Mentone Station up and running

We’re removing 18 level crossings and building 12 new stations as part of a $3 billion upgrade of the Frankston line that will improve safety, reduce congestion and allow more trains to run more often.

Your new Mentone Station opened on Monday 20 July. It features seamless connections to the new Mentone Renaissance area and a modern station design to revitalise the station precinct. The expanded Mentone Station gardens will undergo a major landscaping program and will connect to the new heritage deck, preserving Mentone’s rich rail history.

With trains back up and running, we will complete finishing works in the station precinct by early 2021, including landscaping, streetscaping and building a new car park.

Your new station precinct has been revitalised with modern seating, new ‘kiss and ride’ pick-up and drop-off zones and a new taxi rank on Como Parade West. There’s still more to come, with accessible parking spaces and additional bike parking with a Parkiteer cage and bike hoops ready soon.

The new Mentone Station offers improved accessibility for the whole community, with ramps, lifts and stairs to get you between the concourse and platforms. Brand new station facilities include accessible public toilets, a kiosk and electronic information displays. These displays will assist passengers transitioning between services and are available on the platforms, station concourse and in the bus interchange on Como Parade West.

The station has a modern climate controlled waiting area at the station entrance as well as sheltered seating on the platforms to provide weather protection year-round. We’ve designed the station to be located in the shallow part of the trench to allow more natural light on the platforms.

By early 2021, upgraded parking for rail passengers will be available in the previous station car park off Balcombe Road and along Como Parade East and Como Parade West, with improved lighting and CCTV.

Mentone Station’s new location offers better connections between the shopping precinct, bus interchange and nearby schools and easy access from one side of the rail line to the other. Together with the new signalised intersection at Balcombe Road and Como Parade West, local trips will be aster, safer and easier for thousands of local students, pedestrians and cyclists.

The station forecourt will feature Indigenous designs inspired by the Traditional Owners, the Bunurong people. Created by local artist Steve Ulula Parker, diamond patterns symbolising unity and other symbols will be etched in the footpath and around the forecourt. A highlight of the station forecourt artwork will be the six totem poles featuring patterns representing the diverse Bunurong clans.

The improved station precinct connects to the new 3.5-kilometre walking and cycling path between Mentone and Cheltenham, making it easier for people to walk and cycle around their local area and helping make Mentone a safer and more vibrant area.

Your new Mentone Station will feature a modern forecourt. Along with the expanded Mentone Station gardens and heritage deck there will be plenty of open space to enjoy. Artist impression only. Subject to change.

New and improved heritage gardens

With the spring planting season around the corner, we will soon start landscaping the much-loved station gardens. You told us that the traditional design of the gardens was important to the local community, so we will be reinstating some favourite features, including the ‘boomerang’ hedge and the Garryowen horse trough.

The five heritage-listed trees – two Norfolk Island pines and three Canary Island date palms – that have been carefully protected on site during works will once again be the centrepiece of the gardens. Around them we will plant birds of paradise and silver waves succulents that we salvaged from the gardens earlier this year.

We will also plant new peppercorn trees and jasmine, along with new subtropical varieties and groundcovers, including the Canary Islands dragon tree, flowering silk floss tree and flowering varieties of pigface, flower dust plant and baby sun rose. The expanded station garden will seamlessly link to the new heritage deck over the rail trench, creating 540 square metres of new community open space with the heritage station buildings as a key feature.

We have worked closely with the Friends of Mentone Station and Gardens to create the new garden designs and have partnered with the City of Kingston to fund the heritage deck.

Finishing touches will continue on the new station gardens, heritage deck and car parking, with the Mentone project to be completed in early 2021.

We will plant 250 new trees and 43,650 plants, shrubs and grasses across the Cheltenham and Mentone Level Crossing Removal Projects.

Going green

• We’ve installed solar panels to reduce the energy use of the station.
• We’re saving 60 per cent more water in the station gardens by installing a rainwater tank.

The heritage deck will create 540 square metres of new community open space, with the heritage station buildings as a key feature. Artist impression only. Subject to change.

Project timeline