VICTORIAN public transport minister Jacinta Allan has accused the opposition of being “copy cats” and playing “catch-up” on the North-East rail line woes.
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Ms Allan, who travelled on the trouble-plagued line between Seymour and Benalla on Monday without major incident, said the Coalition was only showing interest in the issue because it was an election year.
The Coalition has promised to replace the ageing fleet of trains operating between Southern Cross and Albury with a variant of the VLocity model if elected in November with an order to be placed next year.
“Our political opponents only want to talk to country people about country rail services in an election period,” Ms Allan said.
She said efforts to unlock more federal funding to bring the North-East line up to class two standard to run VLocity trains at full capacity would be stepped up with the latest federal infrastructure and transport minister, Michael McCormack, in coming weeks.
“Additional funds have to come from the federal government because it is their track, their agency and their responsibility,” Ms Allan said.
“We’ve made a very, very clear commitment we will purchase the new trains needed to run on this line, but we can’t run these new trains at that speed with that reliability until we get this track up to class two standard.
“We have an opening with the federal government to talk about improving this corridor.
“But what we know ($100 million) is not quite enough and with a bit more investment from the federal government and a very strong commitment from the Andrews Labor Government about putting on the rolling stock, improving the stations, doing the level crossings, we can get there.”
Euroa MP Steph Ryan conceded it had to be a “two-pronged attack” of fixing the track to enable new trains to run reliably.
“We to have the track upgraded and we need new trains,” she said.
“The vast majority of delays, cancellations and breakdowns are due to aged and faulty rolling stock.
“Everyone is sick and tired of excuses and just want governments to get on and fix this service.
“They’ve endured a third world system for far too long.”
Indi MP Cathy McGowan again called for the scoping study on the $100 million of works to be released immediately.
She also agreed her commitment in the 2013 election campaign to have the trains “fixed by Christmas” was ambitious.
“Obviously it has been a very complex problem,” she said.
“I thought it was all about getting everybody involved around the table and having a good meeting.
“The minister said we need an extra $130 million so I will go back to Canberra and lobby for that.”
