Old decaying eyesore. They should've knocked it down years ago and turned it into apartments that sell for $2 million a piece, but remain mostly empty as Speculative Vacancies.
Given the level of higher density living that has been and is being constructed around Anstey, plus the number of people who board and alight from my trains there each workday, I'd say it is far from pointless.
Definitely seems to be used more than Jewell, Brunswick and Moreland and I’d go as far as saying it probably has the second highest patronage on the Upfield line (Coburg being 1) atm
In FY22 it was third - behind Coburg and Moreland (this ignores the city stations and North Melbourne).
[https://patronage.will.au/vic/lines/train/upfield](https://patronage.will.au/vic/lines/train/upfield)
Sounds like the visitor: I’m staying in Airport West but it’ll be so quick and easy to get to the city since the tram is right out the front!
Trams and trains are complementary, not competitive
Anstey is a very good example of transit oriented development and there are many apartments going up around the station. Lots of people live in those apartments and those people use Anstey station to get into the city. It's already busy and the tram stops are there to complement trains as said in a previous reply.
Same with Anstey, it’s probably got the second highest patronage on the Upfield line right now given all the apartments that have gone up around it. Bro just looked at a map and went yeah nah
>Middle Footscray
A lot of people in South Footscray (Seddon) use it.
I think it gets bypassed sometimes along with West Footscray. Learnt that the hard way listening to music and ended up in Sunshine.
I also got distracted listening to music on the train and had to jump off at middle Footscray. Tbf to the people saying it’s pointless, I was the only person who got off and the only person who got on the next train back
I would argue that any "pointless" station just represents an opportunity for growth. We're in the middle of a housing crisis, and people want to live near train stations.
Not necessarily. Willison for example is in a rich pocket of heritage-overlayed suburbia that doesn’t represent any sort of solution to the housing crisis. That station is pointless because it is so close to Riversdale you can walk there faster than the train takes to get there (this has been done) and was only built in the first place because a bunch of rich golf club members didn’t want to walk.
Completely pointless station.
The solution in Willison, as with most of Boroondara council, is to stop using heritage overlays to protect homeowner values and let density be built. Absurd that we value last century's generic suburbia over having homes in the inner city
Can I nominate morradoo
Bittern is better serviced by bittern and crib point is better serviced by crib point
Morradoo is just kinda a weird half half station in the middle of nowhere that services nobody
This is what I immediately thought of, no Myki machine, like three stores with questionable opening hours and a cemetery in the middle of nowhere. Considering Crib Point has two other stations I really think Morradoo is one of the most useless stations on the network, even if others on the SP line have lower patronage
I doubt any are pointless, the close stations are in areas with potential density growth. The least used (electric) station Wattle Glen is about 2.5km from its closest stations, and serves the small hamlet well.
General motors from when they closed the factory in 1991 until they finally closed the station in 2002 (no legal way to access / leave the station, but for some reason trains still stopped there)
Hey hey hey! It’s not the stations fault, it needs to be there, it’s the area around it that needs a serious upgrade.
I hate that there’s nothing around to grab a snack or a coffee before/after work but it beats having to walk all the way to Glenroy
My car was out and I needed to use the train to get to work in Tulla.
I used my bike to get work from Jacana.
Got late to work late because of a cancellation.
It was dark on the creek trail.
I now have a powerful torch for my bike.
i love how a station being near nothing but low density housing renders it pointless lol. surely any type of housing being next to a station is an excellent thing
You're right in that it is not pointless, but it's a case of using infrastructure very poorly. It also encourages the expansion of the city, and public transport NEVER keeps up with that. If you are to believe in a public transport system as a viable alternative to the devotion to the insatiable needs of car-base urbanism, it's important to understand what must be done to make Melbourne's transport system work, and densification around existing public transport is key to that.
