The President of Ballarat advocacy group SOS, or Save Our Station, says he believes he understands why V/Line are so keen to scrap the heritage Lydiard Street railway gates in a working sense.
SOS last week gained access to documents surrounding a survey on the gates following a lengthy Freedom of Information battle.
Gerald Jenzen says he suspects V/Line would just like their railway gates to be easy and new, statewide.
“The railways seem to have the view that everything new is what they want.”
“So, if something does break down all they’ve got to do is go to the workshop, pick up a spare which they’ve already got in stock, and replace it.”
“So, it’s very easy, its money and time I guess, it’s the easy answer instead of having a one-off set of gates somewhere in regional Victoria,” Mr. Jenzen said.
Despite the Department of Transport insisting that for safety reasons the gates can be returned in a static way only, Mr. Jenzen remains optimistic that one day they’ll be operational again.
