Thursday, 18 April 2024

Upfield rail line

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (17:18): (829) My adjournment is directed towards the Minister for Public and Active Transport and concerns train services in the north. V/Line services along Wallan and Donnybrook consistently fall short of meeting the commuting needs of residents, and coupled with the cancellations from Rail, Tram and Bus Union strikes, my constituents face a daily headache with their commute to and from work. Commuters regularly stand throughout the whole duration of travel and in many cases are forced to sit in baggage areas or prevented from boarding V/Line services altogether. V/Line – and this government, I would say – boasts that V/Line is Australia’s fastest-growing regional railway operator. Well, it is only growing in passengers at a rapid pace because hundreds of thousands of homes are being built in growth areas that used to be regional towns with no plans or abandoned plans to electrify the track.

The Melton and Wyndham Vale electrifications have been promised by Labor at not one but two separate elections. Now Labor describe this not as a broken promise but as an evolving promise. Well, I will tell you what, I was in Werribee on Monday with over 100 locals with the shadow cabinet, and the people of Werribee are not happy with the broken promise of Wyndham Vale and Melton electrification. It is like another Melton hospital. Every election they will just keep promising and promising again.

Rerouting Seymour and Shepparton services along the Upfield line is urgently required to improve the capacity of services for commuters in Wallan and Donnybrook. The Public Transport Victoria development plan in 2012 under the Liberals and Nationals government originally proposed this, and the 2018 Victorian rail plan proposed and urged the government to connect the Upfield line to the Craigieburn line through the Somerton link allowing an extension towards Wallan to be completed by 2025. The government even mused in an Age article that this project could be completed in line with the Metro Tunnel. I have continually raised this in my adjournments and constituency questions. The population of Craigieburn is expected to reach 90,000 to 100,000 in 2025, yet no project has been undertaken on upgrading this essential rail infrastructure. It has been proposed again in several transport plans, urging the government to do it, but they are too busy pushing frivolous projects like the Suburban Rail Loop, which means there is no money for growth areas in my community that are desperately after electrification services where hundreds of thousands of homes are being built. This project is supported by PTV transport groups, the Northern Councils Alliance and every northern suburb council and community group. I seek the action of the minister to provide an update on any plans for the duplication of the Upfield line.