Just before 4pm on Monday afternoon, the first car crossed the Lydiard Street level crossing in almost 18 months.

The crossing was originally scheduled to reopen on Tuesday, but opened slightly ahead of schedule on Monday afternoon unannounced and with no fanfare.

There were no champagne bottles popped, ribbons cut or politicians in sight, rather it was an uneventful affair when traffic resumed for the first time.

Watch the first car travel through over the train line here.

Lydiard Street was closed to traffic at the Ballarat train station level crossing in May 2020 after a runaway train crashed through its heritage gates at about 100km/h.

It took a year before the project to begin reopening the crossing received funding from the state government, with $10.5 million committed to the project in May 2021 with a temporary solution to be built in order to reopen the crossing before a permanent solution was put in place.

Making the announcement, Minister for Transport Ben Carroll said he expected the crossing to reopen in September or October.

V/Line workers received waves and beeps from happy motorists as they crossed the long-closed level crossing for the first time in a year and a half.

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Stock standard automatic boom gates have been put in place at the level crossing as a temporary solution while a permanent option is found to include the destroyed heritage gates in some capacity.

The crossing was reopened following a 72-hour program of weekend works by V/Line crews and specialist contractors, who removed the damaged heritage style gates and posts, which will be safely stored locally in-line with the permit granted by Heritage Victoria in late-October.

The gates were then connected to a new signalling control cabinet, which was built and tested by local workers at V/Line's Wendouree depot.

In a written statement following the reopening, Mr Carroll and Member for Wendouree Juliana Addison thanked the community for its patience.

"We thank the community for its ongoing patience, as crews worked around the clock over the weekend to safely re-open Lydiard Street to traffic," Mr Carroll said.

"Our next steps will be working closely with the community and the City of Ballarat on plans for a long-term solution that recognises the history of Ballarat's railway precinct."

"We will continue to work towards a long-term solution for the Lydiard Street level crossing to ensure the safest option is implemented while recognising the history of Ballarat," Ms Addison said.

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