Wyee station upgrade completed
17th July 2020
Source: Newcastle Herald | By: Max McKinney | Posted: July 17, 2020
Accessibility upgrades worth more than $40 million at two Hunter train stations are all but complete with new lifts now operational.
The final touches are being made to improvements at Waratah and Wyee stations, which have been overhauled over the past year as part of the NSW government's Transport Access Program.
Waratah station now has three lifts attached to the existing footbridge, an accessible parking space and toilet, new pedestrian pathways, CCTV and lighting.
The existing kiss-and-ride car parking area and taxi zone on Railway Terrace has been improved and a short-stay parking zone built on Platt Street.
At Wyee station, three lifts were added to its footbridge and a kiss-and-ride space built on Gorokan Road.
Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper said it was "fantastic" to have the lifts installed at Wyee as accessing the station was once a difficult task.
"Up until this week, if you had any kind of disability, mobility impairment or if you had a lot of luggage, it was almost impossible [to access the station]," he said.
More than $2 billion has been invested in the TAP since 2011 to fund accessibility upgrades at stations, create better transport interchanges and build car parks.
Transport for NSW says close to 90 per cent of customer journeys start from locations accessible to people with a disability, limited mobility or parents with prams.
However, about a dozen stations on the Hunter and Newcastle (north of Warnervale) lines remain inaccessible to wheelchair users.
The most utilised stations are, but stations like Booragul, Teralba, East Maitland, Greta and Branxton are not.
A TfNSW spokesperson said the locations for accessibility upgrades under the TAP were determined "using a prioritisation framework".
"This considers existing and forecast patronage, the needs and demographics of the customers who use the location, whether important services such as hospitals or educational facilities are nearby ... and the accessibility of other nearby transport interchanges," they said.
The agency did not respond to a question about which Hunter stations were due to be upgraded next.
"The list of upgrades is regularly reviewed so that the people of NSW can have confidence that the upgrades are delivered where they are needed most," the spokesperson said.
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