Beyond a joke
After another V/Line farce, where are the politicians with their billion-dollar promises? I bet they weren't on the 12:05 from Southern Cross on Sunday. At least we got to spend three hours sitting in a paddock at Craigieburn watching the grass grow before another loco arrived to tow us back to Broadmeadows where we were herded onto coaches arriving at Albury station over four hours late.
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The staff on board were very apologetic but it was not their fault, we felt sorry for them. This has gone beyond a joke. I suggest everyone boycott the Albury-Melbourne service until the tracks have been repaired and the rolling stock replaced. A very fast train? Laughable, not in my lifetime.
Ron Van De Walle, Lavington
Review a good start
The new government has announced that it intends to take up the Productivity Commission's recommendation that the whole system of retirement incomes, including superannuation, pension and taxation be reviewed. This is a good start from them and a good initiative and will surely be supported by the Alliance for a Fairer Retirement System.
The Alliance includes a wide range of groups such as National Seniors, the Association of Independent Retirees, and Australian Shareholder's Association and has been active in advocating for a superannuation and tax policy that will ensure that self-funded retirement remains achievable and can be maintained. Certainty and stability in this area are the objectives of Alliance members and I am sure other Australians.
To that end it will be crucial for the Review to aim for agreement from both sides of politics so that when the government changes retirement policy doesn't also change.
The Review also should not start by ruling anything out and by avoiding unnecessary partisan changes. We need to avoid the piecemeal changes to the superannuation and tax systems that we have seen from both sides in the past which overturn the long-term planning of those seeking to fund their own retirement.
We need to ensure that self-funded retirement remains achievable and can be maintained.
Len Shefford, Thurgoona
The best we can do?
Well, V/Line has done it again. The Albury train that left Southern Cross Station at 12.05pm on Sunday got as far as Craigieburn before the diesel engine failed. Another diesel was called to return the train to Broadmeadows (three hours later) and coaches were used to deliver passengers to Albury, just eight hours after they left Melbourne. Is this the best we can expect from V/Line?
And before you tell me "it's an isolated incident" the V/Line Twitter site confirms that 13 services on this line have been replaced by coaches in the past month. That leads one to expect that one train service is likely to turn into a coach every second day.
Politicians in our area have been elected on the promise of "fixing the train services." It's time the state government started listening to them.
Almost 20 years ago I travelled by train extensively in Europe. The distance from Paris to Aix-en-Provence is 642 kilometres (twice that of Melbourne to Albury). The TGV takes 2 hours 56 minutes, 13 times a day. Again I ask, is this the best we can do?