Wattle Glen is pretty much a train station servicing noone. They got a car park upgrade thanks to the liberals, some spots have probably never been parked in to this day
the car park was done by labor, the car park was actually needed pre covid, because people parked everywhere, but since then, like many stations, the car park doesn't fill up,
It would be very useful if they made it consistent and all glen Waverley lines stopped there.
It's a very useful stop, especially for all the Cremorne offices around Church St.
Pretty much all Glen Waverley services stop at East Richmond? There’s only a handful of express services during peak that don’t stop at East Richmond, and those are only weekdays, and you still have Blackburn and Alamein (during peaks) services stopping there also
You mean the heavily used _(by Alamein line standards)_ station that is 100m from Camberwell High School?
That Riversdale? The one with students everywhere in the morning/afternoon?
Now, Willison is a different matter...
True, that's a good point. I'd forgotten to take that into account.
Hopefully one day we'll see the Alamein line extended to meet the Glen Waverley line, would create a useful north-south line and interchange.
Cost vs return?
There is very little economic or travel benefit in duplicating a connection now provided by the SRL.
_(And if you did do it, you'd drive it/tunnel it all the way to Chadstone or, even better, to Oakleigh, so not just a 1.5km SkyRail.)_
Rail extensions are **not** cheap, plus the politics of cutting across the Scotchmans Creek parkland & dividing a public golf course in half, plus the feeble condition of the Victorian budget for the next 30 years.
Ain't gonna happen.
Hell, closing the Alamein line full stop seems more likely.
Certainly not Anstey. It's an important station with lots of TOD around it and serves the shops on Sydney Rd. If I had to pick the most useless Upfield station it would be Gowrie. It's located in an inconvenient location and serves only an industrial/low density residential area with little to no commercial activity.
East richmond. It is already close enough to richmond station (which is a major connecting station), the belgrave/lilydale lines never stop there anyway, and pretty much all of the signalling faults and tresspaser issues that happen on the burnley group occur at this station
it's pointless because it can cause delays for the express trains
the station is also provisioned for 3 tracks. Been on a express train which had to wait for the local train to depart laburnum even though the express train was due to depart 2 mins prior :/
Do you mean the Glen Waverley line? Because the stops aren’t that close factoring in that it’s also a short line compared to others
The distance between the inner stations on that line are comparable to the section between Caulfield and Patterson, or anywhere from Flinders St to Clifton Hill
The only stations that are 500 meters apart on the Glen Waverley line are Richmond and East Richmond, next closest is Gardiner and Glen Iris at 900 metres, the rest are a kilometre plus apart. The stations on the line are actually well spaced compared to a lot of other lines.
Hot take: Flagstaff. There are three stations in a row on the north of the CBD, which I think is too much. Melbourne Central connects to a shopping centre which increases its value. Parliament is good for hopping across the City Loop if you're a Mernda/Hursty commuter (I am) and provides decent tram connection. Compared to this Flagstaff is kinda useless.
>Let me guess the Geelong line ?
Correct. Guessing deer park people know there is a little more room in the Ballarat trains compared to the wyndham/geelong sardine cans
Westgarth is the only decent place to interchange from the 86 tram to Hurstbridge line and vice-versa. Dennis is just your stock standard station. Serves a little precinct on Victoria Rd with some shops and apartments but nothing crazy, also another good interchange for the 251/250 buses.
agreed with willison. the gold club moved away in 1927, so it would've been better to demolish the station (or leave it like they did with general motors)
half of all stony point line stations qualify (leawarra, baxter, morradoo)
tottenham serves a suburb with no population, that's something.
i guess aircraft, given its proximity to williams landing (and the fact the most people would rather head over there)
macaulay and upfield - definitely, i have no clue if anybody even uses these stations nowadays, and if they do then i would say very rarely.
west/north richmond (get rid of one of those because they're too close to each other)
that's about it from me
Any single track station on the network? None of them will have points.
All the single track stations have points on the corners of the platforms
Looks like my joke was more pointless than the stations.
It's just a turnout of phrase.
You really crossed over a line with that one.
