THE adage ‘success has many fathers, while failure is an orphan’ rang true with Friday’s announcement of an extra $135 million to upgrade the North East train line.
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Representatives from the Australian Rail Track Corporation as well as political figures from council level to governments were revelling in the moment.
Celebratory photos at Wodonga railway station featured the city’s mayor Anna Speedie and ARTC chief executive John Fullerton alongside federal Transport Minister Michael McCormack.
They followed an earlier media conference in Victoria’s capital where Mr McCormack joined his state counterpart Jacinta Allan in trumpeting the $135 million as part of a wider federal cash deal on the inland rail route from Melbourne to Brisbane.
The commitment to the North East line means it will be brought up to class 2 standard, which Ms Allan has argued is needed to order new VLocity rolling stock.
This is long overdue and it is not surprising there is plenty of backslapping and hooraying, but it should not be forgotten the struggle to get to this point.
Governments have come and gone at a Victorian and federal level while an upgrade of the line was botched and rolling stock became increasingly unreliable.
Passengers have become cynical, expecting buses to replace trains and then enduring speed restrictions when they do have carriages to sit in.
In the wash-up passengers don’t truly care for the politics surrounding the issue, they just want a 21st century rail service.
Yet the member for Ovens Valley Tim McCurdy could not bring himself to acknowledge Ms Allan’s role in securing the cash from Canberra.
“The rail funding agreement the Nationals, at both federal and state levels have worked on, has been secured by the Nationals in Victoria working with our federal counterparts which is terrific,” Mr McCurdy said.
That is a slight on the Nationals’ Coalition partner the Liberal Party which represents Wodonga in Spring Street via Bill Tilley.
Federal MP Cathy McGowan lauded Mr McCormack and Ms Allan, but noted “customer experience on the North East line over an extended period has been poor and the need for improvement is urgent”.
That’s why the Daddy Warbucks government treatment of the line needs to continue and we’re not abandoned like orphan Annie.
