Western Port
Weste rn Port
realestate 7 April 2015
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Liberal MPs leading charge for extra police LIBERAL MPs who fought to get funding for a police station at Somerville believe the public is about to get short-changed on service. Hastings MP Neale Burgess and his colleague police spokesperson Edward O’Donohue say Victoria is lagging in police numbers and that the $16.3 million station nearing completion at Somerville won’t be accessible to the public. They have launched petitions calling on the Labor government to hire more police. Victoria Police on Tuesday confirmed that the 80 police stationed at Somerville will come from Frankston and elsewhere on the Mornington Peninsula. There will be no “counter service”, although a police spokeswoman said the public can seek help by calling 000 or go to “nearby” police stations at Hastings or Mornington. See story Page 8.
Sign here: Liberal politicians Edward O’Donohue and Neale Burgess, centre, are ready to deliver petitions calling on the state government to hire more police. Photo supplied.
Rail line shut down Neil Walker neil@mpnews.com.au THE Stony Point rail line has been closed indefinitely after boom gates did not close for approaching trains twice in the past few weeks. Boom gates at the Graydens Rd lev-
el crossing failed to close in the first week of March. Another gate malfunctioned at the Mornington-Tyabb Rd level crossing last week. The latest safety scare comes after several boom gate malfunctions last year forced Metro to pull single-car trains from the line last year (‘Line call
after gates glitch’, The News 2/9/14). At the time it was believed the singlecarriage trains were not large enough to trigger the closure of boom gates and two-car sprinters remained in service. Metro now blames “track contamination” for the boom gate faults. “Debris such as sand, leaves or rust
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in danger of collision with cars as our train drivers picked up the faults before proceeding through affected level crossings.” Ms Tait said Metro had decided to close the Stony Point line until it finds “an engineering solution”. Continued Page 8
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interferes with the wheel to rail interface, and as such interferes with track detection of a train,” Metro spokeswoman Larisa Tait said. “On Monday 30 March, we took the precaution of suspending the line indefinitely, replacing train services with buses. At no point were any services
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