Article: Brighton boom gates jump queue

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

Brighton boom gates jump queue

Brighton boom gates jump queue

Date July 23, 2012 Adam Carey

A CONTROVERSIAL multimillion-dollar plan to build an underpass beneath the New Street railway crossing in Brighton has been quietly abandoned with the Baillieu government opting instead to install new automated boom gates.

The decision follows a $2 million feasibility study that found removing the level crossing by building an underpass would not have provided value for money for the state.

The Baillieu government pledged at the last election to reopen the New Street level crossing to traffic, after the former Labor government permanently closed it in 2007 after a train crashed into the manually operated gates.

Critics have argued the level crossing was given priority ahead of hundreds of others in more urgent need of being removed because deputy Liberal leader Louise Asher had made a promise to voters in her seat of Brighton.

The New Street level crossing was ranked 223rd on a state priority list of level crossings in need of being fixed.

The government had considered a grade separation - keeping cars and trains apart - for the heritage-listed railway crossing, at a cost of $15 million to $20 million. It has not revealed what the cost of the new gates would be.

"Following a feasibility study into traffic options for the area, we have decided that the best way to restore access between New Street and Beach Road is to reopen the crossing," Public Transport Minister Terry Mulder said.

"The crossing will be upgraded to an active level crossing including a signalised intersection, boom barriers, flashing lights and an automated pedestrian crossing."

Ms Asher said Brighton residents and business owners had been waiting for the road to reopen to traffic for too long.

But Labor's public transport spokeswoman Fiona Richardson said reopening the level crossing would be a waste of money, with hundreds of other level crossings in the state in more urgent need of being fixed.

Ms Richardson said the previous Labor government had found that installing the new boom gates would be expensive and complex work because the railway crossing has an unusual alignment with the road.

The government expects to begin construction on the new boom gates early next year and reopen the road to traffic by the end of 2013.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/brighton-boom-gates-jump-queue-20120722-22i6p.html