A NEW train station to cater for two new suburbs between Werribee and Point Cook will not be built first, the state government has said.
While the draft precinct plans include a proposal for a station at Derrimut Road on the Werribee rail line, Planning Minister Matthew Guy said new public transport infrastructure would not be built until new residents required it. “The Derrimut Road railway station will be dependent on land sales at the site, although the government expects this to be within a five-year time frame,” he said.
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Premier Ted Baillieu said the proposed station would not be built before the suburbs had developed.
The announcement has come under fire from the opposition and the Victorian Council of Social Service, who said Wyndham was already chronically under-serviced by public transport and new suburbs would fail without a rail station. VCOSS chief executive Penny Wilson said the plans for “a new CBD” in Melbourne’s west would create a disadvantaged community unless public transport services were fully integrated into the development.
But mayor Heather Marcus said she was confident Wyndham’s public transport provision could keep pace with growing patronage from new residents. “We’ve already got Williams Landing station coming on board. We’ve also got the Regional Rail Link coming so there’s two new railway stations coming, so that will be supporting a lot of that.”
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