Albury, Wodonga, Wangaratta and Benalla councils have been meeting with the Border Rail Action Group over the past year.

The independent study has been commissioned in the hope it will strengthen the case for improved services in the North East.

Wodonga mayor Anna Speedie said a draft of the report was tabled at a round-table on Thursday, with the final to be presented at a March council meeting.

“We all committed to putting in some funds and commissioning a report to measure the lost economic and social impact of not having good rail,” she said.

“The numbers are even bigger than I thought they would be … we always knew there was a huge impact.”

Cr Speedie said the lease between the Victorian government and the Australian Rail Track Corporation needed to be reviewed following the report’s release.

“We have had regular meetings with the (transport) minister for 12 months and very clearly the minister has said it isn’t good enough and the condition of the track isn’t good enough,” she said.

“It’s multi-layered and we need to understand it.”

Albury Mayor Kevin Mack said he was also shocked by the estimations of missed productivity in the report.

“An analysis provided in the report would indicate there’s millions of dollars of opportunity there for growth in the region if they fix the line,” he said.

“The report is fairly encompassing, it’s not just about the economy but benefits to the community.

“It’s not just a financial statement; it’s a social statement.”

Border Rail Action Group chairman Bill Traill said the study reinforced what the group had always campaigned for.

“The large problems are a mirror image of our policy we formed on less authentic statistics,” he said.

“What’s equally important as a business case is to see how much it might cost to remedy some of these things.

“That will be our next task.”