By Mitchell Clarke
Commuters holding onto hope for a toilet at the Beaconsfield Railway Station won’t get relief any time soon.
Frustration is building after the state government announced on Monday 30 September that Hallam Station, which received a $150,000 toilet in 2016, will be removed to make way for a brand new station, as part of a larger project to remove the Hallam Road level crossing.
Back in Beaconsfield, the current facility is unusable, remaining locked, which has led Gembrook MP Brad Battin to call on the state government to implement a toilet.
“Labor cannot be serious when they say they are for all Victorians when Beaconsfield residents have been left with no cover, no staff, not enough carparks and nowhere to go to the toilet – they deserve better,” he said.
“I guess we have to ask, can we get the self-cleaning toilet transported here where residents have held on for far too long?
“Labor continues to ignore Beaconsfield commuters, they have no timeline for the new carparks, no plans to upgrade the station and now we see a second upgrade at Hallam in the time not even a toilet has been made available here.”
But it seems the concerns of Mr Battin and his constituents won’t be addressed, with a government spokesperson shutting down any prospect of a toilet.
“Beaconsfield is an unstaffed station – toilets are regularly vandalised when there is no Metro staff member present.
“For this reason, there are no plans to reopen these toilets to the public,” the spokesperson confirmed.
Decisions on staffing and facilities at stations are made on a network-wide basis in consultation between Metro and the Department of Transport.
One stop along the line, Berwick Station has bathroom facilities available from the first to last service.
