THERE was an air of positivity as members of the Bendigo Metro Rail taskforce met for the first time to discuss the scope and scale of the project.
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The taskforce will investigate demand, infrastructure requirements and connections with other public transport for a dedicated metro rail network between Bendigo's four existing railway stations.
They will report back to the Minister for Public Transport at the end of June.
The opening meeting involved voting on the terms of reference.
Member for Bendigo West Maree Edwards chaired the meeting, held at the City of Greater Bendigo offices on Wednesday morning.
She said there would be enough time to form a comprehensive plan in two months.
"I think if we work to our schedule then we will have enough time to present what we need to present to the minister at the end of June," Ms Edwards said.
"The terms of reference will be put out today to the taskforce members for their recommendation, and from there we will proceed in working around the community consultation process."
The taskforce has two components - the first including community representatives from schools, health services, businesses and community groups.
The second component is a technical working group of council, PTV, V/Line, state government and transport operators.
Member for Bendigo East and Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan also attended the meeting.
She said June was an appropriate time for the taskforce to present its findings to her department.
"The June date is to ensure that there is enough time for the government to then consider the recommendations from the community taskforce ahead of any implementation in 2016," Ms Allan said.
"We always said that this would be a service commencing from mid-2016."
The state government will consider the recommendations from the taskforce, investigating the service patterns and seeing if there is the required rolling stock and infrastructure to see Bendigo Metro Rail go ahead.
Labor announced $2 million in the lead-up to last year's election to deliver additional services in Bendigo as part of the metro project.
Last month, the state opposition questioned whether the figure would be enough to get the service off the ground.
The Bendigo Metro Rail taskforce will meet again at the end of April.