Wyndham’s level crossings have been the scene of 245 incidents in the past 12 years, prompting calls from the council and transport lobby groups for them to be removed.
Last week, Wyndham council released a report stating that the crossings were safety risks and were adding to traffic congestion on the city’s roads, with boom gates down for up to 35 minutes per hour in peak periods.
It is predicted that the volume of traffic crossing the tracks will rise 95 per cent by 2046.
The council is urging the Liberal and Labor parties to commit to grade separating the Werribee Street, Cherry Street, Old Geelong Road and Galvin Road crossings if they win the state election.
The council also wants extra lanes added to the existing grade-separated crossings at Derrimut and Forsyth roads and three new crossings added to the network to reduce the distance motorists need to travel to cross the tracks.
Suzanne Cory High School teacher Nick Cummins has backed the calls for grade separations, saying the school has growing concerns for the safety of 600 of its 800 students who regularly use Hoppers Crossing station.
“We are very concerned that level crossing is an accident waiting to happen,” he said.
The report said the crossings were also making it difficult for emergency services to reach people in a timely manner.
Former Werribee CFA captain Darryl Wells said the brigade, which houses the area’s only road rescue team, had to wait at level crossings 80 per cent of the times it crossed the tracks.
“Someone is seriously injured and needs removing from the car and we can’t get across because the boom gates are down,” he said.
Opposition treasury spokesman and Tarneit MP Tim Pallas said Labor was committed to removing 50 of Melbourne’s worst level crossings. He has pledged to remove the crossings at Werribee and Cherry streets within eight years.
A spokeswoman for Public Transport Minister Terry Mulder would not answer questions about whether the government would commit to removing Wyndham’s level crossings, preferring to spruik the government’s other transport projects.
