Regional rail advocates from Mildura, Horsham, Ballarat, Bendigo, Maryborough, Sunshine and Shepparton met in Castlemaine on Saturday to discuss priorities, ranging from a western rail hub based at Ballarat, to improved freight networks across regional Victoria.

It was hoped that a hub at Ballarat could open up passenger services for Horsham, Ararat and Hamilton, and allow for improved services for Maryborough.

For Bendigo, the priority remained a freight hub at Leichardt and the reopening of the line between Castlemaine and Maryborough to provide a link to Ballarat.

Ballarat Public Transport Users Association’s Ben Lever said the groups wanted to hold government to account if they fail to meet their own targets.

“Where the government has strategic plans that they’re not living up to, that’s a good place to campaign,” he said. 

“We’ve got the Regional Network Development Plan, which is very unambitious and doesn’t really do anywhere near as much as it should, but there are still bits of it that they’re not doing anything about.

“One of the key ones is to get all the services to Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Seymour and Traralgon to have a 20 minute peak, 40 minute off-peak service.

“Geelong already has it, Ballarat should have it after their current works are completed, but it doesn’t seem like there’s any plans for that to happen in Bendigo.”

The groups plan to campaign heaviest in 10 seats, including Ripon, Bendigo East and Macedon.

A policy document will be devised in the coming weeks based on the feedback from the rail groups.

City of Horsham technical services director John Martin said the state government needed to use major regional centres as springboards for the rest of the state.

“It’s great for the government to talk about providing regional rail services, but regions only need to start at Ballarat and Bendigo,” he said.

Cr Martin said having to rely on two services per week on the Overland was inadequate for Horsham residents needing to travel to Melbourne.

In responding to the concerns of the groups, public transport minister Jacinta Allan said Labor would always have a stronger commitment to regional rail.

“It’s only Labor governments who have invested in regional rail – first with Regional Fast Rail, then Regional Rail Link and Regional Rail Revival,” she said.

“We know we’ve got more to do – and we’ll work hard every day between now and November talking to local communities about what we’ve done and our plans for the future.”

Ms Allan said the Regional Network Development Plan was developed following “one of the biggest ever public consultation processes” to co-ordinate improvements to public transport networks.

The government has also ordered 87 new regional carriages and started design work to allow VLocity carriages to run on long-haul lines.

The Coalition has promised $633 million to replace older trains with new generation models for long haul rail travel.