The removal of the level crossing on Mountain Highway in Bayswater, which cost $177 million, has saved eastbound motorists just 18 seconds on their commute, the data shows. The greatest benefit has been seen in Glen Iris, where the removal of the Burke Road level crossing has cut travel times for more than 2400 northbound drivers by nearly two minutes. Hundreds of extra cars are now flowing along roads where level crossings once were, with North Road in Ormond seeing the biggest spike in traffic. An extra 883 vehicles on average are passing through the old level crossing site on North Road between 7am and 9am each day. Centre Road in Bentleigh. Credit:Jason South

But on quieter Centre Road in Bentleigh, the crossing removal has only made way for an extra 39 cars. Here are the time savings and traffic increases for 10 level crossing removals: The data from the Level Crossing Removal Authority was captured over two to three months, before and after each level crossing was removed. Transport economist John Stanley estimated that, based on the data provided, the travel time savings across the 50 level crossing removals would be worth about $1.9 billion to the economy over 30 years, which is consistent with the project's business case.

While that economic benefit is a fraction of the $8.3 billion already spent on the project, Mr Stanley said the scheme would deliver benefits to public transport users by enabling more train services, particularly on the busy Cranbourne/Pakenham line. But head of Monash University’s public transport research group, Graham Currie, said the results were modest at best. “Travel time savings are low, and don’t justify these projects,” Professor Currie said. “It does raise the question: was it worth the money?” Since the government began removing level crossings, the main beneficiaries had been “a small number of motorists who were being delayed a lot”, Professor Currie said.

He said it was reasonable to question if level crossings on some smaller streets in Melbourne's south-east, which had low traffic volumes to begin with, were an appropriate location for the multi-million dollar projects. An average of one minute saving in travel time for a few thousand motorists did not justify the cost, Professor Currie said. However RACV’s manager of mobility advocacy, Dave Jones, said the data showed motorists were changing their routes to take advantage of more reliable level crossing-free roads. He also noted that despite increases in peak period traffic, motorists were still achieving travel time savings, and this would also benefit buses crossing rail lines. Acting Minister for Public Transport Luke Donnellan said that "after four years of nothing under the Victorian Liberals", the government was keeping its promise to remove 50 level crossings.