A Wyndham councillor is confident plans to get rid of Werribee’s Cherry Street level crossing during this term of the state Labor government are on track – but government officials remain tight-lipped.
Wyndham council has vowed to lobby the government to get rid of the Cherry Street crossing, despite the government’s intention to remove the Werribee Street crossing first.
The government is starting work on its election promise to get rid of Victoria’s 50 most dangerous level crossings in the next eight years.
The government has allocated $2.4 billion for the removal of 20 level crossings in this term of government, with 17 crossings already identified. Neither Wyndham crossing is on the initial list.
Transport portfolio holder Cr Glenn Goodfellow said the council was confident the case to remove the Cherry Street crossing in this government term was “very strong”.
“We are lobbying hard,” Cr Goodfellow said. “We have some preliminary work on creative designs that meet the state government’s desire for affordability and ‘value capture’ in terms of freeing up surplus state government land.”
A spokesman for Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan would not confirm or deny that the Cherry Street level crossing would be one of the final three to be removed by this government.
“The Andrews Labor government has put the removal of Werribee’s dangerous level crossings on the agenda for the first time,” the spokesman said.
“We look forward to working with the Werribee community and communities across Melbourne to remove these congested death traps once and for all.”
Werribee MP Tim Pallas said the government would be in a position to confirm more level crossing removals following a Level Crossing Removal Authority analysis.
“I look forward to working with the local community to get rid of the congestion on Cherry and Werribee streets – that locals are all too familiar with – as soon as possible,” he said.
