Virtually every remaining level crossing on the Frankston and Upfield railway lines should be eliminated in one hit by building elevated rail lines that stretch for several kilometres, creating space for public linear parks underneath the tracks, a new report argues.

The report, Rail Up! The Benefits of Elevated Rail, is a project by design students at RMIT University and the University of Melbourne and follows research published earlier this year by the same schools, which concluded that rail bridges produced better results than other methods, including rail trenches.

The new report argues that the Frankston and Upfield rail lines are the most ripe for elevation – dubbed sky rail – of all lines in Melbourne, because they have many level crossings bunched a short distance apart, making it technically difficult to remove them individually.