Pipedream to Become a Reality?
Seldom_21 Junior Train Controller
Seems as an ex-member of this forum may well just get his wish! Or will common sense prevail?
The Transport Department will investigate reopening the Millswood Station. Source: News Limited
MILLSWOOD Railway Station might be reopened following a change of heart by Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis.
The Transport Department said an investigation would be done on the possibility of reopening the station following calls by local residents and Unley Council.
The station, on the Belair line above the Goodwood Rd underpass, was closed in 1995 because of poor patronage.
Mr Koutsantonis wrote to a resident in May ruling out reopening the station.
But a Transport Department spokeswoman said he had changed his mind following the renewed push to have it reopened.
"Responding to representations from members of the local community, Member for Ashford Steph Key and the Unley Council, the Minister … instructed the department to initiate a detailed investigation of the possibility of reopening Millswood Station," she said.
She could not provide details of the investigation, including what it would take to have the station reopened, the timeframe or cost of the investigation.
There have been multiple attempts by residents to have Millswood Station reopened, most recently in 2009 when about 100 people attended a meeting at the station.
Millswood resident John Gasper, part of the group pushing for the reopening, welcomed the minister's decision to revisit the issue.
Unley state Liberal MP David Pisoni, who told the Eastern Courier Messenger about May letter, said the investigation was only launched because there was an election looming.
"This announcement should be taken with a pinch of salt because they've already ruled it out," Mr Pisoni said.
"I believe that, with the fact we now have an upgraded track, the closure should be revisited."
Last edited by Seldom_21 on 29 Aug 2013 16:19; edited 1 time in total
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ANDL36Y Train Controller
That's been on the cards for a while but I'm glad it seems to be more of a reality. It was in our scope when we were doing the study on Goodwood Junction, Torrens Junction, etc... oh and the underground railway. Hush, hush.
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Milkomeda Chief Train Controller
I bet Heath sent 100s of emails to the DPTI to try and get the station reopened...
Last edited by Milkomeda on 29 Aug 2013 18:56; edited 1 time in total
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don_dunstan The Ghost of George Stephenson
Location: Adelaide proud
Will any of those same people who protested about re-opening it actually use it if it is opened? Million dollar question.
It reminds me of my old man complaining constantly about the impending closure of Aussie car manufacturing but also refusing to buy an Aussie car because "that's for povo's".
Last edited by don_dunstan on 29 Aug 2013 22:05; edited 1 time in total
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justapassenger Minister for Railways
Without direct services to Redhill, probably not.
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Sojourner Train Controller
There is a councillor by the name of Michael Hudson on the Unley Council who is well known to a number of Sturt FC people as he reguarly opposes any attempts to have permanant fencing at Unley Oval reinstalled and has various public conversations in disagreement with Sturt Members over the club and so on, anyway, he mentioned the following re Millswood on his blog site which may well be of interest,
Millswood Station revival?AUGUST 13, 2013
There's an air of optimism afoot in Unley that the Millswood Railway station, closed for business for many a moon, may be resurrected.
Mayor Lachlan Clyne and CEO Peter Tsokas met recently wih Minister Koutsantonis and the station, which was decommissioned 18 years ago, was one of the issues discussed. The Minister for Transport and Infrastructure apparently indicated that he would be happy to explore the feasibility, and has asked DPTI to work with Council on the project.
Meanwhile, in a presentation to Unley Council on Monday, August 12th, Goodwood resident Mr John Gasper, a member of the group of residents pressing for the re-opening, said that there had been encouraging news about the possibility.
Goodwood South Councillor Jennie Boisvert's motion on notice to Council, calling for Elected Members' support for the campaign by the "Reopen Millswood Station Group", was passed unanimously.
Meanwhile, if you want to be kept up-to-date with events, and would like to receive copies of the group's newsletters, the contact points are:
reopen.millswood.station@gmail.com
or phone 0416818768 or 0411744610
http://grumpyinunley.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/millswood-station-revival/
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The abdominal Gunzel Beginner
well I agree with Tom K's view of the situation,
that an investigation to reopen the station should take place as people MAY not use it if and when it is reopened as it does cost money to get the station up to safe standards, to comply with the DDA, etc.
I DONT think he will be doing a "dummy" investigation as he has told the media he will do a proper one but you never know!
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Pressman Spirit of the Vine
Location: Wherever the Tin Chook or Qantas takes me
The important thing to remember is that a "happy to explore the feasibility" (does that mean an Investigation?) can have a number of results.
1. NOT feasible - Won't fit into timetabling.
2. NOT feasible - Not enough paying commuters would choose to use it.
3. NOT feasible - Too expensive to upgrade for the number of commuters that would use it.
4. NOT feasible - unless Council contributes to major percentage of upgrade cost.
5. NOT feasible - unless Tony Abbott does a back-flip and supports Australian Commuter Rail Projects and contributes to major percentage of upgrade cost.
6. Feasible - But state gov doesn't have any dollars to contributes to the upgrade cost.
7. Feasible - Yes we have the dollars (we secretly found a money tree behind parliment house).
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David Peters Dr Beeching
Location: "With Hey Boy".
