Tuesday, 28 July 2026

 Tim BULL (Gippsland East) (19:12): (1733) My adjournment tonight is to the Minister for Public and Active Transport, and the action that I am seeking is for the minister to confirm that our midday train service from Bairnsdale will continue all the way to Southern Cross and not be terminated at Flinders Street. The situation is that there is reliable information coming out of the department and also amongst my constituency that there is an intention to terminate that service at Flinders Street. Whoever would have made this recommendation is just not in touch with the needs of rural and regional communities. We have a situation where a lot of people travelling to Melbourne from the Gippsland area rely on that link to the airport that operates from Southern Cross. They also attend sporting events and other functions and activities at that end of town. We just cannot have that being terminated before what is the most popular stop for East Gippslanders. It is a stop short. It needs to continue on to where that service presently runs to. The action that I am seeking is that we get a clear guarantee that that service will not be changed and not be compromised, and will continue to Southern Cross and not be terminated at Flinders Street.