Train talks 'promising'

Northern Victoria MP Jaclyn Symes recently sat down with the Border Rail Action Group in Benalla.

The group now hopes this will result in it being able to put its case before Transport Minister Jacinta Allan.

Chairman Bill Traill said this was the first opportunity the group had had to raise the issue with the government since Daniel Andrews’ team was elected just over a year ago.

Mr Traill said Ms Symes, the government whip in the upper house, had previously expressed her concerns about the North East line.

“There was a special focus on the ongoing suspensions of rail services, which show no signs of abating,” he said.

“She was generally aware of these suspensions, but we identified these as having reached a critical stage.

“There was a tacit understanding that she would be approaching the minister on this one.”

Mr Traill said the group believed it had agreement from Ms Symes that V/Line was having problems on the North East corridor and that refurbishing rolling stock was “impractical, unsustainable and not acceptable”.

“This all throws up the issue of the sustainability of the V/Line fleet,” he said.

“These service suspensions have no relationship to the track.

“The continued track works are nowhere near as significant … as the aged and decrepit, fragile rolling stock.”

Mr Traill said the maintenance load for the train sets could not be met.

“Ms Symes agreed it represents a systemic failure, that it’s unacceptable because it’s unsustainable to have a service on that basis,” he said.

Mr Traill said it was agreed another meeting was likely.

“We’ve condensed our focus onto rolling stock, plus the introduction of a VLocity shuttle service that’s been fairly well publicised,” he said.

“We’re talking a mere $20 million (for a shuttle service), which we’re insisting be allotted in the upcoming 2016-17 budget,” he said.