THE Victorian Department of Transport cannot say when North East V/Line passengers will get to travel on new trains and a government minister will not nominate a starting date for them.
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State Opposition MPs from the North East are upset at the situation, with Wodonga politician Bill Tilley fearing the new VLocity carriages may not take passengers until late spring.
"What I'm hearing is we might see one train doing a test run in September and possibly come into service in November," Mr Tilley said.
"This is cloaked in secrecy and we are none the wiser."
Euroa MP and the Opposition's Regional Public Transport spokeswoman Steph Ryan said the latest rolling stock should be operating next month based on the government's timeframe and pledges.
"We should have six new trains on our line in June and anything less than that is a broken promise," Ms Ryan said.
"Our region needs to be holding them to the commitment that we will have new trains by June this year."
Attorney-General and member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes told The Border Mail it was her understanding "it's all running to time, mid-year".
"They (the trains) are on schedule to be delivered in the middle of the year," Ms Symes said.
However, Ms Symes declined to specify a date, saying that track upgrade work was not over.
The Border Mail asked V/Line on Friday when it expected the VLocity sets to be taking passengers on the Albury route.
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It referred the questions to the Department of Transport and it responded without nominating a clear starting date.
"The delivery of these trains was always planned to follow the original North East line upgrade project completion date and a comprehensive testing process," a spokesman said.
"While the major track works of the project are complete, a range of other infrastructure works are still required for these new trains like level crossing, signalling and stabling upgrades."
The testing of the new models on the North East line will also involve training for the drivers who will occupy the control cabins.
A six-carriage V/Locity will have 296 seats, slightly more than the four-carriage set-up of the existing trains which have a 283-passenger capacity.
