Tuesday, 30 August 2022

Western Victoria Region

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:20): (1944) My question is to the Minister for Public Transport and concerns the ongoing wait for the final report into a train crash in Ballarat on 30 May 2020. A VLocity train was unable to brake and sped through the Ballarat railway station at 100 kilometres an hour, proceeding to smash through heritage rail gates. Lydiard Street was closed at that location for 534 days, no less. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s preliminary report was handed down in October 2020, but almost two years on the final report is nowhere to be seen. The ATSB has said that any identified safety issues have been addressed and that the final report is currently with direct parties—that would be the Victorian government. Minister, our outstanding candidate for Wendouree, Cr Samantha McIntosh, and I want to know if the delay is due to ongoing safety issues with Victoria’s trains, or is there another reason why Ballarat commuters need to wait so long for a report into what could have been a fatal train crash?