Personally to spend God knows what to upgrade a station that would most likely hardly get used would be a sheer waste especially when there are very well patronised stations that could use that money to be upgraded themselves. If it was me who had to make a decision about it, I would say no to it as it cost's too much now. And use the money that was to plowed into this somewhere else where it is really needed. Woodville could do with a decent upgrade before reopening Millswood! There are plenty of others as well.
Last edited by David Peters on 16 Sep 2013 20:11; edited 1 time in total
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Last Visited: 21 Aug 2017 16:54
Woodville could do with a decent upgrade before reopening Millswood! There are plenty of others as well.
David Peters
Goodwood still has those terrible "Say No To Drugs" cartoons painted on it - at least it did from the last couple of photos I've seen of it. Not to mention the fact that it's a really shoddy construction.
The real skill, as with all feasibility studies, will be in defining the terms of reference and weighting the importance of various outcomes so that the result will match the predetermined decision.
My guess is that it won't be too hard to come up with a study which says it won't be feasible by any means, either for reopening Millswood or for spending money on what is already a quite adequate station at Woodville.
"don_dunstan"
Yes, the Scientology propaganda is still there, along with the inaccessible ramps. There has been a fair amount of construction work at Goodwood this year, so the ramps really should have been replaced at that time to (a) make the station meet the minimum accessibility requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act and (b) avoid the possibility of a lawsuit forcing them to do it and pay compensation on top now that the "we haven't got around to doing work there" excuse is gone.
Last edited by justapassenger on 16 Sep 2013 20:37; edited 1 time in total
I would not call Woodville station or Goodwood quite adequate. Woodville is a major junction station but looks to be like no one really cares about it. The shelters there are made of old rails and don't look the best, the platform surface is bitumen that badly needs replacing in most of places the whole platform top could be raised here as well to be at almost floor level. The whole thing is a disgrace really and I would assume Goodwood and the others are close behind it.
They did up Port Adelaide station alright and it looks a lot more modern than the 1940 vintage buildings at Woodville.
The only station I think at the moment that is in dire need of an upgrade is probably the Islington station.
GN4472 Deputy Commissioner
While we're at it, Salisbury Station could use an up-grade too - It lacks proper pedestrian access on the down platform making it difficult to get to busses from the trains.
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"GN4472"
I thought the majority of down trains crossed over to use the eastern platform at Salisbury.
If only a handful of trains actually use that platform, an active level crossing is probably adequate until pedestrian access can be integrated into the future grade separation of the Park Terrace crossing and accompanied station rebuild which is inevitable at some point. If money is to be spent on Salisbury, the whole job should be done in one go and done right, adding a bodgy footbridge instead will create an excuse not to do it right for another generation.
Thornaby Chief Train Controller
I wonder how many people use the Marino's. Or Lonsdale.
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justapassenger
I've used Goodwood station to get to the pool before although not for many years of course; my recollection is that (as you say) those ramps are way too steep to be DDA compliant and they'll have to be re-done. As with many pedestrian underpasses it's also a bit too narrow and private and gets used as a toilet all the time. So hopefully they'll get around to doing all that, and replacing those shoddy shelters with something a bit more appropriate (minus the Scientology graffiti).
I'd imagine Lonsdale is used a bit by workers since there are factories out that way.
I've used Goodwood station to get to the pool before although not for many years of course; my recollection is that (as you say) those ramps are way too steep to be DDA compliant and they'll have to be re-done.
My favoured solution for that would be a nice wide shared path overpass at the southern end running alongside the tram line bridge, serving the dual purposes of the Mike Turtur Bikeway route (running alongside the full length of the tram corridor) and the station access.
There is a big question of the space available though. The current Goodwood platforms are quite narrow and might not be able to fit the minimum of two access options (stairs and lift, or stairs and ramp) from an overpass access. Equally, a compliant ramp from an underpass might not fit with a decent amount of platform space on either side.
Therefore, I wonder whether fixing Goodwood actually needs a complete rebuild to put Seaford-bound trains on a side platform with a wider island platform (with enough space for decent access) built for the Belair bidirectional track and ex-Seaford trains - roughly similar to the Wayville layout.
... and replacing those shoddy shelters with something a bit more appropriate (minus the Scientology graffiti).
In terms of the paintwork, even a group of people firing paintballs at the station on full auto would be more appropriate!
"Milkomeda"
I'd imagine that the majority of workers who actually work in the Lonsdale area would have a very different opinion about the usefulness of that station which only has a few small sites within a few hundred metres, the Lonsdale industrial area being spread out over roughly 2x2 kilometres and the station being right over on the western side. To be useful for people working in the area would require a good circuit bus route, and even then it would be contingent on the other end of the journey being near a station.
It probably last saw decent usage back when engine production was in full swing at Mitsubishi which is reasonably close to the north of the station. Since then, there's a fair chance that the largest source of traffic has been one that will soon shift to Seaford Meadows - rail staff shuttling between signing on at the depot and starting work at the Noarlunga terminus.
Only after 7-00pm do Gawler bound trains cross over to the Eastern platform when the line is not so busy.
My local MP, Mr Lee Odenwalder told me that Salisbury Station will be getting an upgrade soon - The sooner, the better!
What is needed is a Northern pedestrian access so we can get to our North bound buses easier in the hours leading up to 7-00pm.
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