The Independent Transport Safety and Reliability Regulator (ITSRR) has ordered council and ARTC to improve the crossing linking Bowral Street and Oxley Hill Road in Bowral and the crossing linking Yarrawa Street and Yarrawa Road in Moss Vale.

The railway line is managed by ARTC and Council has never done any work on the railway corridor.

But ARTC has told Council that it will only be responsible for the area to 1.5 metres on either side of the road, leaving council to foot the bill for traffic signals, mazes, signs and alternative footways costing at least $100,000 for each crossing.

Council’s director of technical services Michael Brearley said expecting councils to upgrade crossings on railway property was another case of cost shifting.

He recommended that council ask ARTC to close the crossings until agreement was reached, since council would be legally liable if an accident occurred.

“From a risk management process, we have been put on notice that there is potential risk we need to address,” he said.

Closing the crossings would force pedestrians to walk an extra 1.2km in both cases.

But Mr Brearley said the alternative routes - through the underpass at Spring Street in Moss Vale or along Kirkham Road, across the Wingecarribee railway bridge and back along Station Street in Bowral - were also problematic.

“Whatever way you go there are hazards,” he said.

Cr Graham McLaughlin asked Mr Brearley whether the crossings were seriously dangerous or whether this was a way for ARTC to get the crossings upgraded at council’s expense.

For the full story see the Southern Highland News, Friday, November 28

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