A CONTROVERSIAL multimillion-dollar plan to build an underpass beneath the New Street railway crossing in Brighton has been quietly abandoned with the Baillieu government opting instead to install new automated boom gates.

The decision follows a $2 million feasibility study that found removing the level crossing by building an underpass would not have provided value for money for the state.

Gatekeeper Basil opens rail gates at the New Street, Brighton, level crossing in 2007. Credit:Craig Abraham

The Baillieu government pledged at the last election to reopen the New Street level crossing to traffic, after the former Labor government permanently closed it in 2007 after a train crashed into the manually operated gates.

Critics have argued the level crossing was given priority ahead of hundreds of others in more urgent need of being removed because deputy Liberal leader Louise Asher had made a promise to voters in her seat of Brighton.