Railroading The Ballarat Rail Gates
Twelve months on from the train accident that smashed heritage rail gates at the Ballarat Railway Station on Lydiard Street, the Andrews Government still can’t say when they will be replaced.
Worse than that – the Member for Western Victoria, Bev McArthur, says the community’s desire for the heritage gates to stay has been ignored.
“The Minister for Public Transport, Ben Carroll, has finally swanned into Ballarat, announcing $10.5 million for a half-boom barrier crossing,” Mrs McArthur said.
“This is exactly what the Ballarat public has fought against.
“The public is now supposed to feel good about this decision because the Minister says the design of the gates ‘will pay homage’ to the city’s heritage.
“And yet, they are so reluctant to be honest about the mess they have made about this issue – that they won’t reveal the design of the boom gates until they are ready for installation,” she said.
The Government has indicated that a ‘final design for the upgraded crossing is being developed’ and ‘once the final design of the crossing has been complete and approved, it will be shared with the community...’
“However, the Government can’t even get this message straight,” Mrs McArthur said.
“Because the Member for Wendouree, Juliana Addison, is quoted as saying `With detailed plans now in place…’
“Either these plans are ready - or they’re not.
“This mob can’t fix the gates, don’t listen to the community and can’t get their own story straight about plans that either do, or don’t, exist.”
Mrs McArthur has questioned the huge bill for the gates.
“At a projected cost of $10.5 million – are they gold plated?
“One can only assume they will arrive bright and shiny one day. But even a level crossing removal doesn’t take more than a year.
“For example, after a two week ‘construction blitz’ the Station Street, Carrum, railway level crossing was removed last year,” Mrs McArthur said.
"How can it take two weeks to remove an entire level crossing, and more than a year to do nothing about gates?"
The Government says the new gates will be in place by the ‘second half of 2021’.
“That could be December 31st for all we know,” Mrs McArthur said.
“But with this Government’s track history of projects running over-budget and over-time, the chances of this obscenely mis-managed issue running to plan are not good.”
“I asked the Minister in the Parliament on the 16th March ‘when will the Lydiard Street railway crossing be reopened?
“Quite clearly, even after this announcement, he still doesn’t know.”
10 May 2021