The City of Ballarat has written to state Public Transport Minister Ben Carroll demanding a visit "as soon as he's able" to discuss urgently reopening Lydiard Street.
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Council also "specifically asking" for an "urgent allocation" in the state budget, "to at the very least reopen Lydiard Street with an interim solution, and allocate money for a more permanent solution", mayor Daniel Moloney said.
A train with allegedly malfunctioning brakes ran through the southern heritage-style Lydiard Street rail gates on the evening of May 30 - the street has been closed ever since, for 344 days as of Monday.
With the one-year anniversary of the accident looming, heritage advocates, businesses, and council have been lobbying to at least get a timeline on when the street will reopen and what form solutions will take.
The state government has consistently deferred to the "complexity" of the situation - the gates used a heritage mechanical opening system, separate sets of signalling, and required a worker in Melbourne to monitor the crossing via CCTV to open and close the gates.
Last month, the Department of Transport admitted any solution will "likely" involve boomgates.
A final report from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau on the collision is expected before the end of the year.
Cr Moloney said that's too long to wait to reopen the street, a major thoroughfare through Ballarat's CBD.
"It seems no one has the budget for the work, so clearly money has to be put aside to do big capital works there," he said.
"This is the same as capital funding for big projects, it does need the funding behind it.
"It's not being treated like a capital project, it's being treated as an accident, almost a maintenance issue, and it really needs to be treated like a transport project with proper communication to stakeholders and the wider community, and funding allocated - it doesn't seem like that approach has happened so far."
He said council also called for "clear ownership and direction" from Minister Carroll regarding the heritage significance of the gates to the station precinct.
"We reiterate the heritage gates being reinstated is council's position unless they (V/Line) makes a safety case, and to me, they haven't done that yet," Cr Moloney said.
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