Tuesday, 2 June 2026

 Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (22:37): (2538) My adjournment is to the Minister for Transport Infrastructure and Minister for Public and Active Transport. The minister will be aware of recent correspondence from the Golden Square Action Group regarding the Bendigo to Melbourne train service. The railway line carries well over 2 million passengers each year. It notes that since 2007 the fastest Bendigo to Melbourne service has slowed by 12 to 14 minutes – that is 14 per cent – and the typical average service has slowed by about 20 minutes. The original promise of a reliable 80-‍minute Melbourne to Bendigo service has never been delivered, and the line today sits further from that goal than in 2007. Their research indicates that over the last 10 years Bendigo and the Bendigo train line have received less than half of the transport infrastructure funding compared to similar-sized Ballarat and less than one-quarter of that received by Geelong, and these shortfalls have not gone unnoticed by the community. They also note that the Victorian government has, for a number of years, committed to the long-term goal of delivering trains every 20 minutes in the peak and every 40 minutes off peak to Bendigo. As far back as 2019, the then minister and now Premier in the budget committed to a business case for track upgrades between Bendigo and Kyneton to enable this 40-minute off-peak frequency. This commitment was reiterated in the regional network development plan. The Golden Square Action Group is deeply concerned that despite this commitment now being seven years old, no outcomes from this business case have been publicly released and no decision on next steps has been announced.

The community and local council are being asked to plan for a growing Bendigo without certainty about the fundamental capacity of the rail corridor that connects it to Melbourne. The Golden Square Action Group are calling on the Victorian government to publicly release the outcomes, findings and recommendations of the capacity study for the track upgrades between Kyneton and Bendigo without further delay; confirm the government’s position on whether and on what timeline the necessary track upgrades will proceed to enable 40-minute off-peak services; make clear how the Kyneton to Bendigo capacity upgrade interacts with and supports the planning for the reopening of Golden Square and other stations such as Harcourt; and commit to a staged investment program with clear milestones for increasing Bendigo line frequency to the levels articulated in the regional network development plan. The action I seek is for the minister to respond to the concerns raised by the Golden Square Action Group, and I look forward to the minister’s reply.