Graffitied gateway to Melbourne’s sporting precinct an eyesore

THE state government has ordered an urgent meeting between transport authorities to deal with ugly graffiti and dumped rubbish scarring one of Melbourne’s busiest gateway rail corridors.

The rail route through Melbourne’s famed sporting precinct is now an eyesore. Picture: Alex Coppel.

PUBLIC Transport Minister Jacinta Allan has ordered an urgent meeting between transport authorities to deal with graffiti on one of Melbourne’s gateway rail corridors.

The Herald Sun today revealed that ugly graffiti and dumped rubbish between Richmond and Flinders St stations had earned the city comparisons to New York’s Bronx.

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Tourists visiting for Melbourne’s summer of sport will be presented with an eyesore. Picture: Alex Coppel.

The corridor runs parallel to Rod Laver Arena, Hisense Arena, and the MCG, shuttling tourists and sports fans to major events in Melbourne.

Ms Allan said graffiti was “unsightly” and “we know it needs to be removed”.

“I have spoken this morning with Public Transport Victoria and VicTrack and asked them to get together urgently to ensure that we do have, particularly on that Richmond to Flinders St corridor, we are prioritising that area,” she said.

“It’s already been identified as an issue by VicTrack and PTV.

“We need to work with the operator, whose responsibility it is to crackdown on this sort of graffiti.”

The ugly graffiti and dumped rubbish scarring the gateway railway corridor taking tourists and sports fans to the Australian Open and Boxing Day Test have earned Melbourne comparisons to New York’s Bronx.

Visitors have condemned the vandalism as hideous, and the Lord Mayor is demanding a clean-up.

Not only are unsightly graffiti tags scrawled all over bridges and from wall to wall, but dumped plastic bags, milk crates, railway sleepers, broken pallets, and smashed bottles have made the area a wasteland.

Visitors have condemned the hideous vandalism. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Even neighbouring tram shelters and electrical boxes in the middle of tracks have been scribbled on.

But authorities are passing the buck for any clean-up.

While Metro is responsible for that section of line, it can’t remove graffiti — even graffiti overlooking the tracks — if it does not own the buildings defaced.

Lord Mayor Robert Doyle called on those in charge to “take some ­responsibility” and clean up graffiti.

“It’s not a good look for visitors, it’s not a good look for tourists. It’s not a good look for our major events, like the Australian Open,” Cr Doyle told the Herald Sun.

“Those corridors have been graffitied within an inch of their lives.”

Colombian tourist Emmanuel Cordoba said the graffiti gave the city a bad look.

Graffiti mars the journey through Melbourne’s sporting precinct. Picture: Alex Coppel.

“It’s not art. It makes the area look dirty,” he said.

Pradeep Kumar, of India, said the graffiti “gives out bad messages” and Scot Ian Wilkinson said: “It’s not nice to see.”

Singaporean Ht Tan said: “In my country, we jail people if they graffiti trains.”

Metro’s Marcus Williams said it spent more than $10 million a year on cleaning graffiti.

“We remove graffiti from our assets in the rail corridor between Richmond and Flinders St stations monthly, but … vandalism remains a constant issue,” he said.

Erin Thomas of Maidstone said something had to be done before the problem got worst.

“I like graffiti but not this,’’ she said.

“This is an eyesore, it promotes rubbish and makes it look like The Bronx.’’

Record crowds at the last Open included more than 80,000 foreigners — mostly from the US, New Zealand, Japan, the UK and China — and 20,000 interstate visitors.

Graffiti tags along the rail corridor. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Garbage is scattered beside the tracks. Picture: Alex Coppel

Opposition public transport spokesman David Davis said authorities should stop skirting responsibility for fixing the “blight” on the rail network.

“It is no use if everyone is pointing at everyone else — that’s buck-passing,” he said.

VicTrack said it was responsible for vacant land and unused buildings, but yesterday could not say if it had responsibility for that corridor.

Public Transport Victoria referred all questions to Metro.

The state government’s Hayley McNaughton said Metro could not remove graffiti from walls or buildings it did not own or lease, but could provide access to council or the owners for a clean-up. It was also not required to clean graffiti from structures and fences more than 50m from the end of a station platform, unless the graffiti was offensive.

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