Article: Rail crossing frustrations rise as peak hour gridlocks suburbs

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

Rail crossing frustrations rise as peak hour gridlocks suburbs

Rail crossing frustrations rise as peak hour gridlocks suburbs
Adam Cooper
July 2, 2012

THERE are more cars in Murrumbeena than ever before - but fewer shoppers, say traders.

The one constant is the noisy level crossing that divides the suburb, with boom gates down for almost half of each peak hour as packed trains travel through.

Julie Scott, who works at the Bendigo Bank branch, has noticed a drop in the numbers of shoppers over the past three years and believes that people are simply not prepared to risk a long wait at the boom gates each time they go shopping.

But there is still one rush every day. ''We've got people banging on the door at five o'clock saying they've missed the bank because they've been waiting for the train to pass. It's totally frustrating,'' says Ms Scott.

The Murrumbeena crossing, on the Cranbourne, Dandenong and Pakenham train lines, is just one of about 190 level crossings across metropolitan Melbourne, a region that, according to VicRoads, increases its traffic volume on arterial roads by about 2 per cent every year.

Daniel Bowen, the Public Transport Users Association president, doubts there is another city in the world facing a level crossing problem on this scale. ''It is becoming a critical issue,'' he says. ''A lot of suburbs in peak hour, it's not uncommon to see boom gates closed for 15 or 20 minutes at a time. Those trains that are moving through carry thousands of people, but at the same time you've got whole suburbs that are gridlocked, causing real problems.''

Murrumbeena topped the RACV's 2010 poll of their least favourite stretches of road, and is expected to again feature prominently when a new survey is published in October.

For some, crossings are more than an inconvenience. Cherry Street, Werribee, is the site of three incidents in the past month, including the death of a 65-year-old woman whose car was hit by a freight train.

At Clayton, paramedics fear someone will die in an ambulance waiting at boom gates 500 metres from Monash Medical Centre. Monash Council has long campaigned for an underpass at Clayton, and mayor Stefanie Perri says she cannot fathom why successive governments have overlooked an obvious safety issue.

Documents obtained under freedom of information show that drivers reported 56 near-misses at crossings in the first half of 2011. The cost of upgrading all of Melbourne's level crossings has been put as high as $30 billion.

RACV roads and traffic manager Dave Jones says the government must focus on upgrading 50 crossings over the next decade as a ''starting point, an absolute minimum''.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/rail-crossing-frustrations-rise-as-peak-hour-gridlocks-suburbs-20120701-21b5f.html