Regional Victoria demands return of passenger rail services

Regional Victorian residents and public transport advocates are pushing for the return of passenger rail services along crucial routes in the state, as it heads towards the November election.

Two of Victoria's largest regional cities, Geelong and Ballarat, have had no rail connection for nearly five decades, while Mildura in Victoria's north-west has been without a passenger rail service since 1993 when the service was discontinued.

Calls for reinstatement

For years, residents along the Geelong-Ballarat route, which is currently only used for freight, have called for the return of passenger rail services, with those calls backed by the Victorian Greens.

Deputy leader of the Greens and MP for western Victoria, Sarah Mansfield, said "it's time to open a conversation" about reinstating the service.

"A lot of people actually do travel between the two places, but they have to rely on a car," she said.

The other options are buses, with three daily services between Geelong and Ballarat, or catching a train into Melbourne first, but Dr Mansfield said "you're looking at several hours each way".

"It's no wonder people end up resorting to using their cars," she said.

Dr Mansfield said there was high demand for a Geelong-Ballarat service due to significant growth in the area, which she said was only set to increase more in the coming decades.

"As Geelong and Ballarat become more significant economic and educational centres in and of themselves, there is more interest in people being able to travel between the two," she said.

Wimmera Mallee left behind

Meanwhile, in Victoria's north-west, Mildura remains the largest regional city in the state without access to a passenger rail service.

Currently, the nearest passenger train service is based in Swan Hill, two and a half hours away, with passengers required to catch a coach service from Mildura to Swan Hill.

Rail Revival Alliance president Noel Laidlaw said costs of airfares, an aging population and the state of the roads between Mildura and Melbourne meant public transport was the only viable option for many.

"If [people] want to go and see grandkids or go to the doctors or whatever, and they've got to go to Melbourne, they might not have the $700 to fork out for the flight," Mr Laidlaw said.

Mildura Rural City Council is one of the five councils along the potential route which are advocating for the reintroduction of the service.

Council said the region faced significant challenges due to the absence of passenger trains, with the region's remoteness and limited public transport options restricting residents' access to essential services, education and social opportunities in other Victorian towns and in Melbourne.

Similar calls in the Wimmera

Similar calls for the return of passenger rail have been echoed in the Wimmera, where the V/Line train service was discontinued in 1993.

Nhill resident Margaret Millington is one of many people in the Wimmera who travels to Ballarat and Melbourne for medical appointments and to see family.

"The services that we are offered in Nhill, Horsham and the other regions along the way are just so inadequate, especially for disabled people, for families and the elderly," she said.

Ms Millington said in communities like Nhill, aging residents have to rely on others to transport them to places they need to go.

A V/Line coach currently runs from Nhill to Ararat via Horsham, connecting with the wider train network at Ararat, but locals, including Ms Millington, are pushing for more frequent coach services to meet their daily needs.

They want to couple this with an additional mid-week Overland service in the short term, and in the longer term, the return of the V/Line train.

"That could happen now, and down the track, perhaps they could look at having daily services extended on from Ararat to Nhill … and with more than one service a week, with many services," Ms Millington said.

She recommended the state government do a feasibility study into how viable the passenger train would be for the Wimmera.

Questions about viability

Currently, the V/Line train servicing the Wimmera and Mallee ceases at Ararat and Maryborough.

The tracks beyond both stations were reconverted to standard gauge lines following the discontinuation of passenger rail, to focus on freight.

RMIT University sustainability and urban planning lecturer Liam Davies said if passenger rail was to be reinstated to Horsham and Mildura, a shuttle service to and from Ararat and Maryborough to connect with the wider rail network would be the "quickest and easiest option".

In 2022, the Parliamentary Budget Office estimated that a passenger rail to Mildura running three times a week would cost $47 million.

Dr Davies said the figure would have considered the cost to upgrade the railway stations to be able to accommodate passenger rail and to modify the V/Line trains to be able to run on standard gauge.

He estimated that number would have increased since the 2022 forecast, but not by a lot.

"[It] is reasonably simple and probably reasonably doable within a modest budget," Dr Davies said.

However, he said the track would be limited to 80 kilometres an hour, meaning it would still take longer than the current service.

He believed the best option for the Wimmera in the short term would be to increase frequency of The Overland to service the region.

"That would then complement the existing coaches that run between Horsham and Ararat that connect in with the rest of the V/Line passenger network," Dr Davies said.

Parties respond to calls

Jeff Moran, a former Department of Transport worker and now policy coordinator with the Greens Ballarat branch and a preselected Greens candidate for the seat of Lowan in western Victoria, said that, if elected, he would push for a shuttle train service between Kaniva and Ararat, that would run three times a day.

"[That would cost] next to nothing," Mr Moran said.

"There is already a passenger rail service there, there are already stations there, the infrastructure's all there, it's just about putting trains and train crews on."

Mr Moran estimated the revival of a Ballarat to Geelong service would cost about $800 million, mainly for level crossing and platform upgrades and a fleet of trains.