New railway nothing more than a nuisance?

Today's West Australian contains an article (5/4/06 p.42) describing a group of up to 50 residents of Leeming who are campaigning for compensation for the construction of the Mandurah rail line. It seems that changes to the South Street exit from the Kwinana Freeway (necessary for the construction of Murdoch train station and bus interchange) are causing dust and light pollution problems.

Somewhat bizarrely, the minister is offering compensation in the form of land rezoning - the theory being that rezoning the land for higher density living will give the locals a greater land resale value. The locals don't seem impressed!

The whole article simply presents the railway as nothing but a nuisance. No mention at all of the fact that residents of the area will shortly have access to a railway station (positive!) that will give them access to the city centre in 11 minutes (positive!) rather than the 30 minutes or more it can now take in peak hour by car.

Of course, The West Australian has a long running campaign against the railway, cheering at every slight setback and cost rise on this major project in this booming city with a "small town" attitude.

Still, it would be nice to have some good news from time to time!