Brighton level crossing upgrade to cost $2m Brighton's New St railway crossing. Picture: Richard Serong Source: Leader TAXPAYERS will fork out more money this year to upgrade a level-crossing ranked 223rd on a priority list. The 2013-14 State Budget contained $2.4 million for the work at the New St, Brighton crossing in the electorate of Liberals' deputy leader Louise Asher. It comes on top of $2 million allocated in 2011-12, meaning taxpayers will pay $4.6 million for electric boom gates. The work, an election commitment, is expected to be finished by Christmas. Manual gates have been shut since a 2007 accident. Opposition public transport spokeswoman Fiona Richardson said: "With more money being spent to date on this level-crossing than on the metro rail tunnel project, it's clear this Liberal Government has abandoned any attempt to address commuters' concerns about the rail network."