Labor for Wagga’s Peita Vincent, Deputy Mayor Amelia Parkins and Mark Jeffreson gathered on Railway Street to launch the petition. Photo: Chris Roe.
Wagga’s Deputy Mayor Amelia Parkins has kicked off a petition calling on the NSW Government and the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) to listen to the concerns of the community regarding Inland Rail.
Ms Parkins and the ‘Labor for Wagga’ local government team are hoping for a reevaluation of the proposed route through the city.
“Inland Rail has been a really big focus of the last term of council,” she said.
“The reason that we’ve put the petition out now is that we were really keen to make sure that we don’t lose the momentum that council has put into all of their submissions and rallying community awareness of the Inland Rail and the concerns that the community have raised.”
While there remains widespread support for the Inland Rail megaproject and the economic benefits it will bring to the region, the impact of upgrading the existing rail line to bring double-stacked freight trains through the centre of the city is controversial.
Planning for the massive infrastructure began over a decade ago and work on the line began in 2018, but Ms Parkins does not believe it’s too late to raise concerns.
“I think a petition is a really powerful way of garnering its physical support from the community,” she said.
“Hopefully by getting hundreds and thousands of signatures, we can then table that in parliament so that all of the politicians are aware of the concerns that the Inland Rail, as currently designed, will result in for our community.”
Deputy Mayor Amelia Parkins said it was not too late to call for a revision of Inland Rail plans for Wagga. Photo: Supplied.
The petition revisits calls for a rail bypass to be considered amid fears the railway upgrades will divide the city, increase noise and vibration and cause significant traffic disruptions.
Ms Parkins said they would also like to see plans revised to include a grade separation at the Bourke/Docker streets level crossing, elevators for the proposed pedestrian bridge upgrades and a road safety audit of the Edmondson Street Bridge upgrade.
“Our biggest concern with Edmondson Street Bridge is that the increase in the height obviously increases the grades, but then the result of that is drastically decreasing the sightlines,” she explained.
“The biggest fear is that there’ll be a catastrophic accident on the major highway going through town.
“The other thing with the Edmonson Street Bridge that completely blows my mind is that we’ve been fighting so hard to get disabled access by way of a lift, not a hundreds and hundreds of metres long ramp that will be incredibly steep and I think just impossible for people to push wheelchairs or prams or even bikes up and down.”
Ms Parkins encouraged as many locals as possible to sign the petition and said Labor for Wagga was in a unique position to advocate to the State and Federal Labor governments.
“It’s a last-ditch effort and I hope that we’ve got the support of the community because I don’t want it to take the death of someone in our community for the government to listen,” she said.
“We’ve got the support of some people within the Labor Party; we just need our voice to be heard at the point of the decision-making.”
You can learn more about the petition through their Facebook page.
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