A claim from Ovens Valley MP Tim McCurdy that six new VLocity trains will be allocated to the North East line has been dismissed by the Victorian government.
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Last months's Victorian budget revealed the North East would share $340 million to build up to 18 new VLocity trains with Geelong and Ballarat, but Regional Development Minister Jaclyn Symes did not confirm the exact number of trains for each line.
Speaking in Parliament this week, Mr McCurdy claimed Ms Symes said "the first six of those trains are coming to North East Victoria".
"I am delighted if that is what happens, I am thrilled if those six trains come," he said.
"However, I am a little nervous because we heard two years ago the Premier say we were going to get new trains but they did not come."
While the number of six is a third of the 18 trains committed by the state government, the office of Transport Minister Jacinta Allan this week confirmed the train allocation had not yet been decided.
There are currently four trains running on the North East line.
Mr McCurdy also used his speech to criticise the government for not including the North East trains as a specific line item and delivering a budget he said "short-changed" regional Victoria.
"I do not know what Jaclyn Symes did in the other house, but she has obviously stood on someone's toes because as the Minister for Agriculture and the Minister for Regional Development, she has had her budget cut," he said.
"While Labor unashamedly pours billions of dollars into metropolitan Melbourne, and I understand why a lot of money needs to be poured into Melbourne, we have to be fair and we cannot do it at the expense of a quarter of the population."
But in her own speech to Parliament, Ms Symes said she was proud of the budget's regional investment, including the $2.6 billion in our Delivering for Regional and Rural Victoria program.
"Regional Victoria is the greatest place in this country to live ... and we want to make sure that more and more people can experience the best of country Victoria," she said.
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