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Gippsland rejects Citizen Jury’s uninformed support for curtailing trains at PakenhamGippsland has rejected the uninformed support to the proposal that Gippsland trains should no longer travel into Melbourne. Read the full article... By news@gippsland - 8th August 2016 - Back to News Gippsland has rejected the uninformed support given by Infrastructure Victoria’s Citizen Jury to the proposal that Gippsland trains should no longer travel into Melbourne, leaving passengers to change to crowded suburban trains at Pakenham.
The proposal to curtail our trains has no support from Gippsland rail users or communities.
Nor is there any need for it. The current timetable provides for 3 trains from Gippsland into the city during the peak period and we expect this to expand to 4 next year.
Terminating these trains at Pakenham would kill the service, and commuters would abandon the train in droves. This doesn’t happen on any other V/Line corridor. It’s not fair to Gippsland.
Gippsland is the corridor that has missed out on most of the rail upgrades V/Line commuters have received on all other corridors-
It has the most unreliable services;
It has the slowest trains
It has overcrowded trains
It has no dedicated track into the city like that provided for Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat trains
It has seen no investment in new stations
Baw Baw Shire mayor, Councillor Joe Gauci said "Council respected and welcomed the model of deliberative democracy. The importance of regional wide citizen representation to inform such investments that shape our future.
"Unfortunately there were no Gippslanders invited to be part of this jury," Cr Gauci said.
East Gippsland Shire’s mayor, Councillor Marianne Pelz, said the notion was unacceptable.
"Rail patronage has steadily increased since the train was returned to East Gippsland in 2004 showing that our residents support the service.
"The priority should be on improving the infrastructure, such as the Stratford Rail Bridge, not adding another interchange that lengthens the journey for Gippslanders wanting to travel into the city.
"The Pakenham line is actually the Gippsland line – do not take our line away," Cr Pelz concluded.
Latrobe City Council’s mayor, Councillor Michael Rossiter, said that Latrobe City’s recent community conversation modelled how to involve those at the heart of regional issues.
"Our community conversation event, held in Morwell a little over a week ago, proved that listening to the voice of the people reflects the true desires of a community. The issue of improving passenger rail service for Gippsland was a strong theme from the conversation. If you do not ask those that are at the heart of a matter to have their say, how can you truly expect to provide a satisfactory solution to an issue that affects those very people? Gippslanders deserve to be heard.
"We would respectfully request Infrastructure Victoria to talk to us. We are here to listen. We are here to be involved," Cr Rossiter said.
The Citizens Jury has no credibility to speak on this issue. They are not citizens of Gippsland and they have not consulted Gippslanders.
Gippsland communities and Gippsland V/line users want a fair go. We want the investment in our V/line services that other corridors have received, so we can have more reliable, more frequent and faster services. We are very disappointed that Infrastructure Victoria has entertained the proposal to terminate our trains at Pakenham, and doubly disappointed that they have publicised the opinion of a Citizens Jury that has no credibility on an issue so important to us.
Media Enquiries:
Baw Baw Shire: 03 5624 2865 or communications@bawbawshire.vic.gov.au
East Gippsland Shire: 03 5153 9500 or media@egipps.vic.gov.au
Latrobe City: 5128 6143 or comms@latrobe.vic.gov.au
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: news@gippsland.com
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