20 October 2020

Plans lodged for Mitchell light rail station

| Ian Bushnell
Join the conversation
68
Canberra light rail vehicle.

The Mitchell light rail stop is expected to be completed by the middle of 2021. Photo: File.

A light rail stop at Mitchell is a step closer with the lodging of plans for the $900,000 project.

The 14th station on the Stage 1 route will be sited on Flemington Road at the intersection with Sandford Street and will service the Mitchell business precinct.

The island stop between the existing rail tracks will match the design of other stops on the Gungahlin-to-City line.

Passengers will access the stop via the existing pedestrian crossings across Flemington Road at the intersection.

The construction of Stage 1 allowed space for a future station to be built at Mitchell so this project will involve the removal of landscaped areas, erection of a largely prefabricated stop structure, and connection to the existing conduits and services.

The platform will have enough space for a potential future extension to suit a 45-metre light rail vehicle (LRV) if required. Current LRVs are 33 metres.

Construction is expected to start by the end of the year, coinciding with the holiday period to take advantage of reduced traffic, and will take about seven months to complete.

Funding for the project came through in June 2020 as part of a joint Commonwealth-ACT infrastructure announcement.

Mitchell traders, whose businesses suffered throughout the light rail construction period, lobbied hard for the stop to be added to the route.

In June, Mitchell Traders Association president Michael Warnock said the Mitchell stop is well overdue and should have been included in Stage 1 of the light rail project.

He said the planned Sandford Street stop would reduce parking pressures in Mitchell, boost business and provide greater access to the city.

“For people coming in, it was quite a long walk either from Old Well Station Road or from EPIC, which is where most people seem to come from,” said Mr Warnock. “It will be great to have that access at long last.

“We had to be patient, had to wait, but they have been true to their word. They did say they would do it before Stage 2A [from the city to Commonwealth Park].”

ACT Minister for Transport Chris Steel said the new stop would provide better access to the Mitchell business district in addition to the existing stop at Well Station Drive.

A construction compound will be established on Randwick Road in Lyneham, and a traffic management plan will be in place.

Join the conversation

68
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest
Capital Retro7:23 am 21 Oct 20

Re the travel times, the announcement on this reported by ABC 666 this morning is diabolical spin. It said ” the stop at Mitchell will be 10 minutes from Gungahlin and 25 minutes to the City” which is probably totally collect but they omitted to quote the total travel time from Gungahlin to the City and the return trip which will include slowing down at Mitchell, stopping at Mitchell and accelerating out of Mitchell.

Capital Retro7:50 am 21 Oct 20

should be “correct” instead of “collect”

It’s not correct at all.

It will be 10 to Gungahlin and 15 minutes to the city with Gungahlin to city times changing from 24 to 25 minutes.

And I sense the cynicism in your post, what ever anyone says about light rail the one thing that it does and does well is offers a consistent travel time during both peak and off peak times. When the buses run there was a 20 minute difference between the peak and off peak journey times due solely to congestion on Flemmington Road and Northborne Ave.

Capital Retro4:07 pm 21 Oct 20

I concede that the 25 minutes leg should have been 15 minutes – all figures look the same early morning, but the report said nothing about “consistency in travel times”.

JC,
The reliability of travel times has little to do with light rail itself and everything to do with a dedicated route with right of way at intersections.

Chewy true but my point still stands. Light rail has delivered consistency of journey time.

Not the probably that Capital Retro was inferring like the figures were somehow fabricated. All about context of the comment.

Capital Retro9:11 am 22 Oct 20

How long does a tram stop at a station, JC? That wasn’t mentioned in the report and neither was the total time between the two terminals so, without that elapsed time being added, the figures were indeed fabricated.

Ah total journey time of 24 minutes is what has been timetabled and consistently delivered in the time the thing has been in service.

Each stop is for one minute which when added to the existing run time matches the figures of 10 Gungahlin to mitchell and 15 mitchell to city or 25 end to end.

Not sure where anything has been fabricated or made up or why the faux outrage except we all get it you hate lightrail despite its success along that corridor.

JC,
I agree with that.

Despite the fact that I think it shouldn’t have been built (yet), what has been delivered is actually a good project that works well and consistently delivers what was proposed.

Capital Retro,
The light rail has set dwell times at stations which are factored in to the overall timetable. Because it has so many doors, this limits the amount of time it needs to be stationary at each station which aids in the consistency of the trip time.

Capital Retro12:05 pm 22 Oct 20

Success? Compared to what?

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.