Re: [Vic] Taradale to get train service?

[Mailman@netscape.net.au (Keith Holley)]

On Sun, 13 May 2001 17:40:46 +1000, "James C."
<james_ccj@optusnet.com.au> wrote:


There no way that train will stopped at Taradale.    With all the talk
of reducing travel time between Bendigo and  Melbourne I cannot see
the people of Taradale getting them back.  What about Malmbury ??????

Sorry     No trains


>http://www.heraldsun.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,1993449%255E2862,00.htm
>l
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>Town wants its station back
>By ADRIAN TAME
>13may01
>
>RESIDENTS of a central Victorian town want their railway station re-opened.
>
>The trouble is a State Government official is using it as a weekender,
>according to the town's spokeswoman.
>Bob Wilson is an adviser in the Office of the Director of Public Transport.
>He has leased the Taradale Railway Station for about 25 years.
>
>He told the Sunday Herald Sun he had no say in whether the station
>re-opened, saying it was the responsibility of a private company, V/Line
>Passenger.
>
>"It is entirely their decision," Mr Wilson said.
>
>But V/Line Passenger's spokesman, Daniel Maloney, said: "We have no say over
>Taradale station. Our trains run through it, but we don't own it nor lease
>it.
>
>"The station is owned by VicTrack, a Government body."
>
>When told of that comment, Mr Wilson said: "I don't argue with that, but it
>doesn't change what I said. I don't have any say in whether V/Line Passenger
>decides to apply to re-open the station."
>
>Taradale's spokeswoman, Isobel Deridisi, has a 200-signature petition
>seeking the station be re-opened, and she wants the Transport Minister,
>Peter Batchelor, to intervene.
>
>Mrs Deridisi says the town needed a station to allow:
>
>* People travel to Melbourne for medical appointments.
>
>* Children to go to school.
    
  Most children travel by bus to school 

>* The jobless to seek work.

  What jobs  ????   Castlemaine & Kyneton  would be the first port of
call for jobless.


>"I've been fighting for years and getting nowhere," she said. "I've tried
>the Transport Department, V/Line, the Ombudsman, nobody wants to help. I was
>even put through to Bob Wilson once. How ridiculous is that

>
>"So now I'm trying the minister.
>
>"Mr Batchelor has said that despite the Kennett Government's privatisation
>of the system that this Government would ensure contracts were properly
>managed and that the community received the service it deserved.
>
>"Those are his actual words, and I aim to make sure he keeps his promise."
>
>Mrs Deridisi and her husband, Mike, have lived in Taradale periodically for
>20 years, and moved back permanently three years ago.
>
>Soon after, she began her petition, and approached V/Line Passenger, which
>operates the Melbourne-to-Bendigo line on which Taradale is located.
>
>"They would do a feasibility study, then they said it had already been done,
>and nobody had responded," Mrs Deridisi said.
>
>"When I asked them for proof, they sent a clipping from the Cobram Courier,
>which circulates 250km from Taradale, asking for public response to
>proposals covering stations and services.
>
>"It's hardly surprising nobody here saw it.
>
>"I then wrote to the Public Transport director and was told the Government
>had made no commitment to a feasibility study, nor to re-open our station.
>
>"But they did tell me they would retain bus services from Shepparton to
>Cobram, hundreds of kilometres away. I'm still trying to work out what that
>has to do with us.
>
>"It is wrong that the community needs the station, but it is being used by
>one man high up in the Transport Department."
>
>Taradale station was first opened as a stop between Kyneton and Castlemaine
>in 1862, and was closed in 1976.
>
>Mr Wilson said he and some friends had leased the station about that time.
>He would not say for how long or for how much.
>
>"I was a very junior employee of VicRail at the time, and I loved trains and
>stations. I heard Taradale might be demolished. It is a lovely old bluestone
>building, so I did something about it.
>
>"I have been using it ever since and have spent thousands of dollars on its
>upkeep.
>
>"What Mrs Deridisi is doing has caused me great distress, and she has never
>had the courtesy to see me personally."
>
>Mr Wilson said he would have no objection to the re-opening, and believed he
>could still continue with his lease and co-exist with public use of the
>station.
>
>"If V/Line Passenger applied to stop at the station the decision would be
>made by someone in my department senior to me. I would have no say in it, no
>more than any member of the public," he said.
>
>A spokesman for Mr Batchelor said: "Taradale station has been closed 30
>years, and to suggest the train does not stop there has anything to do with
>who has a lease at the station house is simply untrue and quite malicious.
>
>"There are other stations leased where trains still stop. It is only the
>platforms that are used."
>
>The spokesman said Mrs Deridisi's concerns would be discussed if she
>contacted Mr Batchelor.
>
>
>Cheers
>James
>
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