Article: MP urges rail spending over roads

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MP urges rail spending over roads

MP urges rail spending over roads

Posted June 28, 2012 13:36:35

The Liberal Member for the Agricultural Region, Brian Ellis, says the Western Australian Government should be allocating funding to rail, not roads.

Last week, the Upper House recommended the Government keep a network of rail lines in the wheatbelt open until 2014 to allow grain transport group CBH to analyse the value of the network.

Mr Ellis says the Government continues to allocate money to the maintenance of roads while ignoring the damaged three-tier railway system, which is used to cart grain to port.

He says the railway lines are valuable to CBH.

"The recommendation is fairly clear that we recommend that the lines stay open to 2014 to give a fair trial to CBH," he said.

"So the recommendation isn't for that much longer to keep the lines open actually.

"They [the Government] have been spending money on the roads and that I suppose is the main issue, they'll get to a point of no return."

In a statement, Transport Minister Troy Buswell says there are no plans to provide additional funding for the network beyond October.