The Coalition has bumped up its funding commitment for a new train station at Lakelands, south of Perth, to $37 million.
Cities and urban infrastructure minister Alan Tudge on Monday added $25 million to the Coalition’s promise for Lakelands station funding. “We want people to be spending less time in traffic and be doing what’s important to them – spending time with family and friends,” he said.
Meanwhile local member for Canning Andrew Hastie accused the WA Government of ignoring the project.
“The clear message I’ve received from the people of Lakelands over the last three years is to get this station built,” Hastie said.
“I’ve fought in Canberra to make that happen and the federal government has been with our community every step of the way. Today’s announcement brings the Morrison Government’s commitment to the Lakelands Train Station to $37 million.
“Meanwhile, WA Labor is ignoring our community and calling Lakelands a station that ‘no one needs’.”
The new train station would be on WA’s Mandurah line, which stretches 70 kilometres south of Perth to the state’s second-largest city, Mandurah.
Currently the final 23 kilometres of the line into Mandurah are without a station. Lakelands sits roughly in the middle of this stretch.
When Hastie first committed $10 million to building the Lakelands station the announcement was criticised by the state government. “Andrew Hastie got $10 million, without a business case, for a train station that no one needs,” WA’s MP for Warnbro Paul Papalia said in March.
State transport minister Rita Saffioti has said the government remains committed to investigating Lakelands station as an option, however.