Trains at the new Bell Station - Metro Trains Melbourne

Описание: In this video we visit the new Bell station, situated on the Mernda Line in Melbourne's northern suburbs. The new station opened on the 5th September 2022 as part of a large grade separation project to remove four level crossings on the Mernda Line, which also included the rebuilding of nearby Preston station. Bell station in particular was grade separated to remove the level crossings at Bell Street; a major east-west arterial road in northern Melbourne, and Oakover Road.

In the video we visit the new station on the weekend after opening. We take a quick look around the new station before seeing various Metro Trains Melbourne X'trapolis trains arrive and depart the station. We also see a three-car X'trapolis pass through the station on a driver training run.

The general design and layout of Bell station is nearly identical to the new Coburg station on the Upfield Line which opened in 2020. It's so similar it's literally as though they pressed ctrl + c and ctrl + v, with the only major difference between the two being the colour scheme and that Bell has some extra platform shelters. Once you look into it a little more though it's not surprising that the stations are near identical as both were designed by the same architecture firm; Wood Marsh Architecture.

I really do like the design of the main station building, the purple materials really pops and the coloured stained glass adjoining the stairways is certainly unique. Like many of Melbourne's modern stations these days though it has stupid upward sloped shelters that don't provide the greatest of weather protection, but unlike Coburg at least they backed them with some perforated panels on the walls so not all the wind and rail will get through, so that's a plus.

On opening weekend only the platforms were operational, linked only to the concourse below by stairs. The customer service counter, lifts, enclosed waiting room and toilets were still under construction. This leaves Bell somewhat of a relatively uncompleted station at the time of opening, even by Melbourne standards as usually other newly built stations as part of grade separation projects at least have the customer service counter and other facilities operational at the time of opening. Construction will continue with the project expected to be fully completed by early 2023.

Music used: Nicholette Casey - R9 Up In The Dead Of Night.

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