There are ways around the parking at station things. You can hop somewhere further down the line - Rosanna or Macleod you have a better chance of getting a park a bit later. Watsonia definitely, I have found parks at Watsonia as late as 8.30am, but it is a bit the wrong way from Eltham.
I used to work in the CBD and DH works at Tulla. When we were looking at buying, i looked at the train system pics, including vline and had a look at towns/suburbs along the lines. We looked at a few areas along the hurstbridge line, but then ended up buying along the mel-syd (vline) - extension of broadmeadows/crazyburn line. This wouldn't help you if you were at deakin, but is great for access to the cbd.
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