Northern Victoria Region rail services
Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (09:56): I rise to highlight the dreadful state of rail services on the Shepparton line and also the Seymour line. This morning’s Ballarat Courier carries an article by Ben Silvester that points out the inequities of those services. The article points out that on the Geelong line the services travel at a speed of 97.8 kilometres an hour, on Albury at 97.7 kilometres an hour and on Bendigo at 95.3 kilometres an hour. But on the Seymour line the fastest service travelled at 77.1 kilometres an hour, which is more than 20 kilometres slower than Geelong and Albury. The Shepparton line is even worse. The average service was 70.9 kilometres an hour, but the slowest service was 65 kilometres an hour. That is more than 30 kilometres slower than the Geelong, Albury and Bendigo lines, and it is the slowest in the state. Back in 2020 Jacinta Allan promised us that we would have nine services running to Shepparton. In 2021 she again said those nine services would run by the end of 2023. We are no closer to getting nine services today than we were back then, and we are two years past her deadline. Traffic lights that were installed in Wyndham Street have not been turned on, because the work has not been done to upgrade the signalling on our track, and it is a disgrace.