Midland Station

If Midland Station was to stay in its current location, it would need to be significantly demolished and rebuilt to allow a connection to the new railcar depot, and provide for future Midland Line extensions. This would cause significant disruption to urban and regional train passengers and people getting to the station.  and the local road network. By building the new Midland Station in its proposed location, it can be built offline and therefore minimise overall disruption to passengers and the community.  The new station can also be designed and built to optimise the experience for current and future passengers and people using the station, with design elements that will be challenging to retrofit into the existing station.

The Helena Street level crossing will be closed as growth in freight rail operations as well as the trains travelling to the new station would mean that, if it remained open, the boom gates would be down for extensive periods of time. To maintain movement in the area a new crossing will open at Cale Street which will have fewer trains operating through it and thus less closure time and corresponding impacts on local connectivity across the rail corridor.

The proposed new Midland Station location balances bringing the station closer to the town centre while ensuring a road connection is maintained through the area. If the station was closer to, or east of, Cale Street, moving the level crossing here would be difficult due to safety and the boom gates being down for a significant amount of time because of train movements.  This would negatively impact pedestrian, cycling and vehicle trips through the area.

Previous State and local planning for the Midland town centre identified Cale Street as a key ‘spine’ and connector road for the area. The other roads east of Midland Station were not planned or designed to cater for this type of movement.

Grade separations were considered but are challenging due to the area’s built-up nature, land constraints and the need to cross both the passenger and freight rail. Work assessing grade separation options around Midland are ongoing as part of the Public Transport Authority’s long term plan to remove level crossings on the passenger network. The proposed level crossing at Cale Street will support connectivity across the rail corridor in the Midland town centre.

During the options analysis phase, the complexities of extending the Midland Line to a station in Bellevue were further explored. Based on these complexities the extension to Bellevue will be delivered as part of the next stage of the project.

While the option to lower or raise the rail was carefully assessed, it was not deemed viable at this time. Also, with the freight line running through this area, the full benefits of connectivity provided by lowering or raising the passenger rail would not be possible.