Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today on behalf of the people of Corangamite to express grave concerns about the Victorian Labor government's management of public transport across our region.

V/Line train services are in absolute chaos. As the Geelong Advertiser reports today, Labor's rail crisis is costing at least $4 million a week, including in compensation and replacement bus hire. The total bill is tipped to soar to $50 million by next month as the government forks out for an urgent track safety upgrade, new train wheels and an independent investigation. Around 200 replacement buses are running every day, after VLocity trains were pulled from service in mid-January when a train failed to trigger a level-crossing boomgate.

In Victoria we have an infrastructure crisis, a government which paid $1.1 billion not to build the East West Link, a government which has shown no interest in duplicating the rail track and upgrading platforms between South Geelong and Waurn Ponds, a government which refuses to increase the number of services to and from Colac and a government which will not even fix train and bus timetables across the Geelong region. The head of V/Line has been sacked, but Premier Andrews needs to take responsibility for this rail crisis and his utter failure to progress important infrastructure projects in regional Victoria, including better rail and a proper western road link to Melbourne.

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