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Light rail still on the cards, says Barnett

Staff ReporterSouthern Gazette

A day earlier Greens South Metropolitan MLC Lynn MacLaren said residents of Victoria Park and surrounding suburbs should be outraged at the State Government’s broken promise regarding MAX light rail.

‘As far as he (Colin Barnett) is concerned, the light rail is on the plans for the future. However, a timeline is not known at this stage from the Premier,’ Victoria Park chief executive Arthur Kyron said.

‘The Premier indicated that the government still wants to plan for the light rail through to Curtin University. The Premier did not see any sense in stopping the light rail at the Causeway.’

Ms MacLaren, the Greens’ transport spokeswoman, said the Liberals had ‘unapologetically reneged on this pivotal cornerstone of their election campaign, nine months on’.

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‘Leading up to the State Election, Colin Barnett, Mr Buswell and local Liberal candidates promised a light rail system to connect Victoria Park to the City, as well as out to Nedlands and Mirrabooka, saying the public transport link would be built by 2018,’ Ms MacLaren said.

‘In May I asked in Parliament how the State Government planned to fund MAX light rail in light of abolished rail funding by the Federal Government and was served with an empty response.

‘Having acknowledged the benefits of light rail, it seems the Barnett Government never had any intention of delivering it. While they now justify their broken promise on the basis of a budget shortfall that they must surely have foreseen, they continue to fund expensive road expansions.’