FUNDING should be diverted from the hundreds of millions being spent on upgrading Melbourne’s train stations to deal with the growing regional rail crisis.
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That is the view of the Rail Revival Alliance who said the long list of infrastructure problems on regional rail lines needed to be addressed.
President Noel Laidlaw said the increase in services to Geelong was a poorly thought out mistake that combined with poor infrastructure decisions had caused even more problems.
“It is causing more congestion on the line, especially at Deer Park and it means there are not enough trains to run the services,” he said.
“It was 12-months pre-mature, but the minister ( for public transport Jacinta Allan) wanted to make a big splash.”
The removal of a flyover at Deer Park in Regional Rail Link plans has become one of the biggest problems for Ballarat commuters who are constantly delayed waiting for Geelong trains to pass through. The government this week held yet another media event spruiking the dozens of metro trains stations set to undergo redevelopment. Mr Laidlaw said while some of these were part of plans to remove level crossings, the cost could be between $50 and $100 million each.
“It indicates how out of touch they really are. If i was in that position, with all the crap that is going at the moment with V/Line I wouldn’t be talking about a whole bunch of railway station redevelopments,” he said.
“That is $500 million for projects which won’t make trains run any better, they (train stations) might be a little prettier but that is it.
“It is not a major network advancement, it is a thing for the local members to wave the flag.” Mr Laidlaw said diverting even part of that funding to deal with the growing list of infrastructure problems on regional rail may alleviate some of the problems.
“It is really bad mismanagement and there is a perception, which might be unfair, that the Labor Party is city oriented,” he said.
The Courier has previously reported on a number of changes made to the original Regional Rail Link Project by previous governments that appear to have had negative impacts on train services. The rail disaster has peaked over the past two weeks due to maintenance issues with unexpected wheel wear on trains. There is still no known cause of this problem and the government is yet to provide any long term solution to ease commuter pain and growing frustrations. This problem follows months of delayed and overcrowded services as a result of the failed Regional Rail Link launch which was designed to improve services.