Re: Surrey Hills - another crossing failure II

["Michael Walker" <walker@hotkey.net.au>]

>Long after Surrey Hills and Mont Albert did not have their crossings
>eliminated, minor Watsonia had its railway lowered to eliminate a level
>crossing.  The grateful council then sealed off the road and turned the
>bridge into a carpark.
>
In the best interests of 'historical accuracy' this group has, I might point
out that at least TWO level crossings were eliminated in the lowering of the
railway at Watsonia, not A level crossing as stated.

The Grimshaw Street crossing was replaced by a road overbridge and the
William Street crossing (which was very steep before the lowering) was
eliminated and replaced by a pedestrian overbridge. Whilst young, I still
remember both and when the lowering was done. Don't remember enough about
Watsonia Road to remember if a level crossing was there too although this
would make sense.

Was it my imagination or was the line single before the lowering and double
after? I vaguely remember waiting for the down to arrive at Greensborough
before our train would leave but as noted above I was young at the time.

Can you also explain the 'grateful council' comment - is this a reference to
the closure of William Street. If so, I would probably agree with the
council, it was a very steep intersection and locally renowned for accidents
and/or near misses by cars not quite stopping in time on the steep hill - at
least that was the explanation I heard around the time.

As for the 'minor Watsonia' comment, I would suggest that whilst
Greensborough to Macleod was not as busy as SH and MA, we only had one line
vs. your three and Grimshaw Street was in those days, as now, quite a busy
road, especially when you consider that in those days there was no ring road
and Grimshaw Street was the only major road west from Greensborough in the
area. Mont Albert Road and Union Road are not especially busy roads compared
to Grimshaw Street and their main problems seem to be from the trains, not
because they are inherently busy roads (and before I get flamed, I lived for
20+ years in Greensborough and since then in the area and currently work
just off Mont Albert Road about 3-5 minutes drive from these railway
crossings) Would you have preferred that they left Canterbury Road with a
railway crossing so you could have had Union Road lowered?