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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-09-10 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

NOARLUNGA RAILWAY LINE

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (16:04): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Today I presented a petition on behalf of the residents of the southern Adelaide area calling for the extension of the Noarlunga railway line. The petition was signed by 7,353 residents of the south, many of whom are in my own electorate. I would like to congratulate in particular the Seaford Residents Association and my local newspaper, The Southern Times Messenger, for organising the petition and for their ongoing support in raising public awareness in relation to this issue.

Particularly as a resident of Seaford, I agree that the railway line needs to be extended, and I have been standing up for the south on this issue for many years and have lobbied my colleagues in government about it. I repeat: this government is committed to extending the Noarlunga railway line.

We have already conducted a feasibility study into the extension, which was publicly released in December 2007. This study pointed out that a number of major things needed to occur before the extension could proceed, and we are now proceeding with these actions, which include:

concrete re-sleepering of the Noarlunga line (and that is occurring now);

implementation of high frequency and high speed rail services and other public transport priorities;

the electrification of existing rail services; and

the identification of a rail corridor to Aldinga.

The building work is part of the transport centrepiece of the 2008-09 budget, which funds the beginning of a 10-year, $2 billion investment to upgrade, electrify and extend the metropolitan railway network. The 10-year program will deliver 50 new electric trains and 58 converted electric trains and electrification. The Noarlunga line will be the first to be electrified, and that is due to be completed by 2013-14. Some $209.7 million begins being spent this year. Naturally enough, the railway line cannot be extended past Noarlunga until the government owns the land on which it can lay tracks. Significantly, the budget commits $34.1 million to secure land for a rail corridor to Aldinga. We already own the land, of course, to Seaford.

One of the key concerns facing the extension is the complex engineering issues in extending the railway line across the Onkaparinga River and then, of course, further into the south. This engineering planning work is happening at the moment as part of a $4 million joint South Australian and federal government transport sustainability study that was announced in July this year. I wish to assure the house that the voice of the people in the south of Adelaide has been heard and that the government of South Australia is responding vigorously to their concerns. I commend the petition to the house.

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