News Alert |

City of Ballarat welcomes the announcement that the State Opposition has committed to delivering a new train station at Warrenheip and new high speed rail network across the state, cutting travel times between Ballarat and Melbourne and facilitating decentralisation. 

Ballarat Mayor, Cr Samantha McIntosh says the dual committent for high speed rail and an additional station to serve the broader Ballarat community, as outlined by the State Opposition this week (3 October 2018), will bring significant benefits for commuters and residents. 

Cr McIntosh says reduced travel times are a key to ongoing growth and development; and that the proposal aligns well with Ballarat’s push to become a hub for government decentralisation, and its vision to welcome an increasing number of new residents - thereby relieving population and growth pressure on metropolitan Melbourne. 

“A new station at Warrenheip, as put forward by City of Ballarat along with its Ballarat Now and Into the Future (BNIF) partner-organisations, will improve travel times, act as a catalyst for growth and development in Warrenheip and areas to its east, remove an estimated 2000 vehicles a day from the Ballarat CBD and improve rail accessibility for people living to the city’s east.  

City of Ballarat, and its BNIF partners have made securing funding for a regional integrated transport package a strategic priority in the lead up to the State election.  Key elements of the regional integrated transport package are an express service between Melbourne and Ballarat and a station at Warrenheip. 

Mayor McIntosh says it’s great that the State Opposition proposal recognises these imperatives - and that once delivered it will have enormous social and economic benefits for Ballarat and its region. 

“It’s great that this election commitment recognises Ballarat’s ongoing push for improved transport connections”, Cr McIntosh says.