The new St Albans and Ginifer stations - in pictures
The Minister for Public Transport, Jacinta Allan, has held a re-opening of St Albans and Ginifer stations ceremony this morning with trains now running on the new grade separated alignment.
In both cases, the rail line was lowered beneath the road grade. Before the metro services were extended to Watergardens (and subsequently Sunbury), St Albans used to be the terminus and had a third, terminating, platform. This legacy terminating and stabling infrastructure has now been removed.
Likewise at Ginifer, the new station has been rebuilt to front Furlong Road. Previously the platforms were located approximately 100-150 metres from Furlong Road.
The new Ginifer station entrance is now a mere 200 metre walk from the Sunshine Hospital site which will see major investment over the coming years when the Joan Kirner Womens and Childrens hospital is built on the existing site.
Public Transport Users Association spokesperson, Daniel Bowen, visited both stations on Cup Day and has written a blog post on the history behind the area's level crossing removals. The following images are Daniel's and have been republished with permission.
Like the stations between Caulfield and Moorabbin that were recently re-built, work is still ongoing however train services are now running once more and basic station facilities are now open.
Ginifer
St Albans
To see more images, see Daniel Bower's blog.
Main Road (St Albans Station) will close on Friday so the old tracks can be removed and the road will be resurfaced. The road is due to re-open on the 28th of November.
The Minister for Public Transport also announced the next construction 'blitz' is due to start on Friday this week with services on the entire Belgrave branch from Ringwood to be replaced by buses as the Bayswater level crossing removals kick up a gear.
Scoresby Road will be closed from the 2nd (today) until the 19th of November. Mountain Highway will close from the 20th of November until the 23rd of December.
