Metro 2, Too
Metro 2, Too
The once-proposed Metro 2 line should be recognised as the critical component and the primary driver of Melbourne's Fishermans Bend urban renewal project
Several years ago I was having a chat with my then-local MP and Victorian planning minister, Richard Wynne. The discussion was about Metro 2, the once-proposed train line that would link Newport in Melbourne’s west to Fishermans Bend underneath the Yarra River, before travelling up through Southern Cross Station to the new Parkville station and on to Clifton Hill – connecting to the Mernda and Hurstbridge lines in the north, and the Werribee line in the West.
I made the assertion that Metro 2 was a “game-changer” of a rail-line, to which Wynne quickly shot back that it was actually the soon to be completed Metro 1 that was the game-changer. The problem was that in our assessments we were thinking about public transport in completely different ways.
For Wynne, Metro 1 was the game-changer because it solved a problem. The problem is the current lack of capacity in the City Loop and the need to disconnect several lines from it in order to run more frequent trains. In terms of doing what it is being built to do, yes, Metro 1 is a game-changer.
But my assertion was that Metro 2 was the more consequential project because it was a creative endeavour. Metro 2 would be the driver of the Fishermans Bend urban renewal project. Without Metro 2, Fishermans Bend will be an isolated, difficult to access cul de sac, that won’t just be “another Docklands” – the previously poorly executed urban renewable project – it will be worse.
Governments tend to see infrastructure as a response to problems once they become untenable. The current thinking in the Victorian government seems to be that the Metro 2 project will be necessary once the population and economic activity within Fishermans Bend warrants it. Yet without good public transport connections Fishermans Bend simply won’t be attractive to people, businesses, educational and cultural institutions. The public transport creates the attraction, not the other way around.
There are currently tentative plans for two new tramlines into the precinct. Yet Fishermans Bend covers an area almost three times the size of the CBD, which has five train stations (soon to be seven with the completion of Metro 1) and 23 tram routes running through it. This, to be blunt, is the reason the CBD is the CBD. Its ease of access and dense network of travel options is why it is the city’s most attractive and vibrant area. It may be difficult for people who don’t catch public transport to understand, but most of what is good about cities is created by people who do.
This means that for Fishermans Bend to reach its full potential it needs more than just two tramlines. It needs Metro 2 with at least two stations, but also multiple, multi-directional trams that frequently criss-cross the precinct and connect it not only with the CBD, but the south and east of the city as well. The objective should be to make Fishermans Bend as hostile to cars and as welcoming to foot traffic as the CBD is.
Which leads to the other major problem Fishermans Bend has – the Westgate Freeway. The freeway is a massive Berlin Wall running through the area that will prevent Fishermans Bend from integrating itself seamlessly with Southbank, South Melbourne and Port Melbourne. The only solution to this is to move it entirely underground from the Domain Tunnel through to the Westgate Bridge.
This would free up space for a lush linear park and tram boulevard as the centrepiece of the renewed Fishermans Bend precinct. Melbourne used to be good at grand boulevards - think St Kilda Road, Royal Parade, and Victoria Parade (although not Kings Way, which is a blight) – there’s an opportunity here to reclaim this spirit and vision for the city.
The key to the success of Fishermans Bend will not only be its transport connections and walkability, but who has ease of access to the precinct. Arguably Metro 2’s link under the river to Newport is its most critical component. It would provide an explosion of new opportunities for the rapidly growing western suburbs, as well as a new quick and easy way for these suburbs to reach the CBD. Compared to Melbourne’s east, the western suburbs have a glaring lack of public transport options available to them, and with the Suburban Rail Loop beginning construction in the southeast the government owes the west some greater respect and investment.
Fishermans Bend presents Melbourne with an extraordinary opportunity to enhance its reputation as a city and expand its economic, cultural and social strength. But this opportunity relies on the government understanding and fully committing to the actual drivers of activity, vibrancy and placemaking. Great cities aren’t made by cars, it is their public transport networks that are their true circulatory systems, which most importantly includes their heart.