DUMPED rubbish caused a major traffic jam during peak hour in Swan Hill earlier this week.
A V/Line spokesperson told The Guardian the rubbish triggered the boom gates at the McCallum Street level crossing to close on Tuesday.
The boom gates remained closed for approximately four hours, causing traffic to bank up in the Swan Hill CBD.
Swan Hill police members were on the scene to divert traffic.
“On Tuesday November 26, rubbish was dumped on the rail line in Swan Hill which triggered the activation of boom gates, bells and flashing lights at the McCallum Street level crossing,” a V/Line spokesperson said.
“The incident occurred in the late afternoon but required specialist technicians to travel from Kyneton to remove the rubbish and reset the crossing, which they were able to do at around 9:30pm.
“Safety is V/Line’s number one priority and crossings are designed to activate when they detect a fault for the safety of road users, passengers and the wider community.”
The spokesperson said dumping litter on the rail reserve was against the law and risked the safety of train passengers, V/Line staff, road users and the wider community.
“We would like to thank road users and local residents for their patience while we worked to repair the level crossing fault caused by vandalism on the rail corridor,” the spokesperson said.
No other level crossings were affected at the time.
“No trains were scheduled to pass through the crossing during the time that it was activated,” the spokesperson said.
“While the crossing was active, pedestrians were still able to use the maze style crossing next to the road and road users were able to detour via the Mitchell Street level crossing.”
Swan Hill police Sergeant Rami Derbas told The Guardian police are uncertain whether it was an intentional rubbish dump, or if the materials were blown onto the track.
“Police attended and had to perform traffic diversions around the crossing,” Sgt Derbas said.
“The incident could possibly have been caused by metal items being blown onto or being placed on the tracks.”
Pickering Transport Group operations assistant Brodie Parsons said several of the company’s trucks were caught up in the traffic jam.
“Coming into Swan Hill to drop off at the depot, inbound we had about three trucks affected who had to go back around the McCallum and Curlewis street to go to Campbell, Grey Street, and Monash Drive,” Ms Parsons said.
“We had a b-double (truck) that had to go down Monash Drive as well, which was quite a challenge but we got him back in the end.
“We had trucks that had to leave their trailers at the saleyards because they couldn’t get their trailer across (the Swan Hill bridge to their depot in Murray Downs).”
She said a gentleman dropping off fruit at the Pickerings depot also got caught up in the incident.
Ms Parsons said the incident had not caused issues for their drivers headed to Melbourne, due to police assisting the trucks to navigate their way around Monash Drive.
Operations manager for Murray Downs Golf and Country Club, Spoons Riverside and Swan Hill Club Stephen Banks also praised the work of police in their role in the incident.
“Our clubs appreciated the rapid response by police to manage traffic and as a result it didn’t impact business,” he said.
