Push for talks on regional rail revival | Poll

Rail Revival Alliance spokesman Scott Ramsay has written to the City of Greater Bendigo to encourage the city to discuss the proposal with other municipalities along the route.

Mr Ramsay said the proposal, which would utilise existing track everywhere except between Castlemaine and Maryborough, would allow travel between the state’s major regional centres without having to go through Melbourne.

“It’s really unfathomable in the 21^st century that the major regional centres aren’t linked by rail when the rail line is actually there,” he said.

“The only part of it that’s not connected is the Castlemaine to Maryborough line and we’re estimating [that] would cost about $300 million.”

Mr Ramsay said the reintroduction of passenger services would breath new life into towns along the route that had suffered since the existing line was abandoned.

“It sabotages the entire town’s economy, employment and the attractiveness of the town for people to move there and set up businesses, so the town’s population either decreases or it stagnates,” he said.

“That’s happened right across Victoria ever since rail lines have been closed and passenger and freighter services stopped.”

The call comes after representatives from the six councils along the Ballarat rail line met to discuss the future of the route between that city and Melbourne last week.

Central Goldfields Shire mayor Geoff Lovett said the shire was keen to speak with other municipalities about the proposal and acknowledged the likely benefit for towns along the route.

“As a young person in Maryborough, we had multiple services daily from Maryborough to Castlemaine and then you connect up with the Bendigo-Castlemaine-Melbourne rail line and we have already seen with the trains returning to Maryborough that in places like Talbot, Clunes and Creswick there has definitely been a growth spurt in terms of population,” he said.

But the Maryborough ward representative said the plan was not a high priority for the council, citing “a number of serious issues”, including the cost of reopening the line between Maryborough and Castlemaine.

He said a number of railway crossings along the route had been sealed over, while the Carisbrook railway station had been “allowed to fall into total disrepair”.

“The biggest impediment in fact is the bridge over Cairn Curran, just out of Newstead, and that bridge in engineering terms would be well over 100 years old,” he said.

“That would be a major impediment because the cost to bring it up to standard would be in the millions.”

Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan said the government had “secured the funding owed to Victorians to revive our regional rail network”.

“We’re focused on delivering this $1.57 billion program that will deliver the Murray Basin Rail project, Bendigo Metro stage two and improve services for Ararat, Maryborough and Echuca,” she said.

The City of Greater Bendigo was contacted for comment.