There is no doubt that Corio Station is something of a boil on the bottom of transport infrastructure in Geelong.
It is unmanned, located a long way from anything – (except the Shell Refinery, which has been served by the station since the 1950s) – and is a dark and miserable location. Certainly not a place you want to hang around for any great length of time – particularly at night.
Now a Geelong councillor wants to move the station closer to the highway:
“I want to put a bulldozer through the Corio one and build it closer to the highway,” he said.
Corio station – (or previously “Cowie’s Creek” and “Cowie”) – has been knocked down and moved or rebuilt a number of times since it was first located on the Dennington line – (the proper name for the Geelong line) – in 1890.
Doing something about the safety and amenity of the station is badly needed – it was last staffed in 1990.
But closer to the highway? That’s pretty hard.
Not only would you need to build a significant slew of the up and down lines to the new location, you also have to either slew the standard gauge freight line which runs alongside the broad gauge Dennington line to the new location as well, or either go under or over the slewed passenger lines to be able to move the station.
Consider the potentially slewed lines on the diagram below:
Not only would slewing the lines closer to the highway be massively expensive, you end up creating a ridiculous loop into an empty paddock – (owned by Shell) – that would slow down express passenger trains, and interstate freight trains.
The solution – (and much cheaper one at that) – is to fix up Corio station, and make it a manned station again.
It’s also infinitely more practical.