Freight pledge not enough for Hills residents

Hills residents are calling on both major parties to commit funds to reroute the rail freight line, saying the Liberals’ pre-election pledge to revisit a Federal study does not go far enough.

About 150 frustrated residents attended a Mitcham Council public meeting to push for a northern bypass at the Blackwood Hills Baptist Church last Friday, July 30.

Boothby’s Labor candidate Annabel Digance was scheduled to address the meeting, but did not attend. Ms Digance did not respond to the Hills and Valley Messenger’s inquiries before presstime.

The meeting resolved to write to the leaders of the major parties at State and Federal level, calling on them to fund a northern bypass by 2014.

It follows the release of the Federal Government’s Adelaide Rail Freight Movements Study in June which, much to the angst of long-suffering locals, found the cost to realign or upgrade the track would outweigh any social or environmental benefits.

Share your opinion: View and discuss the Adelaide Hills rail bypass proposals.

Earlier in the night, Boothby MP Dr Andrew Southcott (Lib) announced that, if elected, his party would suspend any current or future work on the existing line and “revisit specific elements” of the Federal study, prepared by consultants GHD. However, he did not pledge to fund a northern bypass.

Rail Freight Committee chair and Mitcham Cr Mark Ward welcomed Dr Southcott’s announcement but said more needed to be done.

“It’s much stronger than the position of GHD’s paper but it needs to be even stronger,” he told the Hills and Valley Messenger after the meeting.

“If the (Federal) budget is going to be in surplus by 2013, then let’s commit to a bypass by 2014.”

Eden Hills resident Stephanie McCarthy said Dr Southcott’s commitment needed to go further.

“At least it was better than nothing, at least it indicated support for it (northern bypass) and I would like to see the GHD report thoroughly pulled apart and some sensible action begun immediately,” she said.

Bellevue Heights resident Bob Hunt, who double-glazed his home to mitigate wheel squeals, said both parties needed to commit to a northern bypass.

“They’re all waiting around for somebody like Infrastructure Australia to come up and say ‘Yes, you should go with that’,” he said.

via Messenger News