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Leongatha is a railway station in the town of Leongatha, Victoria on the former South Gippsland railway line in South Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. The station opened in 1891 as a terminus, the line being extended to Welshpool the next year. , the station is the terminus of the South Gippsland Tourist Railway, and has been since regular V/Line passenger operations on the line ceased east of Cranbourne station in 1993. The track south of Leongatha has been dismantled and turned into the Great Southern Rail Trail. The station precinct includes a well preserved red brick station building, goods shed, water tower and footbridge. The goods shed has since been demolished with a view of converting the unused railway reservation for a shopping plaza, which has not yet eventuated. The track "down" from Leongatha Station ends at the rear of a petrol station, approx 500 metres away. The Home signal for trains approaching Leogatha from Koonwarra remains, however due to no rail for any significant distance from the signal, it has been decommissioned. From the end of the rail, the reservation is a crushed rock pathway mainly used by bicycles and pedestrians. ==Current status== Reopening the South Gippsland railway line as far as Leongatha is continuing to feature as a prominent issue for the region. A South Gippsland Shire Council Priority Projects documents released in June 2013 acknowledged that the return of rail as a major community priority where funding and support are sought from all forms of level government. In early 2014, a report into the extensions of the Melbourne metropolitan rail system identified the population growth corridor from Cranbourne to Koo-Wee-Rup along the disused Leongatha line as a key planning priority. The South and West Gippsland Transport Group, a public transportation and rail lobby group established in April 2011 that is closely associated with the South Gippsland Shire Council and local forms of government has continued to campaign for an integrated transport plan in the region, which includes rail at the forefront of the proposal.〔() 〕 Previously, the group was classified as the South Gippsland Transport Users Group and had amalgamated with numerous rail lobby groups in 1994 shortly after the rail passenger service to Leongatha was withdrawn in July 1993 and the line to Barry Beach and Yarram was formally closed in June 1992 and dismantled by December 1994. 〔() 〕 One notable milestone that this group achieved in the past was running a successful campaign that saw passenger rail services reinstated to Leongatha on December 9, 1984. Despite the political promise to revive the railway line for freight and passenger services by the Steve Bracks led Victorian state Labor government in 1999 being abandoned in 2008 by his successor John Brumby, a public community campaign involving the South and West Gippsland Transport Group is continuing to lobby and work collaboratively with key stakeholders and governments to reinstate rail services that focuses on improving transport accessibility in the region. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Leongatha railway station」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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