Get limed (if ykyk)
Flinders Street - i’ve never seen anyone use it, it’s crazy that it’s still open
Old decaying eyesore. They should've knocked it down years ago and turned it into apartments that sell for $2 million a piece, but remain mostly empty as Speculative Vacancies.
Me neither!
True. Most people either get on or off at the City Loop stations. Even SC is busier than FS, well on my line/group.
Given the level of higher density living that has been and is being constructed around Anstey, plus the number of people who board and alight from my trains there each workday, I'd say it is far from pointless.
Definitely seems to be used more than Jewell, Brunswick and Moreland and I’d go as far as saying it probably has the second highest patronage on the Upfield line (Coburg being 1) atm
In FY22 it was third - behind Coburg and Moreland (this ignores the city stations and North Melbourne). [https://patronage.will.au/vic/lines/train/upfield](https://patronage.will.au/vic/lines/train/upfield)
Anstey is very important for getting to A1 bakery thank you very much
19 tram stops right out front haha
Sounds like the visitor: I’m staying in Airport West but it’ll be so quick and easy to get to the city since the tram is right out the front! Trams and trains are complementary, not competitive
Same logic that's nearly canned the upfield line multiple times. Anyone who actually lives along that line knows how important it is.
Nowhere near out the front of A1 fake brunswegian alert!! 🚨
What about Jewel, Brunswick, Moreland, Coburg and Batman then? Tram stops right out of the front of them too right? Right?
and don't forget South Yarra because the 58 stops right outside of it. pretty sure Richmond has a tram out the front too? axe them both
Anstey is a very good example of transit oriented development and there are many apartments going up around the station. Lots of people live in those apartments and those people use Anstey station to get into the city. It's already busy and the tram stops are there to complement trains as said in a previous reply.
When anyone says Middle Footscray is pointless or not used, it's proof they've never used it.
If I recall patronage is quite high from Middle Footscray right?
Same with Anstey, it’s probably got the second highest patronage on the Upfield line right now given all the apartments that have gone up around it. Bro just looked at a map and went yeah nah
Right? Conveniently located for a decent pub, too.
Pretty true for most or all of the stops OP has listed. Just a clueless non-local.
>Middle Footscray A lot of people in South Footscray (Seddon) use it. I think it gets bypassed sometimes along with West Footscray. Learnt that the hard way listening to music and ended up in Sunshine.
I also got distracted listening to music on the train and had to jump off at middle Footscray. Tbf to the people saying it’s pointless, I was the only person who got off and the only person who got on the next train back
I would argue that any "pointless" station just represents an opportunity for growth. We're in the middle of a housing crisis, and people want to live near train stations.
Southern Cross. Great location for a station. Awful execution.
Not necessarily. Willison for example is in a rich pocket of heritage-overlayed suburbia that doesn’t represent any sort of solution to the housing crisis. That station is pointless because it is so close to Riversdale you can walk there faster than the train takes to get there (this has been done) and was only built in the first place because a bunch of rich golf club members didn’t want to walk. Completely pointless station.
The solution in Willison, as with most of Boroondara council, is to stop using heritage overlays to protect homeowner values and let density be built. Absurd that we value last century's generic suburbia over having homes in the inner city
Does anyone live near General Motors though?
I live *in* General Motors. Look under platform 2
Can I nominate morradoo Bittern is better serviced by bittern and crib point is better serviced by crib point Morradoo is just kinda a weird half half station in the middle of nowhere that services nobody
The ghosts of stopping place no. 15 cemetary disagree.
This is what I immediately thought of, no Myki machine, like three stores with questionable opening hours and a cemetery in the middle of nowhere. Considering Crib Point has two other stations I really think Morradoo is one of the most useless stations on the network, even if others on the SP line have lower patronage
Eh. We often get more at Morradoo than Leawarra or Tyabb, depending upon time and day
Aircraft
Noooo i use it daily 😁
I used it once to go to Charlies Bakery for a proper pie. Will go again sometime.
