The federal government wants Victoria to pay for part of the North East rail line upgrade and a stalemate in negotiations has held up planning the project.
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Speaking in Senate Estimates in Canberra on Monday, Infrastructure Department secretary Mike Mrdak said he did not have details of how the $100 million allocated in the federal budget would be spent to upgrade the rail line.
Department staff were still held up discussing the funding.
Mr Mrdak revealed, under questioning from Senator Janet Rice, the figure was based on advice from the Victorian government, but did not cover the entire cost of the rail upgrade.
“We have said to Victoria that we would be seeking a Victorian government contribution, with the level of that contribution still to be negotiated,” he said. “We’re yet to reach an agreement with the state of Victoria in relation to the funds.
“They remain in some difference of opinion in relation to the package and we have to work through those before we get to a level of detail.”
He would not confirm or rule out whether the $100 million would be spent without the extra funding.
“You’ve got that bucket of money and you don’t really know how you’re going to spend it,” Senator Rice said.
She also pushed Australian Rail Track Corporation chief executive John Fullerton to publicly release details of a review into the ballast rehabilitation program.
“You understand there is still considerable concern in the community the track isn’t up to standard?” Senator Rice said.
“We hear that all the time Senator, but the lesson that we learnt were from the work we undertook in putting in new concrete sleepers – we needed to ensure the drainage was better than it was,” Mr Fullerton said. “We started with 60 kilometres of mudholes, we’re down now to three kilometres.”
But he said the track, combined with a large number of level crossings, still meant XPT trains were limited to speeds of 130km/h in Victoria, slower than the 160km/h the same train could travel in NSW, and it would not change in the near future.
“We’d need to look at various parts of the track that would need to be altered, but that’s not something we’re looking at,” Mr Fullerton said.
