By AIDAN KNIGHT
AFTER a lengthy spell of replacement coach services on the Gippsland Line, train services have now resumed.
Train services were brought to a standstill for more than two months as part of a state government maintenance blitz.
Additional services have been promised, with trains to leave Traralgon every 40 minutes.
State Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Gabrielle Williams formally announced the completed works at a press conference last Friday.
Speaking at Longwarry train station, Ms Williams thanked commuters for their patience.
“It will be a huge relief, I know many who experienced disruptions over a long period of time now,” she said, “but it ensures that we continue to deliver significant service level uplift for a long time to come.”
“New signaling and train control systems are very complex work on their own, but also the upgrade of four train stations along the corridor, being Morwell, Bunyip, Traralgon and Longwarry.
Morwell new second platform (closest to Commercial Road) was also officially opened last Friday (August 14).
Previously, there was just one platform for both directions of travel.
An equally important upgrade in the process was the construction of a new bridge over the Avon River in Stratford. The works completed enable the delivery of 87 services a week, which will now be operating “approximately” every 40 minutes.
This makes Gippsland one of three lines now operating to this schedule, alongside Waurn Ponds and Ballarat’s weekend timetable.
This increased frequency will take place between 8am and 9pm every day, a welcome improvement from the previous hourly services.
“This is now a corridor that is modern, futureproofed, and it meets the standards the community expects”, the Minister went on to say.
Ms Williams also alluded to the frequency potentially increasing further in time to come, commenting on how “these works provide room for greater improvement in the future, and these upgrades have certainly allowed for better services again to be possible”.
Ms Williams mentioned how closely the state government will be looking at the patronage numbers on the service, and that the completion of the controversial metro tunnel project will free up the entire PTV network to a capacity that would also improve Gippsland services.
Acting V/LINE chief executive, Warwick Horsley also spoke at the presser, delving into details surrounding the 55 additional weekday services and 32 additional weekend services
“In relation to the Bairnsdale section of the line, we are extending a Sunday train service (which previously only ran as far as Sale),” he said.
Other than this, the additional services are limited to the Traralgon-terminating section of the line.
When asked what he says to Bairnsdale commuters feeling left out of these upgrades, he explained, “We have recently invested in a new Bairnsdale stabling yard to run more modern, reliable V/Locity trains all the way through”.
Labor Member for Eastern Victoria, Tom McIntosh made the point that the Bairnsdale Line was actually shut down by the previous Liberal state governmen t, before being reinstated to this capacity by Labor.
Nationals Member for Gippsland East, Tim Bull saw this as a predictable outcome.
“It comes at little surprise the Minister has failed to recognise services beyond Traralgon,” he said.
“I recently wrote to her with a very simply ask: to put on another bus service linking to the train at Traralgon to provide a mid-morning service out of Bairnsdale that is so desperately needed.
“The current situation is one service leaves at 6.45am and the next is just before 1pm.
“It was only the cost of a bus to link but the answer was ‘there are no immediate plans to address this gap’.
“Well may she (Ms Williams) pat herself on the back for more services to Traralgon, but she should head further east to Sale, Stratford and Bairnsdale and talk to those communities.”
The bill for the Gippsland Line Upgrade project was footed by both the state and federal governments.
“These upgrades are challenging and disruptive,” Gabrielle Williams said in summary of the works completed, “but what they deliver for generations to come is profound in the reliability and movement of locals.”
Passengers will enjoy more travel options than ever before, provided the timetable retains trains.
Many locals speculate the Gippsland Line is a ‘coach service sometimes interrupted by replacement trains’, rather than the reality of vice versa, so frequent are the disruptions on what is one of the longest rural train lines in the state.
This has particularly been the case for the past two years, as the separate stages of the Gippsland Line Upgrade were postponed twice and resulted in a $347 million budget blowout after being originally set for completion in 2022.
This was shifted to a date in June last year, before finally culminating this year.
Which date this year is a different question however, as the state government declared the upgrade over as of last Friday (August 14), yet the new timetable does not come into effect until September 14.
Commuters will also still be plagued by replacement coaches if they decide to venture any further on the Gippsland Line than Nar Nar Goon.
This is because of Gippsland’s unfortunate fate as a shared corridor – half of it’s allocated tracks are actually metro lines used by the Cranbourne/Pakenham services, which are seeing schedule works currently in the Dandenong area.
The Gippsland Line is now the longest regular V/Line service you can take from Southern Cross, beating other long-haul routes like Warnambool and Swan Hill in both distance and duration.
The service boasts 21 stops between Southern Cross and Bairnsdale, on what has been described as one of the state’s most problematic rail services.
