Train travellers on the Echuca and Swan Hill train lines are back on buses for at least another two weeks.
Photo by
Steve Huntley
Nationals leader and Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh says train travellers across his electorate are back on the buses for at least another two weeks.
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Mr Walsh says the latest V/Line announcement, effective from February 21 to March 5, is allegedly about line ‘upgrades’ for both the Echuca and Swan Hill lines.
Which he has described as the “longest running joke in regional Victoria”.
“This mockery of a state government has claimed, in media release after media release, at announcement after announcement, that the regional rail network has never been in better shape,” Mr Walsh said.
“It’s in such good shape the trains — if and when they run — still have to drop to 80km/h when they get closer to Echuca.
“These alleged line upgrades for the next two weeks, I wonder if they aren’t connected with taking local eyes (and memories) off Jacinta Allan’s ‘promise’ from two years ago that these lines would be getting faster, and more, train services.
Mr Walsh is calling on the Andrews Government to get the job done and deliver the train services it promised for Swan Hill and Echuca.
“Even when work isn’t being done on the lines, commuters and travellers still end up being jammed onto buses because trains are suddenly cancelled, or unavailable.”
Mr Walsh said he could not understand why the government can’t just bite the bullet and get the job done — once and for all.
Unless, he said, regional Victoria was once again to be left abandoned at the end of the line “while the premier and his union cronies work out how to disguise the $28 billion — that’s billion and counting — overruns black hole in its out-of-control big build in Melbourne”.
“It’s time for the Andrews Labor Government to deliver the train services Echuca and Swan Hill should have had years ago.”
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