A crowd of about 80 people made their voices heard, with home-made banners draped over the remaining rail gate.

The Lydiard Street rail gates were destroyed when a passenger train's brakes failed in May 2020, running through the gates which were still across the tracks.

READ MORE: So why is reopening Lydiard Street so complex?

The City of Ballarat and heritage advocates have called for the gates immediate restoration since - V/Line and the Department of Transport have consistently said they are reviewing all options, but safety is the main priority.

Speakers at the rally on Friday morning called out this response, demanding the street be reopened immediately.

Organiser Federica Perovic said she was proud of Ballarat people for turning up, with a petition available that will be handed to the state government, and plans to continue rallying until something happens.

"We want to tell the state government, especially the Labor government, that we want these gates open, we want the road open, and we want the gates to remain as they are - heritage," she said.

"We do not want boomgates."

She said residents were "fed up" with the lack of action, businesses were suffering, and she was concerned emergency services were being obstructed.

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"My mum is 93 years old, and if I called an ambulance, I'd hope they come immediately - being a thoroughfare, they just can't come through here, they have to navigate all these roads that are congested because of this closure," she said.

"There's no stopping me now, I'm getting really passionate about it.

"Ballarat people will not be taken for granted and we will not be treated with contempt."

Save Our Station's Gerald Jenzen said the state government needed to be more transparent with which options short- and long-term are being looked at.

"They need to be open and honest," he said.

"The difficulties haven't been explained- the gates operated satisfactorily for 20-odd years without a problem, albeit a little slow because of the way they're run from Melbourne.

"Put them back the way they were, if there's a better solution then work on that solution."

One Black Hill resident, who gave his name as Stuart, said he wanted more information on what exactly happened on the night of May 30 when the crash occurred.

"It's been long enough - we should be opening the gates and V/Line should have someone there with a stop sign every time a train comes through," he said.

"Armstrong Street's impacted as well, and that puts (traffic) pressure on Peel Street and Doveton Street."

City of Ballarat councillor Samantha McIntosh also addressed the crowd, condemning the lack of respect towards Ballarat's heritage.

"It's really important our community has that north-south access," she said.

"We know it's a connector to our CBD, for tourists to come to town - it looks ugly, it's unsafe, it's not accessible, and most importantly, that beautiful heritage front should be treated with respect and it's clearly and visibly not."

State opposition rural roads spokesperson Roma Britnell was in attendance, with Ripon MP Louise Staley - Ms Britnell said she was "flabbergasted" at the 10 months of inaction.

"It's insulting to you as the people of Ballarat," she said.

"They're not looking outside the tram tracks of Melbourne - think of the cost to patients going to Melbourne to see specialists, it's another cost where they have to take an extra long journey."

Ms Staley said she was sick of the "weasel words" from the state government.

"My view is we have the heritage gates retained, at least in the image of them - we can't have boomgates here at this important heritage precinct for Ballarat," she said.

"There is no way the whole of VicTrack, V/Line, VicRoads, can't come up with a solution, they have good engineers in those organisations."

At a briefing for regional transport projects on Friday morning before the rally, state Public Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan said the national safety regulator needed to approve of any plans before work could begin to reopen the road.

"One of the frustrations in terms of the time it's taken is because of the nature of the incident that caused the gates to be damaged and the road to be closed, it was a safety incident with the train running through those gates," she said.

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"Whatever solution we put in place to fix gates and open the road has to be done with all those safety ticks which requires the national regulator to approve."

No decision had been made yet, she reiterated.

"I know there's a lot of speculation in and around Ballarat for potential solutions," she said.

"We're still working through that one what's the best operational outcome from a safety perspective for both road and rail - there's also all the buses, and we've added an extra 125 services in and out of Ballarat, so we have to think of the best way that becomes operational again."

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