Suburban Rail Loop Clayton station works as of 11 May 2026

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:01]This is Peter Parker at Clayton Station and today we're touring the work site for the Suburban Rail Loop.

[00:00:09]This will be an orbital railway which in its first stage will go from Cheltenham or really near Southland Station through to Box Hill.

[00:00:21]Clayton will be one of the major interchanges.

[00:00:24]It's built as a super hub where people will be able to transfer between Metro trains, V-Line trains, buses and the new Suburban Rail Loop. Let's take a look at the construction so far as of early May 2026.

[00:01:27]The the future plan for Clayton Station?

[00:01:30]Um so the work that you'll see today the station box is all temporary but essentially what we're doing is making space for the underground station to be constructed as part of the station south package.

[00:01:43]Um there is a easternmost entry and exit point station that's located over there. Um similarly when we get to the far end of the station box down on the the line um we've got our entry point on the the west side of Clayton Road.

[00:01:58]And then we've got our our adit, which is our underground uh our underground space that effectively allows us to transition from the station into a paved to paved link that takes us from the underground station uh up to the surface.

[00:02:12]Uh we've got a bit to talk to on the the adit and the underpinning today. We're pretty um proud of that as a as an engineering solution. Well, it's 200 m that way and it's 35 m that way, roughly with that D-wall gravity. And that light tower is the dimensions the width of the actual station, okay?

[00:02:29]Um when we go down, let's follow this walkway. We're going to go to the back of the bentonite plant, we call it, okay? So, you won't see anything while we're walking. We will get in towards the adit.

[00:03:04]Didn't even line up with the station platform. That's got to get refitted.

[00:03:09]They uh Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:03:17]Yeah. I call the bentonite plant. All the material that is used pretty much the water-based material mixed with polymer.

[00:03:25]So, when our D-walling walks happen, they go 25 to 30 m deep in the ground.

[00:03:30]And in that then they have this polymer mixed with water that keeps them stable.

[00:03:34]It's about 1,200 by 1,500 wide and 25 to 30 m deep, okay?

[00:03:40]So, that keeps it stable, but that material needs water.

[00:03:44]Um we've got pipes all through the site that come back in here and get treated through this bentonite plant. Future works gets treated through here and goes into our trade waste. That's there permanently here. That'll be used in the future tunnel works.

[00:04:43]I'll go in there, and I'll show you the actual underpinning works that actually were completed last August now.

[00:05:20]Obviously, it's holding up the train line, and that's sitting on a power cap, and then there's 12 soldier piles under there, right? 12 soldier piles are roughly 600 by 600 all the way down, okay?

[00:05:32]Problem we had here, the TBM comes right through underneath here, and into that future station box, okay? A lot of engineering works early in the days went through what we're going to do, how we're going to do it. We must stop of the TBM, hit around 500 mm at the bottom of these soldier piles. So, again, the train's running, we got to risk with TBM coming through and all the engineering works, okay? A lot of smart people, smarter than me, thought of an idea.

[00:06:01]Right here we got a barrette, you want pile, you call it.

[00:06:06]You got another one just here.

[00:06:09]To do that, we had to bring in a rig from Singapore. There's only two or three of these in the world, okay? Came in from Singapore, a low headroom rig, packed underneath this viaduct. Again, while trains are running, we're able to do this works.

[00:06:24]That went 25 to 30 m deep, roughly.

[00:06:28]Once that was done, we excavated all this. Before that, we had propping system.

[00:06:34]Propped down, propped across. For the 5 days of that application while no trains are running, only 5 days in the whole program without trains, we were able to do all this works.

[00:06:45]We were able to put in eight jacks.

[00:06:48]Those jacks lifted this pile cap and this entire thing up two or three millimeters, all right? Took the pressure off the soldier piles. From there then, we were able to cut the soldier piles. That separated that cap of the structure from the existing pile cap and soldier piles underneath, all right?

[00:07:13]After that, we dropped the load down and transferred that load onto the transfer slab using our barrettes.

[00:07:20]That way then, the TBM could come straight through here, unaffected the actual trains while trains still run.

[00:07:26]So, engineering with MTM and Smerold Connect and Find SRLA, a lot of work went into it and I thought it was pretty cool to build.

[00:07:37]Walk across the bridge, got an escalator that will come down underneath here.

[00:07:42]You got a lift shaft going to bring you down.

[00:07:45]And in there you got the future train station. Get off the Pakenham line, get onto Clayton SRL, hit to Monash, or hit to Cheltenham.

[00:07:57]It's about 3 and 1/2 km from here to the launch point. Yeah. Uh, train coming in about 30 seconds. 30 seconds? Okay.

[00:09:05]All right, guys and girls.

[00:09:07]Once you're done with the photo, I'll just give a quick tour over here to the corner of this box to get you to lock down, okay?

[00:09:14]I'm doing a bob and weave and a bit extra for you as you can see a bit more.

[00:09:17]So, please stick together, follow me real quick, okay?

[00:09:24]You know this little white tower there?

[00:09:26]They can point it out to the floor. And all the way really down the other end to connect into the other where we were previously.

[00:09:34]Um, the station as a whole is about 200 m long, about 35 m wide and 20 m deep.

[00:09:41]Um and our stations are pretty typically comprised across the alignment of a platform level, a concourse level, a mezzanine level, and then a ground level.

[00:09:52]So, the platforms are 18 m below ground here. Obviously, it slopes a bit, so 20 in some spots, but they'll be around We can use an entirely automated uh operated with automation and signaling system for all the stations. Uh it was a competitive process with the signaling system and combined with the Metro train. So, it's the same platform train that we got in the city.

[00:10:39]As I say, with some of those constraints not being there, we're able to use a modern traction system such as 25 kV AC traction with full regenerative braking.

[00:10:49]So, as the trains brake, Trains will run every 6 minutes in peak.

[00:10:57]Day capacity is provided for 2-minute headways if required in the future.

[00:11:04]There'll be six train four-car sets.

[00:11:06]The yards will be future-proofed for expansion.

[00:11:17]So, it'll be operated under a separate contract.

[00:11:20]But, in terms of our passenger experience, it'll be a part of our integrated network. So, the ticketing, passenger information will use all the same channels and everything else as it as it is today. But, the actual operation will be a successful franchise. Yeah.