DONCASTER MONORAIL A VIABLE TRANSPORT LINK
HIGH SPEED MONORAIL TO SOUTHERN CROSS STATION
Eight-carriage trains every three minutes: Providing the long-awaited high-capacity public transport link to Doncaster from the Melbourne CBD.
The following travel time is likely: Flinders Street – Doncaster Hill: About 18 km in 18 minutes. (Click on Photos to enlarge)
Beats the Doncaster Rail Option: The high capacity monorail is more cost-effective than the $11 billion study option which ends near Greythorn more than 1.2 km away from Doncaster Hill.
This monorail link would use eight-carriage monorail trains from the outset to achieve a carrying capacity of over 15,000 passengers per hour per direction.The cost range estimate is less than $1 billion
.for all monorail components. This estimate is to be further refined by ongoing analysis.
Extension East: At the Doncaster end .the line could continue along Doncaster Road as far as required.
Resident Benefits
Home-owners near the monorail line receive the following benefits depending on their proximity to the monorail track:
- Removal of overhead power and other wires which are to be relocated underground.
- A daily payment during construction of the monorail outside their properties.
- A monthly payment for the life of the monorail system related to ticket sales for residential property within 20 meters of the track. This is anticipated to be between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars per annum depending on proximity to the track.
- A vegetated tree-way under the monorail track and extra trees along the sides of the street where possible.
- Extra public transport in their area.
The monorail option has several advantages over the rail options:
- The monorail option does not interfere with rail operations and runs directly into the CBD.
- The monorail can be more easily be extended east than a rail subway.
- The monorail option is far cheaper than any option involving a tunnel.

4 Comments
If it is feasible we should go for it! The $1 Billion price tag is equal to what it would cost for just one kilometer of tunneling, besides I don’t think anybody has ever taken the Doncaster railway seriously, not even our elected representatives who keep using it in their election campaigns.
This is the first I’ve heard of the Doncaster Monorail. Where can we get more information about Melbourne Sky Rail? Has state government and Manningham council considered the plan? The cost of $1 billion would be chicken feed compared with the $11 billion Doncaster railway proposal that was never going to be built and wouldn’t have gone to Doncaster Hill anyway.
If we are not going to get a railway line to Doncaster Park and Ride, let alone to Doncaster Hill, we should be supporting a the Monorail if it is possible.
Why do we keep wasting money on these expensive rail studies? The line was officially abandoned after an independent panel recommended against it in 1991 because of the cost, but it was already dead and buried in 1984, when the land reserved for its construction, was sold off by the then Cain government.
The 15 year period for completion of a railway to Doncaster is nothing but a ploy to ensure the individuals currently accountable for the deception would have moved on by that time.
The removal of the privately owned Sydney Monorail does not augur well for its chances of being adopted in Melbourne but it would be a goer if it were government owned.
The Sydney Monorail was a privately-owned transportation system, which meant the corporation that owned it intended to run it for a profit. High ticket prices followed, more than double the existing transport options, which immediately started putting people off travelling on it. Instead, they chose the cheaper options like buses, trains or walking.