Towns railroaded over plan

THE City of Casey has advised the Port of Hastings Corporation (PoHC) that while it supports the future expansion of the port, it opposes its plan to drive a rail freight corridor through the municipality’s southern communities.
This could mean a freight railway through places such as Clyde in the City of Casey and Cardinia in the Shire of Cardinia.
We don’t know for sure.
But we also have talk of a freight airport in the area of Manks Road, between Five Ways and Kooweerup, something that I have heard about for the past 50 years.
I have always believed it would not happen, but driving a railway into that area could be part of a wider agenda that would wipe out entire rural communities.
A large area of land south of Dandenong has been earmarked as an inland port and the Port of Hastings itself will become a massive operation.
We need the development, but we don’t need people in powerful positions riding roughshod over entire communities and even governments.
This is what is happening, because the government’s Urban Growth Boundary says no to this rail idea before it starts.
With this in mind, why did it get started if the port planners have any regard for regulations, communities and our way of life in this region?
People concerned about this arrogant and bombastic proposal that came out of the blue should join a call to confine extra rail resources to existing freeway and rail reserves.