A plan to spend $100 million to fix the troubled North East rail line should be developed by the end of the year.
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Australian Rail Track Corporation chief executive John Fullerton faced Senate Estimates in Canberra this week where he was pushed to reveal progress on the funding announced in May’s budget.
He is one of the members of a steering committee – along with representatives from the Victorian government, V/Line and PTV – who are developing a “scope of works” for the line.
“The three primary objectives were to improve the passenger service reliability, to improve the track resilience in terms of being able to operate at a more consistent level over the course of 12 months, and the third one was to improve the passenger ride comfort on the trains themselves,” Mr Fullerton said.
“We’ve met a few times, but there is a technical working group that is currently determining what that scope of work should be, what the priority is in terms of getting the biggest bang for your buck for the $100 million.”
Pushed by Greens Senator Janet Rice to nominate a timeframe, he said he hoped to have an initial report independently reviewed and presented to the federal and Victorian governments by the end of 2017.
The works were expected to include replacement of old timber bridges, to allow the 1.8-metre double stacked freight trains to pass, and ballast renewal under the track.
“The plan is also to engage with all the communities to explain to them what that scope of works will entail and what benefits will flow from that investment in the track,” Mr Fullerton said.
“It will involve lowering the track under overbridges to allow double-stacking to occur.
“It’s a significant investment between Melbourne and Albury on the interstate network.”
He said the works would go out for tender as soon as possible and take 12 to 24 months to complete.
Senator Rice questioned if previous works completed on the track had been effective.
“I’ve been advised in the last three months of last year and the first few months of this year that there were still around 20 temporary speed restrictions in place,” she said.
“So essentially the ballast renewal is acknowledging that your ballast rehabilitation program hasn’t succeeded in dealing with the need for speed restrictions?”
Mr Fullerton disagreed, saying V/Line’s reliability on the Albury line was now over 90 per cent with less train delays.
“The ballast rehabilitation program, which was $134 million spent between Melbourne and Sydney from 2012 to 2016, achieved significant improvement,” he said.
“The track is performing a lot better than it was 12 months ago.”
The ARTC was also in the process of negotiating its peppercorn leases for the track with the NSW and Victorian governments and Mr Fullerton warned against them asking for a bigger financial return.
“The (ARTC) investment that inland rail is going to deliver, both in terms of the networks that they own, is significant,” he said.