By Goya Dmytryshchak
Hobsons Bay council is calling for a new train station at Altona North to service 4500 dwellings being built on its northern border with Maribyrnong, in the lead-up to the May federal election.
The former Don Smallgoods site at Altona North, known as Precinct 15, is to be developed into 3000 dwellings for about 7000 people.
A master plan for the Bradmill site, on the northern side of the West Gate Freeway at Yarraville, allows for 1500 dwellings.
Hobsons Bay mayor Jonathon Marsden said the council was calling for the Melbourne Metro 2 train line to have an additional link from Newport to Sunshine.
“Our ask also includes a new station in Altona North to cater for the growing community within the Altona North development site, Bradmill development and the Brooklyn business park,” he said.
“The new communities that are likely to arise in Precinct 15, and Bradmill across the freeway in Yarraville, could comprise many thousands of households and currently they have almost no transport options.
“Part of our Melbourne Metro 2 ask is that once it comes out at Newport from Fishermans Bend, then it runs up the goods line to Sunshine, which is the intersection of the West Gate Freeway where Precinct 15 is.”
The council is also calling for Grieve Parade to be upgraded as a preferred truck route as part of the West Gate Tunnel project.
“An unwanted consequence of the campaign to have truck bans along Francis and the other streets in Maribyrnong was that it shifted the burden over to our side,” Cr Marsden said.
“We feel that instead of sending them down Millers Road, which is a mixture of commercial, industrial and residential, that we send them north into the industrial areas through Grieve Parade because that’s what it’s built for, and through that onto the Ring Road as well.
“It just makes more sense to put trucks through industrial areas and onto the freeway rather than sending them down places like Millers Road that is going to affect people’s health.”
The council wants Grieve Parade extended north via Jones Road through to Market Road and the development of a regional freight management plan.
