Moreland Leader last week ran a poll comparing station designs between the Level Crossing Removal Project early station artist drawings with the Upfield Corridor Coalition artist impressions which showed 65 percent support for the community driven designs.
The poll was simplistic, leaving it up to comments to provide further detail and context.
The Leader Newspaper today featured the story of the poll and level crossing removal on the Front page.
Reaching for the sky
Community-created station designs win the popular vote
Josh BarnesA fed-up community group has developed its own designs for the look of sky rail in Coburg and Brunswick.
And they have trumped the official designs in the eyes of the public.
The Upfield Corridor Coalition commissioned its own images of how the crossing removals could look at Moreland and Coburg train stations, as well as at Moreland Rd.
The designs were created with money supplied to the coalition by Moreland Council for activism on the removals.
They show open spaces beneath the rail, used for dining and cafes, with marked lanes for bicycle riders. Coalition spokesman James Conlan said they weren’t final designs but created a chance to get the community speaking about what they want to see from the works.
He said there were fears completed designs wouldn’t be released by the LXRP before construction begins and proper consultation wouldn’t take place.
The vision created by the coalition lists five key demands — heritage protection, public transport connection, making use of open space, safety and residential amenity and cycling and pedestrian access.
North West program project director Michael Caink said the LXRP would gather more feedback soon to continue to shape its final designs.
Leader readers clearly favoured the look of the coalition’s design over images released by the State Government in June.
A Moreland Leader Facebook poll gathered 619 votes, with the public design favoured with 65 per cent of the vote, but commenters were mixed.
Local Leader journalist Josh Barnes had a more in depth article in the Saturday edition of the Herald Sun newspaper: Locals Unveil Own SkyRail Designs.
Upfield Corridor Coalition 