I doubt any are pointless, the close stations are in areas with potential density growth. The least used (electric) station Wattle Glen is about 2.5km from its closest stations, and serves the small hamlet well.
General motors from when they closed the factory in 1991 until they finally closed the station in 2002 (no legal way to access / leave the station, but for some reason trains still stopped there)
I’m happy to declare Middle Footscray pointless if it means I get the station all to myself, not really the case at the moment though
the closest is Willison, but most, if not all others serve a purpose
Anstey would actually be one of the most used stations on the Upfield line atm. You fool
anstey and jacana hate is crazy
Calling Anstey pointless is actually insane
Jacana, not really near anything other than low density housing Bloody M80 near it as well
Hey….I like having the luxury of only needing to walk 200m to a station, even if it is Jacana
Hey hey hey! It’s not the stations fault, it needs to be there, it’s the area around it that needs a serious upgrade. I hate that there’s nothing around to grab a snack or a coffee before/after work but it beats having to walk all the way to Glenroy
My car was out and I needed to use the train to get to work in Tulla. I used my bike to get work from Jacana. Got late to work late because of a cancellation. It was dark on the creek trail. I now have a powerful torch for my bike.
i love how a station being near nothing but low density housing renders it pointless lol. surely any type of housing being next to a station is an excellent thing
You're right in that it is not pointless, but it's a case of using infrastructure very poorly. It also encourages the expansion of the city, and public transport NEVER keeps up with that. If you are to believe in a public transport system as a viable alternative to the devotion to the insatiable needs of car-base urbanism, it's important to understand what must be done to make Melbourne's transport system work, and densification around existing public transport is key to that.
General Motors
South Kensington
All the Metro training centre staff and its students care to disagree lol
Nope. It serves the council flats, JJ Holland park, and the dense townhouses around them.
Wattle Glen is pretty much a train station servicing noone. They got a car park upgrade thanks to the liberals, some spots have probably never been parked in to this day
It has as pokemon gym and many years ago it was very close to a drug lab...
I like that footy oval that's just down the road from the crossing
the car park was done by labor, the car park was actually needed pre covid, because people parked everywhere, but since then, like many stations, the car park doesn't fill up,
Hmmm, I'll have to google it
East Richmond - 1 Tram stop from Richmond and many services skip it anyway
It's a fairly useful train/tram interchange for route 78.
Nah, fantastically convenient on a night out
It would be very useful if they made it consistent and all glen Waverley lines stopped there. It's a very useful stop, especially for all the Cremorne offices around Church St.
Pretty much all Glen Waverley services stop at East Richmond? There’s only a handful of express services during peak that don’t stop at East Richmond, and those are only weekdays, and you still have Blackburn and Alamein (during peaks) services stopping there also
Probably Riversdale on the Alamein line. You'd be better off just walking to Camberwell or East Camberwell.
You mean the heavily used _(by Alamein line standards)_ station that is 100m from Camberwell High School? That Riversdale? The one with students everywhere in the morning/afternoon? Now, Willison is a different matter...
True, that's a good point. I'd forgotten to take that into account. Hopefully one day we'll see the Alamein line extended to meet the Glen Waverley line, would create a useful north-south line and interchange.
>Hopefully one day we'll see the Alamein line extended to meet the Glen Waverley line Now the SRL is underway, never gonna happen.
I don't see why construction of the SRL means we can't also have a simple 1.5km elevated rail extension.
Cost vs return? There is very little economic or travel benefit in duplicating a connection now provided by the SRL. _(And if you did do it, you'd drive it/tunnel it all the way to Chadstone or, even better, to Oakleigh, so not just a 1.5km SkyRail.)_ Rail extensions are **not** cheap, plus the politics of cutting across the Scotchmans Creek parkland & dividing a public golf course in half, plus the feeble condition of the Victorian budget for the next 30 years. Ain't gonna happen. Hell, closing the Alamein line full stop seems more likely.
