On Friday night and, well, early Saturday morning I completed a round trip to Melbourne from the Border which involved just a tick over seven hours of driving.
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Thankfully my beloved Pies had a win (sorry Cats fans), so the trek back up the Hume Highway was a lot easier to tolerate than it otherwise might have been at that hour of the morning.
But what seems ridiculous is that, in 2019, I can travel to and from the Victorian capital in almost the same time as it took a V/Line train to go from Albury to Melbourne.
Yes, sadly, that's right. Last Monday night, it took a V/Line train six hours and 19 minutes to arrive at Southern Cross station after departing Albury, with angry passengers forced to endure an hour-long stop at Wangaratta for good measure.
Hopefully, one day soon, we can stop bringing you stories of frustration from the North East line. Until then, we will keep applying pressure to those in charge to ensure passengers from our part of the world have a service they can rely on.
There was a piece of good news later in the week, when we revealed an initial "in-principle" order for two VLocity trains to operate on the troublesome North-East railway line post the $235 million track upgrade had been placed by the Victorian government.
That was good to hear but, while I'm firmly on the black and white train for the rest of September, I'll still be taking my car to the preliminary final in just under two weeks' time.
All the best for the week ahead.
Xavier Mardling
The Border Mail editor