Wednesday, 14 August 2024

 Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (19:06): (776) My adjournment this evening is to the Minister for Transport Infrastructure. I am wondering if the minister can update my community on the progress towards making the Frankston train line level crossing free. We took a policy in 2014 to remove 50 ‍level crossings by 2022. At the time we had a number of people, including those opposite, who said this would not be possible for the future, and now we are embarking on the journey towards a level crossing free Frankston train line.

When we consider the journey of infrastructure spending and the jobs that that underpins in our state, it has been a significant time in the south-east with the construction of the Mordialloc Freeway completed in 2021, which was talked about and put on the map by the former Hamer government decades ago, became a reality under the Andrews government and is now taking over 60,000 vehicles each and every day.

The level crossing removals that we have seen: we started in the member for Bentleigh’s electorate by removing North Road, Ormond, McKinnon Road and Centre Road, and the birthday celebrations that happened around those level crossing removals were fantastic. Then we saw Mentone and Cheltenham level crossings removed, and then we embarked on removing Bonbeach, Chelsea and Edithvale, which service my communities. Just recently we saw the most magnificent milestone, the opening of Parkdale station and the new sky rail level crossing removals at Warrigal Road and Parkers Road, making our community safer and more accessible. We brought the transport infrastructure minister out; he made a Rick Springfield reference. He was up and about; it was great to see. There was so much excitement and hope and purpose.

There is still a lot of work to do, and we give a shout-out to our residents in Parkdale, Mentone and Mordialloc who each day front up in the street to support the traders who have been impacted during these works. But once we are done, once the roads are fully line-marked and asphalted again and once parking is accessible, this will be one of the best places to come and visit along the Frankston train line.

We will be embarking very soon on the Mordialloc level crossing removals. We will see McDonald Street level crossing removed and we will see Station Street, Aspendale, going – next to Mordialloc College – as we move through those communities. We have talked for a long time about those level crossing removals as well, and it will make it safer and more accessible in our community.

Importantly, I want to give a shout-out to the thousands of workers whose livelihoods, pay packets, support for their families and future super outcomes are on the back of these projects. They have helped build each and every day a better community in my patch, and I give a shout-out to all those people who have been working on these projects sometimes around the clock, sometimes doing significant shifts in support of our community and underpinning their livelihoods as well. We see what is being achieved by the hundreds of workers that have been at Parkdale who supported our traders, who have a pathway of jobs into the future with Metro Tunnel and the Suburban Rail Loop being completed, and we appreciate all that they have done.