By Gabrielle Costa
A PEDESTRIAN underpass at the railway level crossing in Anderson St, Yarraville, a local secondary school to cater for the fast-growing number of local children and better policing of truck traffic are on one local trader’s state budget wish list.
Alexis Ensor, the owner of Yarraville clothing, accessories and novelty items store Village Idiom, said he would also like to see budget initiatives that encouraged the development on the banks of the Maribyrnong and Yarra rivers – culminating in a ferry service that would deliver residents of Yarraville and surrounding suburbs into the city without them having to start a car or board a train or bus.
“Sydney can do it,” he said. “It’s about time Melbourne started thinking about it.”
But the level crossing underpass, Mr Ensor said, is of primary importance because some pedestrians had been forced to wait as long as 18 minutes to cross the railway tracks that divide the centre of Yarraville. The station had an underpass until the 1990s, when it was filled in.
“That’s the greatest source of pedestrian frustration in Yarraville,” he said, adding public meetings had made it clear locals wanted something done. “We just want a crossing there where you don’t have to rely on a level crossing, that is, waiting at the gates because it’s been timed at up to 18 minutes that the gates have been down. That’s a long time for anyone to have to wait.”
Mr Ensor said he did not expect an underpass to be funded in the current budget but financial provision for a feasibility study would mark a first step towards meeting that need.
He also called for police to be better resourced so they could monitor truck traffic. He nominated the intersection of Stephen and Francis streets as particularly dangerous.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been there and trucks have driven through the red light. They literally, on a regular basis, drive through the red light.”
A visible police presence, or a red light camera, could alleviate that, he said.
And even though Mr Ensor’s children are now adults, he said that the local community would need a secondary school before too long. “Just in light of all the young kids here now having to get on a train to go to secondary school. If there was a school it would ease the train crowding situation and it would give kids a local alternative,” he said.
