Tuesday, 14 November 2023

Northern Victoria Region

Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (12:53): (537) My question is to the Minister for Transport Infrastructure and relates to fixing the mobile black spots on V/Line trains. The coalition allocated $40 million to fix this issue back in 2014. Labor scrapped it, and then in November 2015 Daniel Andrews told his Facebook followers:

If you hate your phone dropping out on V/Line trains, don’t worry we’re onto it.

Today we’ve launched our $18 million Regional Rail Connectivity Project that will fix mobile blackspots along the five busiest regional rail corridors.

Well, that was eight years ago, and it is still not fixed. If you have travelled from Bendigo to Melbourne by train, you will know the connection regularly drops out. Local business leaders want improvements across the region, because 30 minutes out of Bendigo you cannot get coverage. Where is the free wi-fi on V/Line trains, and what is the state government doing to deliver on the promise they made eight years ago to fix mobile black spots on regional rail services, including Bendigo?