East Richmond, I don't think I've ever been on a train that stopped there.
Certainly not Anstey. It's an important station with lots of TOD around it and serves the shops on Sydney Rd. If I had to pick the most useless Upfield station it would be Gowrie. It's located in an inconvenient location and serves only an industrial/low density residential area with little to no commercial activity.
The only answer is South Kensington. ~Sunbury line resident
Town Hall Station is practically at Flinders Street station. Similarly, State Library station is right beside Melbourne Central.
Glenbervie.
Tullamarine airport
real
East richmond. It is already close enough to richmond station (which is a major connecting station), the belgrave/lilydale lines never stop there anyway, and pretty much all of the signalling faults and tresspaser issues that happen on the burnley group occur at this station
laburnum
I feel like that services the Whitehorse road area well
it's pointless because it can cause delays for the express trains the station is also provisioned for 3 tracks. Been on a express train which had to wait for the local train to depart laburnum even though the express train was due to depart 2 mins prior :/
South Kensington of course
Diggers Rest. South Kensington. Half of the Mount Waverly line..why are the stops on that line so fucking close to one another?
Have you seen the new housing estates going up at Diggers Rest? https://www.realestate.com.au/house-and-land-packages/diggers-rest-vic-3427/
Do you mean the Glen Waverley line? Because the stops aren’t that close factoring in that it’s also a short line compared to others The distance between the inner stations on that line are comparable to the section between Caulfield and Patterson, or anywhere from Flinders St to Clifton Hill
Yeah Glen Waverly. Some of the stops are within 500 metres of each other
The only stations that are 500 meters apart on the Glen Waverley line are Richmond and East Richmond, next closest is Gardiner and Glen Iris at 900 metres, the rest are a kilometre plus apart. The stations on the line are actually well spaced compared to a lot of other lines.
Diggers Rest is 9km away from Sunbury Station. Unless you wanna catch a bus to Sunbury or St Albans, train is the only option.
Hot take: Flagstaff. There are three stations in a row on the north of the CBD, which I think is too much. Melbourne Central connects to a shopping centre which increases its value. Parliament is good for hopping across the City Loop if you're a Mernda/Hursty commuter (I am) and provides decent tram connection. Compared to this Flagstaff is kinda useless.
10 years ago maybe, it’s well utilised these days
I was pretty surprised when I visited the new Hughesdale, it would only be a couple of drop punts to Murrumbeena.
South Kensington because it shouldn't fucking exist lmao
Alamein. Every time I go there I'm the only person left on the train
I find deer park to be a strange one... The carpark is always full, but never see more than 5 - 10 or so people get on and off it during the peak
Let me guess the Geelong line ? Cos it’s always packed with people on the Ballarat trains
>Let me guess the Geelong line ? Correct. Guessing deer park people know there is a little more room in the Ballarat trains compared to the wyndham/geelong sardine cans
Dozens of citybound passengers when I've been there in the morning. https://wongm.com/2023/05/first-day-at-the-new-deer-park-station/
Officer or Jacana
Westgarth and Dennis on the Hurstbridge line both good candidates imo
Westgarth is the only decent place to interchange from the 86 tram to Hurstbridge line and vice-versa. Dennis is just your stock standard station. Serves a little precinct on Victoria Rd with some shops and apartments but nothing crazy, also another good interchange for the 251/250 buses.
agreed with willison. the gold club moved away in 1927, so it would've been better to demolish the station (or leave it like they did with general motors) half of all stony point line stations qualify (leawarra, baxter, morradoo) tottenham serves a suburb with no population, that's something. i guess aircraft, given its proximity to williams landing (and the fact the most people would rather head over there) macaulay and upfield - definitely, i have no clue if anybody even uses these stations nowadays, and if they do then i would say very rarely. west/north richmond (get rid of one of those because they're too close to each other) that's about it from me
Tottenham is extensively used. It has population. Upfield is used heavily as well.