The removal of the railway line promised to usher in a new era and so it appears to be — an $80 million shopping centre will be built in the heart of the city that when complete will employ more than 1000 people.

Just as significantly it will also keep people and their spending money south of the border.

One of the greatest challenges for commercial and retail development in Wodonga in the past had been the drain of Dean Street retail.

About half of Wodonga’s retail spending, excluding food, is spent outside the city — predominantly in Albury.

Albury’s retailing had been superior and more shopper-friendly.

But now, or at least by 2012, Wodonga will be a competitor, no longer to be dismissed as “struggletown”.

It is a time of promise for the southern sister city and challenges for Albury.

The question among that city’s retail sector will be whether it can afford to lose even half of the money that previously left Wodonga for their coffers.

An optimist would see it as the catalyst to greater competition, a pessimist as the portent for empty shops.