With the overall funding for the $1.75 billion Regional Rail Revival program confirmed on Monday, MPs from Labor and the Nationals were keen to claim credit – and point the finger.

The Bendigo-Echuca upgrade is included in the program, and will increase the maximum speed of trains from 80 km/h to 130. It also involves improved signalling between Bendigo and Epsom, and Bendigo and Eaglehawk, allowing for more trains on the lines.

The upgrades to Echuca are planned to be complete by 2020, and the Bendigo-Epsom-Eaglehawk improvements will be finished by early 2021.

Public transport minister Jacinta Allan said the project would benefit the growing areas north of Bendigo.

“This is going to be a big boost for communities north of Bendigo,” she said.

“It’ll mean if you’re a young person who might live in Elmore or in Rochester or Echuca, you can continue to live at home and come into Bendigo for university, for TAFE or for work.”

Ms Allan was also critical of a perceived delay from the federal government’s end, which she attributed to the rotation of three infrastructure ministers in late 2017 and early 2018.

The issue emerged in April 2017, when the state government proposed $1.45 billion in regional rail projects to be funded by the federal government’s Asset Recycling Fund following the privatisation of the Port of Melbourne.

But the federal government believed Victoria had missed the deadline for the funding.

After months of negotiation, an in-principle agreement was reached to unlock the funding for Victoria. It was not until March this year that the funding was approved, following the transition of the infrastructure portfolio from Darren Chester, to Barnaby Joyce, to Michael McCormack.

Member for Murray Damian Drum was keen to trumpet the Nationals’ role in securing the funding, and believed the entire project was a Nationals idea as they wanted the Port of Melbourne funds spent in regional Victoria.

“This project will be an $82 million injection from the federal National Party, the federal government, on a $91 million project,” he said.

“It’s great that the federal government is stepping into a space that’s been vacated by Jacinta Allan and her team.”

Nationals Victorian senator Bridget McKenzie said the Labor Party had come “reluctantly to the table”.

In the end, precious minutes will be shaved from the Bendigo to Echuca train trip.