant land and even into private properties”. While the figures showed that the Belgrave line has experienced only moderate growth since March, Dobson Ward councillor and Public Transport Consultative Committee chairwoman Karin Orpen was quick to note that the single-track section from Ferntree Gully to Belgrave was a significant deterrent for commuters.
Cr Orpen, who has led a protracted lobbying effort to convince the State Government to upgrade the Ferntree Gully station to premium status, offered her own solution to the car-parking problem.
She suggested that developing Ferntree Gully station into a regional public transport hub would address many of the concerns of local commuters, adding that the availability of vacant land in Ferntree Gully Village made it an ideal location for expansion.
While Cr Orpen said no formal plans for such a development had been made, she noted that she was becoming more optimistic that the message was starting to get across.
In accordance with the reports recommendation that “investment must now be made in developing sustainable transport modes to and from the station”, the council agreed to be an active participant in the strategic planning to be undertaken by railway land-owner VicTrack early next year.