Under the ambitious plan, Opposition Leader Matthew Guy promised to build a “European-style” rail network in a bid to encourage more people to live in country areas.

Mr Guy is yet to reveal how the mammoth project will be funded, but said he hoped the Federal Government would invest in it.

High speed train services from Melbourne to Wodonga would be cut by 43 minutes under the plan, meaning a trip between the state’s capital and the Border would take 2¾ hours rather than the 3½ it does now. 

A trip from Geelong to Melbourne would take as ­little as 32 minutes by 2022, while the journey between Ballarat and Melbourne would drop to 45 minutes later in the decade.

The upgrade works would span a decade, with Mr Guy promising it would provide 10,000 jobs.

He also vowed to pour money into track and signal upgrades as well investment into two fleets of new-generation trains.

Major sections of tracks would need to be replaced for the trains to reach the speeds promised, while safety upgrades would also be required.

Mr Guy vowed that about a fifth of the project’s budget would be spent during his government’s first term.

Express trains from Bendigo could reach Melbourne in 70 minutes, while trip times from the city to Warrnambool and to Traralgon would be halved within a decade.

A train journey to Shepparton would also be cut to less than two hours.

The regional rail project would be done in three stages over a decade.

Stage one, including Geelong timetable changes next year, would create more express services, cutting trip times from 58 to 50 minutes.

Major track replacement works in Warrnambool, Bairnsdale and Swan Hill would commence towards the mid-2020s.

Earlier this year, Premier Daniel Andrews pledged a $50 billion, underground suburban rail network would be built, linking every major rail line in Melbourne and the new airport rail, if the party was re-elected.

Billed as "the biggest public transport project in Australian history", the Suburban Rail Loop is expected to take almost 30 years to build and connect key train lines from Frankston to Werribee.

But opposition treasury spokesman Michael O'Brien has accused the government of putting up a "plan for the next election rather than a plan for the next generation".

"They have no business case, no engineers' report and they won’t rule out more sky rail across Melbourne," he said at the time. "They refuse to say how many thousands of homes would be compulsorily acquired".

The Victorian election will be held on November 24.