It’s a question worth asking after none of them attended the inaugural meeting of the Border Rail Action Group in Wodonga on Wednesday night.

Councillors from Corowa and Indigo made the effort to hear frustrations about slow, dirty and aged trains and the prolonged efforts to repair the troubled track.

Albury has a terrific community champion for better rail services in Bill Traill, but he deserves support from the Twin Cities’ councillors.

It is time the mayors in particular started putting public pressure on members of Parliament and ministers to improve the V/Line service and the Australian Rail Track Corporation to provide an unequivocal deadline for upgrade works.

Wodonga mayor Rodney Wangman should be standing up for frustrated passengers, but instead he speaks in generalities when asked what he will do, while his Albury counterpart Kevin Mack has hardly been strident on the issue.

While councils may hesitate in donating money to a fighting campaign, their leaders should show more fight.