Wellington Shire residents are being promised a new weekday rail service from Sale if The Nationals are elected at the upcoming state election.
The promise was made by the Leader of The Nationals, Peter Walsh, and Member for Gippsland South, Danny O’Brien, on Friday 28 October.
Under the proposal, a new early morning service would depart from Sale, increasing the number of Melbourne-bound services to four a day.
“The existing Traralgon to Melbourne service at 6.32am will now originate at Sale at 5.50am, replacing an existing coach connection service that will continue to operate on the Bairnsdale-Sale leg,” Mr O’Brien said.
“This will allow Sale passengers to arrive in Melbourne before 9am.”
Currently, the earliest train departing Sale on a weekday leaves at 7.08am, arriving in Melbourne at 10.06am.
Mr O’Brien, who is also the Shadow Minister for Public Transport, said he expected demand to be strong for the new early morning service, the first additional service in “at least 42 years”.
“Anecdotally, a lot of people from Sale, Maffra, Stratford, and surrounds drive to Traralgon to take advantage of the more frequent services from there; this new service will provide a better option for locals,” Mr O’Brien said.
Mr Walsh said this service extension would be just the start, with further services to Sale and Bairnsdale to be added when the Gippsland Regional Rail Revival project and Bairnsdale train stabling projects were complete.
“A poor train service makes it very hard for Gippsland to compete and provide an attractive option for people looking to get out of the city when there are limited train services, particularly beyond Traralgon,” Mr Walsh said.
Member for Gippsland East, Tim Bull, said the Gippsland line had long been overlooked, particularly beyond Traralgon, where new services were clearly needed.
“For the Wellington Shire and East Gippsland, we have just three train services in each direction each day, compared to 19 from Traralgon, 31 from Ballarat and 21 from Bendigo,” Mr Bull said.
The announcement has also been welcomed by Wellington Shire Council Mayor, Ian Bye.
“A new train service for Sale is in line with council’s recent advocacy for improved train services to support the growing population of Sale, Maffra, Stratford and surrounds,” Cr Bye said.
“Wellington Shire Council supports any investment in the Gippsland rail network, particularly additional services east of Traralgon.”
The announcement of an additional V/Line service for Wellington Shire comes after a joint call for more trains was made in August.
As reported by the Gippsland Times, the Committee for Wellington, Sale Business Tourism Association and Wellington Shire all urged the state government to deliver on a long-held pledge to deliver additional train services to the region.
When asked for comment about The Nationals’ proposal, Labor candidate for Gippsland South, Denise Ryan, noted that the ruling state government had completed several upgrades on the Gippsland line – including the new Avon River bridge in Stratford – with a view to bring additional train services to the region.
“If they (The Nationals) are to introduce more services, it will be because of the work the Andrews government has done,” Ms Ryan said.
During the first day of the election campaign last week, Labor made some V/Line announcements, including more services.
If re-elected, the government said they will build another 23 VLocity trains to replace older trains; and deliver nearly 200 extra weekend services on the regional network.
On the Gippsland Line, this will mean trains every 40 minutes on the Traralgon line – 8am to 9pm on weekends; and extending the Sunday service to Bairnsdale, which currently terminates at Sale.
