Shadow Minister for Planning and Heritage Ryan Smith said a solution involving the heritage-style swing gates, destroyed in a train crash in May 2020, had to be out there.

Work has restarted on installing temporary boom gates to reopen the street, with $10.5 million allocated in May, 11 months and two weeks after the crash.

Asphalt works have begun this week outside the heritage area, however a signal box from within the heritage area appears to have been removed.

At a media event at the gates on Tuesday morning, Mr Smith and upper house Western Victoria MP Beverly McArthur took questions from her electorate officer as well as journalists.

Both politicians labelled the state government as "inept", with Ms McArthur stating all Labor politicians should resign.

The gates saga has drawn on for so long because of the "complexities" in the site - while some residents and the City of Ballarat have demanded the heritage-style swing gates be reinstalled, V/Line has noted its preference is not to have gates that lie across the tracks.

READ MORE: Lydiard Street level crossing plans given heritage approval

It's understood the Lydiard Street swing gate crossing is one of the last examples in Victoria, with the gates controlled by original gear mechanisms until the crash.

However, the gates take at least 90 seconds to open and close, and must be monitored from Melbourne via CCTV - an operator must double check the gates have locked open or shut before traffic or trains can progress.

With new timetabling, a much higher volume of trains are crossing the road, which could potentially lead to longer waits for cars and pedestrians.

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Neither the opposition nor the current state government have concrete plans to improve accessibility at the station site, and despite millions of dollars being spent on new facilities like car parks, hotels, bus interchanges, and traffic lights, anyone who needs to get from one platform to another and cannot use the wooden stairs must leave the station and go around to the Lydiard Street crossing to do so.

Mr Smith said if his party was in government when the crash occurred, he would have "taken advice on the safety issues (and) would not have allowed my department to drag their feet for 500 days".

"I'm not immune to the safety issues," he said.

"It would be hard to believe, with the money allocated to fix this problem, that a more modern and innovative way of doing things can't be found.

"We shouldn't just throw things away because they're old and outdated, if the community wants to maintain it, I'm for listening for the community, but I'm sure there must be technology, there must be a way to open gates electronically without manual oversight."

He demurred when asked about committing to upgrading accessibility at the station, instead blaming the current government for not acting.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? HAVE YOUR SAY BELOW

City of Ballarat councillor Samantha McIntosh said there was "no excuse for 500 days of this ugliness".

"It's enormously embarrassing to stand before these orange bollards, a great deal of ugliness, right in front of a spectacular heritage site," she said.

"It is not okay that our community cannot access north and south, with pedestrians and motorists, and train users having to deal with this conglomeration of difficult access."

Save Our Station president Gerald Jenzen said he had concerns with the way that Heritage Victoria had handled permit applications at the site, noting the permit granted last week to begin interim works had not yet been released publicly.

"That's disgraceful," he said.

"The fact they have removed the cabinet that contains the two motors that operated the gates, there is no permit application I'm aware of for that happening.

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"One wonders just what the hell is going on - if you remove the motors, how can you put the gates back again?"

A final report into the crash from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau is expected by the end of the year.

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