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

Almost 12 months ago I was very proud to deliver $1 million in planning money for a duplicated rail track between South Geelong and Waurn Ponds. This project is vital for Corangamite. The current single track through the southern part of Geelong limits the frequency and reliability of train services through Marshall, Waurn Ponds, Winchelsea, Birregurra, Colac and beyond through to Warrnambool.

After months of campaigning, I was pleased that the Victorian government finally put this project on its priority list and provided $3 million in funding. Yet, nine months after we made that very important commitment to the people of Geelong and Corangamite, we have heard nothing from the state about the feasibility planning for this project. We have provided the money, and yet we have heard nothing. Where is the plan? Where are the costings? Once again, I call on the state to get its act together and release the feasibility study so that we can get on with building this duplicated track. This has been an issue in my community for 30 and more years. It was an issue when my mother was the member for Geelong—and a great local member she was—in the 1990s. It has inhibited our growth. It is inhibiting our ability to attract new industries to Geelong. If we can have state-of-the-art rail infrastructure in our region, the world is our oyster and there are no limits.

I am very pleased to confirm that I and some of my colleagues are lobbying for greater Commonwealth investment in Victorian infrastructure so we can invest in better passenger rail, duplicate this rail track and fix the Regional Rail Link. We need a Commonwealth regional rail fund to invest in regional rail across Victoria. Like so many other infrastructure projects where the Commonwealth has led the way, we can then do everything possible to leverage the state funding we need. We must have First World passenger train services. We must have the very, very best when it comes to regional rail.

A critical issue for our region is that Labor's much-hyped $3.65 billion Regional Rail Link is soon going to reach capacity, leading to slower and more crowded train services. The link was built to cater for 18 trains per hour and during peak it is already handling 17 trains per hour. A Rail Futures report has found that, instead of speeding Geelong trains up, the Regional Rail Link has in fact slowed them down, with the fastest journey now no better than in 1958—almost 60 years ago.

To make matters worse, trains are expected to become even slower in the future, with long-term plans to build three suburban stations along the Regional Rail Link—and that is on top of the stations which are already there and which, frankly, were never meant to have been there. This was meant to have been a true regional rail link and now there are already stations at Tarneit and Wyndham Vale, which the people of those communities are using more like a suburban service. The regions of Geelong, Colac and all the way through to Warrnambool are being deeply affected. The travelling time for Warrnambool commuters has also increased. The Rail Futures report reveals that the average trip from Melbourne to Warrnambool was 195 minutes in 1985, compared to today's average of 220 minutes. This is simply not good enough.

We have been campaigning for a very long time for Premier Daniel Andrews to start taking Victorian regional infrastructure projects seriously. We have seen Premier Andrews trash our Victorian economy with his reckless decision—perhaps the worst economic decision in Victoria's history—to cancel the East West Link project.

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