The Diggers Rest Level Crossing Removal Project was meant to ‘ensure a safer and more connected’ town, but some locals say it is inadequate.
Local advocacy group DREAM is ‘dismayed’ with what it claims is a lack of consideration for community feedback, which highlighted multiple design flaws.
This includes the placement of bus stops, which it believes will threaten pedestrian safety and increase traffic.
DREAM claims the current configuration of the proposed stops, located on the north-bound side of the station, will likely increase congestion and safety risks.
It means passengers must cross the tracks and face a wait of several minutes at a time.
As well as that, it will increase congestion from the constant merging of the buses on and off the road, which would be shared by trucks and cars, the group said.
The group proposed moving the bus stops to the south-bound side, meaning commuters would be dropped off on the side of the station that heads towards the city.
However, a letter from Transport Infrastructure Minister Danny Pearson, seen by Star Weekly, disputes this, stating the bus stop site was determined to be the ‘best location to service existing routes’.
In the letter, Mr Pearson told DREAM that buses would “be unable to turn around to continue their route through Diggers Rest”.
DREAM member Paul Rodgers said the project “wasn’t really an upgrade” in some senses.
“As a pedestrian, you’ve either got to cross the rail line – a hazard – or make the 400-metre trip over the road bridge where the footpath runs out at the roundabout [on the Old Calder Highway].”
Mr Rogers, who joined the group more than 12 months ago, said the community felt unheard and that there are “a lot of unhappy people.”
“It seems like they’ve got their idea of what they want and they are going to do that,” he said.
“They try to take the public’s feedback on board but you don’t feel like anything happens after that … nothing has changed since their initial designs… despite everything that we have raised.”
