Andrews’ announcements a game changer for local commuters

A RE-ELECTED Labor Government will duplicate 11kms of track between South Geelong and Waurn Ponds stations, Premier Daniel Andrews announced last week.

Mr Andrews, who held a press conference at Waurn Ponds Train Station on Friday, said he would also remove the dangerous and congested level crossings at Fyans Street and Surf Coast Highway.

“This means Geelong drivers will no longer be stuck waiting at these boom gates for hours every week and the notorious bottleneck that causes delays on the Geelong line will be removed once and for all,” Mr Andrews said.

“This will allow trains to run around every 10 minutes during peak times between Waurn Ponds and Melbourne, delivering up to 255 extra services from Waurn Ponds, 235 services from Marshall and 45 services from South Geelong each week.

South Geelong and Marshall train stations will also be upgraded and a business case will be developed to fix the 400-metre long South Geelong tunnel bottleneck.

As part of the upgrades, there will be 122 new car spaces added at Marshall station and 58 spaces added at South Geelong station.

The government says the $736 million Waurn Ponds Duplication Project will create nearly 1,300 jobs, with work to start in 2020 and finish by 2023.

The government will contribute $147 million towards the project and seek the remaining funding through the National Rail Program.

But Corangamite federal member Sarah Henderson said Labor’s “unfair funding deal” for the Geelong region was a case of too little, too late. “I have led the way in advocating for the Geelong rail duplication project and delivering, on behalf of the Turnbull Government, $150 million,” Ms Henderson said.

“Our government has also committed another $104 million for signalling and passing loop upgrades on the Warrnambool line.”

Ms Henderson said Labor’s $147 million announcement was not enough.

“It represents only 20 per cent of the cost of the rail duplication project which is simply not good enough,” she said.

“Our commitment is not contingent on an election; the money is there waiting to be spent.”