There has long been grumblings the $100 million announced for the North East rail line would not be enough, but when a committee of experts and federal and state government representatives also came to that conclusion, it could not be ignored.
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Victorian Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan was excited on Friday, claiming a win in convincing the federal government to commit an extra $135 million towards the project.
The Australian Rail Track Corporation works will bring the line to a “class 2” standard, the same as other lines in Victoria.
The Border Mail understands the scope of works for the line, which is currently being reviewed before it is released to the public, recommended spending the extra $135 million.
“The poor service on the North East line has gone on for long enough,” Ms Allan said.
“What we need to do is push the ARTC to deliver these works as soon as possible.”
She said it was disappointing Liberal MP Bill Tilley and Nationals Steph Ryan and Tim McCurdy had not joined her in pushing the federal Coalition for the extra money.
“In Parliament the member for Euroa Steph Ryan said $100 million had fixed the line. Clearly she wasn’t going into bat, the local Liberal and National members weren’t going into bat for the extra funding, which I feel a great betrayal of the local community,” she said.
Design work on modifying VLocity trains has begun and is expected to be completed in the second half of 2018, but the Victorian government will not place its order for the new rolling stock until the ARTC track works are completed.
“You can’t run the new trains without the track upgrade,” Ms Allan said.
Indi MP Cathy McGowan called on Ms Allan to commit to an earlier timeframe for rolling stock as part of the 2018-19 budget, so the track and trains could be ready at the same time.
“We need the orders in now and we need the ARTC to start work now,” she said.
“We have been caught out in the past and it’s really important this work is done properly and to the standard we need – we never want to go through this experience again.”
She congratulated people from the North East for continuing to fight for a better quality line.
“They have put up with really poor customer service for so long and I am just so grateful that we’ve got a line in the sand and it’s going to be the end,” Ms McGowan said.