Railway Crossing Safety Strategy

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (14:56): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Can the minister update the house on the state government's Railway Crossing Safety Strategy?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (14:56): I thank the member for Reynell for her question and ongoing interest in this matter. As members may be aware, on behalf of the South Australian government I recently released the Railway Crossing Safety Strategy, a document put in place to reduce the hundreds of near misses reported at road and pedestrian crossings across South Australia. Too often, level crossing accidents occur across our metropolitan passenger train lines, our tramlines and in regional areas across the freight lines.

Our train and tram drivers regularly encounter instances of pedestrians, cyclists and cars dangerously crossing level crossings, putting themselves as well as the train or tram drivers, the commuters and the public at risk. I am advised that in a five-year period across all rail crossings across the breadth of South Australia there were 741 near misses, 14 collisions fortunately involving no injury, but unfortunately 15 collisions causing injury and four deaths across that period. Along with the state's road safety strategy, Towards Zero Together, this rail safety strategy looks at ways to manage railway crossings safely and identifies ways to reduce risks across our network.

An ultimate way of dealing with these issues is to grade separate them. We have done a lot of this work, particularly on the Port River Expressway with the current Torrens to Torrens project getting rid of the level crossing on South Road for the Outer Harbor train line, and getting rid of the level crossing at Park Terrace and also Gibson Street in Bowden with the Torrens Junction project. There is also the grade separation for pedestrians and cyclists at the Goodwood Junction project with the Mike Turtur path and, of course, the tram overpass at South Road.

I am pleased to advise the house that the first part of an initial $12 million investment in the safety strategy will see five metropolitan railway pedestrian crossings and nine rural road level crossings upgraded. The state government is investing $2½ million to install automatic gates at pedestrian crossings in the member for Reynell's electorate at Christie Downs, and also at Brighton and Hove, to significantly improve safety.

Managing and improving the large number of crossings across our state does pose a challenge, with more than 700 crossings, most of them in regional areas. As part of this strategy, we have also identified five passive pedestrian crossings, which currently pose safety risks, to be closed, with pedestrians directed to nearby safer alternatives. By removing these level crossings, as well as the upgrades that I just mentioned, we will significantly improve safety and reduce the likelihood of injuries and even deaths.

I am also pleased to say that, further to these upgrades and a small number of closures, signage, line marking and other upgrades at 154 level crossings will be made across rural areas. This reflects that the majority of our crossings are in regional areas, as I mentioned. Although train services may be less frequent in those areas, statistics show that the majority of incidents are occurring on freight lines in regional South Australia.

There will also be seven rural road crossing upgrades in the Mid North, the Flinders Ranges, at Callington, Currency Creek, Murray Bridge and Nairne. This investment will allow for the installation of important safety measures such as boom gates, lights and bells, extra signage and line marking. The strategy also identifies level crossings which should be removed. Of course, we have spoken at some length about the Oaklands crossing upgrade, but of course there are other locations in the metropolitan area, including at Ovingham, Seaton and Salisbury, which ideally would be upgraded.