Tuesday, 14 May 2024

Echuca abandoned train carriages

Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (10:21): The people of Echuca are demanding that the Premier and the minister for transport have the railway carriages that have been dumped in the middle of Echuca removed. Initially there were 16 carriages. They have graffiti on them now. They have windows smashed. They have the doors kicked out. They are right in the middle of town. They have squatters living in them now. People that walk past those carriages are being abused and having obscenities yelled at them. It is a social issue that we have these disused carriages in town.

To make matters worse, two weeks ago there were a further 12 carriages dumped into Echuca, right in the middle of the station on the vacant line there. Again, they are being graffitied. If they turn out the same as the 16 before, that will happen right in the middle of the station, where schoolchildren get on buses, where people get on trains to go places. We do not need those carriages in town. They are a huge social issue and I ask, and the community asks and demands, that the Premier and the minister for transport take those carriages away and have them put to scrap, as the intent is, before someone is attacked by the people that are living in those trains. We are a tourist town. We do not want the obscenity of those trains in the middle of town with graffiti all over them, with windows smashed out, with bullet holes through windows, with doors ripped off and with squatters living in them.