Letters start below.

V/Line and Department of Transport's simple game plan for Ballarat's rail service and heritage is working.

Exclude Ballarat Station from $0.5b line upgrade. Make no provision for disabled access for patrons. Let the Station building fall apart. Make fixing things subject to a budget bid. When bid fails, tell the public they must be patient. Lower expectations, again and again.

When design problems with Vlocity trains cause a runaway train to demolish the heritage Lydiard St gates, focus attention on the gates. Don't tell anyone anything. Say it's complicated. Repeat.

When people get jack of being told nothing, tell them nothing again, but this time, tell them with more sincerity. Tell them how unbelievably complicated this issue is.

Block the road crossing for long enough for people to be desperate for a solution to get it opened - any solution! But still don't engage. Let them stew. Set no time lines. Make no promises. Divide the community. Teach Ballarat a lesson. They need to learn that V/Line and DoT's remit is transport, not heritage.

The public should be grateful for what they are given.

John Barnes

Save Our Station (SOS) Ballarat

It should be of no surprise that this saga is taking such a delay.

If the COVID disaster last year and the subsequent follow ups had shown us if anything it's that we in this state must have the most incompetent public service in the country.

Whereas a decision like this in private industry would be considered as a footnote in any production or engineering department, in our politicised public sector it takes on almost Ben Hur proportions to come to a decision.

The long standing saga of lights around the lake is another typical example.

Maybe they are still trying to decide how many of those extraneous and expensive lolly pop people they need to hire in Sturt Street?

Pat Cerra, Miners Rest