General News
18 January, 2022
Calls for Wimmera Rail return
WILL the sound of the Wimmera Rail service return? That is the hope of a few advocates ahead of this year's election.
WILL the sound of the Wimmera Rail service return? That is the hope of a few advocates ahead of this year's election who see the service as a key to unlocking the region’s potential.
The return of a passenger service linking the state’s west with key city centres such as Ballarat and Melbourne has been a topic of debate and deliberation for the past decade.
It has been a fraught road for advocates who believe that a passenger rail will aid growing pressures on the region from an aging and declining population plus boost industry.
The passenger service to Mildura was terminated by the Kennett government in 1993 due to decreased demand.
Member for Western Victoria Stuart Grimley pressured transport minister Ben Carroll to release information on the costs and barriers to returning rail, including a proposed business case.
However the Department of Transport has confirmed to Wimmera Mallee News that there is no business case for a Wimmera Rail service.
The transport department estimates that investment would be required on trackwork and signalling at Ararat on the standard gauge interstate tracks to facilitate the turning back of a train. Similar work would be required at Nhill.
There would need to be further investment in infrastructure to stable a train, fuel the rollingstock, and maintain the fleet and would need to occur at a purpose-built facility on the line.
Additional track infrastructure would likely be needed to facilitate both a useful passenger service and nationally important freight on the interstate rail corridor.
In his response to a question on notice from Mr Grimely on December 9, the minister for transport Ben Carroll wrote a shuttle train service from Ararat to Nhill had been marked as not feasible in the short or medium term, as both Ararat and Nhill would require trackwork, signalling and tracks to facilitate the turning around of a train.
The department has also stated that providing a train service between Ararat and Nhill would also be expected to have impacts on existing interstate freight trains.
However, Wimmera rail advocate Greg Philips thinks that service could still run without interfering with freight trains and use existing rail lines which carry The Overland.
Until recently, Mr Philips along with his son Tim had established Wimmera Rail Services, a company which had entered the fray in 2018 in a bid to run a private-public service.
He said that a proposed passenger service could ‘work out a path’ with the Australian Rail Track Corporation to navigate around existing freight and operate at slower speeds in order to meet service demand.
“The infrastructure is already here to cater for that,” he said.
“It’s not good for it to be sitting down around and doing nothing because it will deteriorate pretty quickly.
“We don’t want to run 160 kilometres (like V/Locity trains). We wanted to run at 115km or 80 km even just to get it up and running then we would have talked about lifting up the speeds.”
Build it and they will come
Jung resident David Lennon is another advocate for a Wimmera passenger service who thinks a rail will be crucial to meeting increasing demands for health services.
He is already a big advocate of expanding stops for The Overland service to boost tourism opportunities along the line.
But Mr Lennon said a passenger rail service from Nhill to Ararat would help boost economic and health outcomes for the region.
“First of all, the buses are run by tremendous people who are extremely helpful but they are physically difficult, especially for older people and we do have a large, older population in the Wimmera, to get on and off the buses,” he said.
“The buses are not as fast as the train, they are subject to traffic, which for people who are traveling for a specific reason, can make them late for appointments whereas with trains you've got a better chance of being able to go straight through and meet the timetable.
“The buses are, in my opinion, being misused, if we had rail back the rail line between Nhill and Arafat could be the spine and the bus services could be redesigned to act as the ribs, if you like, and feed into the spine.
“That is a far better use of those particular facilities. To argue that the current public transport situation in the Wimmera is adequate, is facile frankly.
“In fact, when the Premier himself was here for one of the Wimmera Southern Mallee (Regional Partnership), they showed a video at the start from young people in the Wimmera are asking them what their biggest issue was and it was transport and when you go to the other end of the demographic, older people, it was transport so the very clear message from the generations in Wimmera is that public transport is not fit for purpose now and the first step in making it fit for purpose is to restore the commuter rail line between Ararat and Nhill.
“I am utterly confident from what I've seen using the bus services recently that if you build it, they will come because I can tell you: the one thing buses aren't doing and that is, they're doing nothing for tourism and there is definitely unmet potential there.”
Wimmera Development Association executive director Chris Sounness said a passenger service would be key to making the region more competitive as well as serve increased demand for health services.
“We know the value of a train is that it (will) impact rural communities particularly as our aging population needs to travel more and more to access specialists in Ballarat and Melbourne,” he said.
“A train is far more effective than buses … and so there are a whole range of opportunities to try and attract more people to the region.
“Having better public transport is definitely something that would allow our region to become more competitive.”