New line will open key access routes for Melbourne’s strongest growth corridor
The South Morang to Mernda transport corridor is approximately 8 km in length and was part of the former Whittlesea rail-line that was decommissioned and dismantled in 1959. The rail reservation was retained by the Victorian Government with the rail-line recently extended from Epping to South Morang, having been commissioned in April 2012. The Victorian Government now proposes to further extend metropolitan rail services from South Morang to Mernda as part of the Mernda Rail Extension Project.
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It is proposed that the Project will include:
Marymede is a low density residential community with typically detached houses and the Marymede Catholic College located on the western side of the Mernda rail corridor opposite the station. The Station precinct has been designed with a focus on maintaining and enhancing existing connections between Marymede Catholic College and the surrounding transport network. The station is an on grade side platform typology with a rail bridge located on the northern end of the platforms for a required pedestrian underpass to connect to the eastern side of the rail line on the southern side of the Whittlesea Council Right Of Way. We envision the precinct and station at Marymede to become a central part of community life with the catholic school, residential neighbourhood, parkland and future development.
Hawkstowe is a parkland precinct with sensitive, rich surrounding landscapes. The precinct has been designed to reflect both the possibility that the station be built concurrently to the elevated rail line, but also to allow for the station to be constructed and integrated with the active line in the future.
The Hawkstowe station architecture applies elements such as canopies and station modules at Marymede to the elevated rail structure coupled with a striking screen and platform canopy form to extend the conceptual narrative of the Mernda landscape. The station balances the scale of the structures traversing the landscape to create a high quality suburban station befitting the unique qualities of Hawkstowe. Consideration has been given to the nearby residents along the eastern boundary of the station. This has resulted in set-out of the station precinct facilities to include a significant landscape buffer between existing housing and the Station Access Road.
The arrival of the rail extension will be a catalyst for the Mernda town centre anchored by a supermarket with potential to generate masterplanned mixed use development. The changes to this largely rural setting envisaged over the decades ahead requires a forward thinking station design to attract patronage as a civic gesture. The Station design considers the initial phase with the establishment of commuter carparking on the north and east including a significant bus interchange. The intervention of a substantial elevated rail structure on this generally flat open rural landscape will be visually significant as the landscape changes from rural to urban. The station has been conceived in the round with the primary address facing north toward the carparks and future supermarket with a main street allowed for to the south. The civil design enables a clear separation between pedestrians, cyclists, buses and private vehicles with flexibility for expansion to the future town centre road network. The station gateline faces a northern plaza that is both a destination and a hub for a suggested east west pedestrian spine that could underpin the town centre. The station architecture is modulated between the elevated rail structure to allow for natural light into and sightlines through the station concourse.
Flythrough Video
Marymede Station
Hawkstowe Station
Mernda Station
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