In a clear sign that the much-needed lifts at Unanderra Station are further away than ever, the Premier has insisted that commuters should instead use “neighbouring stations [that] do have easy access” while announcing that Moss Vale Station will get new lifts.

The Premier – who was the Transport Minister – when she cancelled the start of works on the Unanderra Station lifts funded by the former NSW Labor Government in 2011 now expects that the elderly, parents with prams, commuters with bags and people with a disability should travel nearly 8kms to Dapto and Coniston respectively to catch a train.

Over the last eight years commuters have been forced to struggle with 72 steps while other train stations in NSW have had lifts installed under the Transport Access Program (TAP) as rankings have been fiddled and manipulated for political purposes.

Now Moss Vale Station in the Southern Highlands will leapfrog Unanderra Station and have lifts installed – personally announced by the Premier during a visit yesterday.

Although the Premier has praised the Unanderra Access Group, disability providers and employers, and the local community for the campaign to upgrade Unanderra Station and install its much-needed lifts saying during her press conference yesterday:

I know the Labor member down there and others has been campaigning for that station and good on them.

NSW Labor has committed $25 million to upgrade Unanderra Station and install its much-needed lifts as part of the $225 million Illawarra Jobs Action Plan.

Funding would start to roll-out in the very first budget of a Daley Labor Government if NSW Labor is elected to form the next government of New South Wales after Saturday, 23 March 2019.

Comments attributable to Paul Scully MP:

“This is another slap in the face for the people of Unanderra and surrounding suburbs by the Premier.

“Our elderly, parents with prams, commuters with bags and people with a disability shouldn’t have to travel nearly 8kms to another train station so they can have the same easy access that is available at every other train station along the South Coast Line.

“The people of Unanderra and surrounding suburbs have been forced to wait eight long years by this Premier for their lifts and she still wants to rub salt in their wound by telling them to get in a car and go use either Dapto or Coniston station instead.

“It really just isn’t good enough.”