The South Australian Labor Party has put the electrification of the Gawler line, and the extension of Adelaide’s light rail line, at the forefront of voters’ minds ahead of the upcoming state election.
Labor’s transport and infrastructure minister Stephen Mullighan said the Liberal Party was purposely blocking the long-awaited Gawler electrification project, saying the project would be ‘at risk’ under a Liberal Government.
According to Mullighan, the two Liberal members of the Public Works Committee in charge of finalising a report into the project’ for the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, are “refusing to allow the report to progress,” in the final stage of the committee’s approval process.
Voters in South Australia head to the polls on March 17.
“It’s now clear [SA Liberals leader] Steven Marshall and the Liberals don’t support the electrification of the Gawler line and their plan is to delay it long enough so the contract can’t be awarded and they can cancel the project if they are elected on March 17,” Mullighan said.
“Just as they planned to cancel the Torrens to Torrens project before the last election, they are looking to do the same to the Gawler Electrification project.”
Mullighan says the Liberals’ “hell-bent” determination to cancel the project reminds him of when then-prime minister Tony Abbott “withdrew $76 million of Federal funding” from the project in 2013.
“The tender process has been completed and we are ready to award the contract and get construction started,” Mullighan said.
“The fact is the SA Liberals have never supported public transport, they have long campaigned against infrastructure investment and they have never proposed one policy or investment in public transport.
Labor says the electrification project will support 135 jobs a year during construction.
“With our industry participation policy we will maximise the use of local businesses and workers during construction,” Mullighan added.
The transport minister reiterated his party’s views on infrastructure on Monday, saying the $80 million tram extension underway in Adelaide had engaged roughly 40 South Australian companies, including QPE Fabrication, which is delivering track work for the project.
“It’s fantastic to see South Australian businesses like QPE benefitting not just from the State Government’s investment in infrastructure, but also from QPE’s work in the private sector,” Mullighan said.
Increasing the number of people who can travel during rush periods on the Gawler Railway Line should be a prime policy objective for any upgrade. The easiest first step would be to make the Railway Stations platforms longer to handle trains that are multiples of our 3-car electric trains. 6 cars or 9 car trains. Doing this now would save money in the long-term.
The Northern Suburbs Line in Perth was upgraded by having all platforms able to handle 6-car electric trains along with grade-separation and re-routing buses to interchanges. The railroad carried 10 million passengers in 2015. At the same year the whole of the Adelaide Public Transport handled 6 million passengers.