Extension Of The Glen Waverley Line To Knox City vs Upgrading Local Bus Route To A Fast Bus

In their 2020-2050 Melbourne Rail Plan, the Rail Futures Institute proposed an underground extension of the Glen Waverley line to Knox City in Wantirna South to be delivered by 2040.

Here are the details of their report:

“The Glen Waverley line has currently significant unused capacity. By 2040, it is proposed that the Wallan/Upfield – Glen Waverley corridor will be extended a further 6 km in Melbourne’s east from Glen Waverley to Knox City, resulting in a 75 km overall corridor from Wallan to Knox City serving at least 36 stations. The Knox City extension will provide two sections of underground twin tunnel totalling 5 km to extend the line from Glen Waverley to Knox City. It will provide new underground platforms at Glen Waverley, a new intermediate station, major “park and ride” facility, bus interchange and train stabling sidings on the surface at Wantirna South, and a new underground terminal station at Knox City Major Activity Centre. The new stations at Wantirna South and Knox City will serve an extensive area of Melbourne’s east including the suburbs of Wheelers Hill, Scoresby, Wantirna South, Wantirna, Knoxfield and Studfield together with parts of Ferntree Gully, Mountain Gate, Rowville and Lysterfield, all of which have relatively poor access to high quality public transport. Wantirna South station would be located close to the intersection of High Street Road and Eastlink providing an ideal location for a major bus interchange and active transport links feeding from a wide arc extending over a radius of some 5 km from Wantirna South. “

As can be seen from the report, by that time the Glen Waverley/Knox City train would hopefully be running along a Cross-City Mass Transit Corridor from Wallen to Knox City. This will provide improved service efficiency on the Glen Waverley/Knox City line among other benefits. 

I really like the proposal of a new station at Wantirna South close to Eastlink which will provide a major bus interchange as well as a major park and ride facility. This will serve a large catchment area. 

But how much will all this cost? $1 billion, $2 billion even $3 billion. I don’t know as I am not an infrastructure expert, just an enthusiast. In a city that is constantly expanding with suburban sprawl (thank the NIMBY’s) – yet doing a good job of urbanising at the same time (thank the government) – there are so many other projects that would likely take precedence over this one for decades to come. Melbourne’s population is currently around the 5 million mark and is projected to exceed 8 million people by 2050. A tiny fraction of that growth will take place in the Knox City catchment area. Such a growth pattern will keep placing huge demands on a city that has a radial train network built in the 1800’s and the slowest tram network in the world which consists of mostly street-car lines. There is no mass rapid transit system yet. Add to that, that there are many suburbs on the fringes that haven’t been connected to the train network yet. There is a lot to build in the next few decades and much of it will move multitudes of people per day. The extension of the Glen Waverley line to Knox City won’t have such a demand. Additionally, the orbital train line that will soon commence construction will swallow up a whopping 50 billion dollars or so by the time it is built. So, the bottom line is, I believe, that the proposed extension of the Glen Waverley line to Knox City will never be built. 

I once read of a proposal to make Knox City a second CBD as it has a huge area that could be developed with high rise buildings. It’s never going to happen. The Metropolitan Strategy Melbourne 2030 puts Knox City on the bottom of the hierarchy of activity centres. The word City remains only part of the name of the large shopping centre which sits next to a corporate estate with only low-rise buildings. The large area of park and wetlands next to the estate will soon be developed into an estate made up of medium density townhouses (with the wetlands remaining). Had the entire area which includes the Shopping centre, the corporate estate and the park and wetlands been devoted to urban development then the need for the train line would be urgent. As it currently stands, such a proposal would struggle to find a business case that would move the government to action, for many decades to come.

Knox City Shopping Centre sits between the Boronia Station (4 km to the east) on the Belgrave Line and the Glen Waverley Station (6km to the west). Knox City is currently well served by buses (though slow and infrequent). Currently, the 737 bus will take you from Knox City to Glen Waverley at 7:45am on a weekday in 25 minutes. The same bus will take you from Knox City to Boronia Station in around 18 minutes at 7:45am on a weekday. This bus runs around every 20 minutes during peak hour. 

The train from Glen Waverley to the city takes around 35 minutes. The train from Boronia to the city takes around 50 minutes (using the train that runs express after Box Hill - ironically the residents of the Box Hill Principal Activity Centre often can’t board this train as it is already overcrowded). So, if you live in Wantirna South where the Knox City shopping centre is situated, your best bet is to get onto a bus to Glen Waverley Station in order to catch a train into the city. Both the Glen Waverley and Boronia stations don’t have much parking on offer for train commuters compared to demand so unless you are an early bird you won’t get a parking spot. 

What does all of this mean? If you live in Wantirna South (around 25km from the CBD) you will continue to face frustratingly slow commutes to work for years to come. Driving is just not a good option either, unless you are willing to pay with your time as well as with your money. The Eastlink/Eastern Freeway is the only viable route option. It will give you tolls to pay and it will dump you onto Melbourne’s (and possibly Australia’s) worst bottleneck as the Eastern Freeway suddenly ends at Hoddle St. Then you have CBD parking. Early Bird rates average around $15 - $20 per day. Most Melbournians living out of the gentrified 5-15km radius from the CBD face similar challenges each day. You’re not alone. You’re never alone. Not here you’re not. 

MY SUGGESTION: Upgrade the 737 bus route (mentioned earlier) to a fast bus route (not quite a Bus Rapid Transit route) between Knox City and Glen Waverley. The bus would run every 10 minutes during peak hour (double the current frequency). The whole route would benefit from this as it terminates at Monash University at one end and Croydon train station (on the Lilydale line) via Boronia station, at the other end. 

The route doesn’t need to be changed between Knox City and Glen Waverley as it is already a direct route. In fact, the entire bus route is a solid and direct route. It’s a genuine feeder bus, not what I call a fetcher bus (fetching people from all corners of the backstreets to take them to the train station). I believe that the trip time can be cut in half (from 25 minutes to approximately 13 minutes) between Knox City and Glen Waverley if the following is done.

What needs to be changed? 

• The bus will need a dedicated peak hour bus lane right along High St Rd as well as priority signalling. I’m not sure if this is planned but I believe that it is essential. It will surely cause much traffic congestion along High St Rd during peak hour, but I believe that transit should always be given priority over vehicles. It doesn’t feel right to me that public roads give public transport second place over private vehicles. Large sections of this route could easily have an extra lane built in each direction in order to accommodate for a dedicated bus lane if the funds could be allocated for it.

• I also believe that the route needs less bus stops. I’m certain that people are happy to walk as long as they know that they are getting an efficient service on the other end. Currently there are around 22 stops between Knox City and Glen Waverley. They could be reduced to around 15 stops. Keep in mind that people with special needs are also given other government services such as a shuttle bus for the elderly or free taxi for the disabled. 

A project like this will certainly take away the stress of commuting to work for many who live in the Wantirna South area. I believe that it completely eliminates the need for a hugely expensive train line to Knox City. The infrastructure is already there. A project like this is so cheap and achievable that it could be delivered within months not decades. Perhaps, there will be a need for a train to Knox in future. Perhaps we could put the date back from 2040 to 2050 or 2060. Between now and then all that would be needed is the widening of High St Rd. Soon, construction will begin on the Suburban Rail Loop. Glen Waverley will have a station on that line, which is a huge plus for those living in the catchment area, such as commuters coming in from Wantirna South.