EDITORIAL: Shuttle may be the answer
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A NEW approach to fix the North East rail service using a shuttle train will be tabled at the next V/Line consumer committee meeting in Albury.
The idea is to have two or three VLocity trains that would make up to four daily trips between Albury and Seymour.
The shuttle train would be timed to link up with some of Seymour’s 20 services that travel to Melbourne.
V/Line consumer committee member Bill Traill said the idea was not at the expense of existing services.
“I tabled the matter of shuttle from Border to Seymour as an important matter for discussion at the next meeting of the customer reference committee,” he said.
“If it were introduced it would be a long shuttle and would require special attention.
“It would need to be fast and regular.”
The shuttle service would take about two hours.
Station stops and an express service would need to be determined in further discussions, he said.
Mr Traill said the main down side to the idea would be the change over at Seymour.
“It is an inconvenience to get off one train and onto another, but Seymour is well positioned to host the service because there is an island platform there,” he said.
“There is also a risk rolling stock could get damaged without track works being complete, but we need to prosecute the case for better carriages.”
Despite having an imperfect track, Mr Traill said the two lines between the Border and Seymour were underused.
“The track can comfortably take extra services, it is currently under capacity,” he said.
“And we should prosecute both cases of the track and the rolling stock simultaneously.”
The idea is under discussion and would need the support of V/Line and Public Transport Victoria.
Mr Traill said he would be looking to gauge how the idea was received by train patrons before the next meeting in late November.