Article: Brighton crossing jumps the queue

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From the Melbourne Age click here!

Brighton crossing jumps the queue

Brighton crossing jumps the queue
Clay Lucas
May 12, 2011

HUNDREDS of level crossings in Victoria are more deserving of an urgent safety upgrade than a Brighton crossing singled out for a multimillion-dollar first-term upgrade by the Baillieu government.

The government has promised to spend $2 million reopening the heritage-listed New Street level crossing, closed since 2007. It may even fund construction of a small tunnel - open to cars but not trucks or buses - for Brighton residents.

A 2008 government-funded survey, the Australian Level Crossings Assessment Model report, ranked Victoria's 1872 crossings in a priority list so the government could decide where to complete safety upgrades.

The New Street crossing came in at No. 223. Topping the list was the Springvale Road, Nunawading, level crossing. It was removed in 2010, and replaced with a rail underpass. Next on that list was Springvale Road, Springvale, and Mitcham Road, Mitcham. Premier Ted Baillieu last week named these as the first of 10 level crossings his government will remove.

Tourism Minister Louise Asher holds the safe seat of Brighton, and promised repeatedly before last November's election to reopen the New Street crossing to cars.

''I am the member for Brighton and there was significant opposition to those gates being shut,'' Ms Asher said last night. ''It's my job as the member for Brighton to bring home the election commitments.''

The New Street railway gates were shut by former operator Connex in 2007 after a train hit them. There are now 176 trains travelling past the closed level crossing gates each weekday. A pedestrian crossing remains open at New Street, and Metro employs three staff - two full-time and one part-time - to manually open and close the pedestrian gates there each day. There are two other unstaffed pedestrian gates nearby.

Opposition transport spokeswoman Fiona Richardson said the crossing ''stands out as a clear Louise Asher relationship management episode''.

Transport Minister Terry Mulder said the government had made an ''unprecedented commitment'' to remove notorious level crossings, and Labor had done little in its 11 years in power. He said the New Street gates' reopening had been a key commitment made by Ms Asher. A spokeswoman for Mr Mulder pointed to underpasses such as Egan and York streets, Richmond, and Vere Street, Abbotsford, as similar to what might be built.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/brighton-crossing-jumps-the-queue-20110511-1eiyh.html