Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to talk today about trains. In country Australia trains are essential. They need to be reliable, they need to be safe, they need to run on time and they need to be clean. We have a real problem with our train between Melbourne and Albury. It does not run on time, it is often not clean, and sometimes it becomes a bus. Last week we had the horrible story of Tehya Hanley, an 18-year-old award-winning student, who could not get to Melbourne when she needed to. But the worst thing about all this was the excuse. When we contacted ARTC, the Australian Rail Track Corporation, they told us there was a signal fault and that they could not ensure that signal problems will not happen again. Well, in this House today I say to you, ARTC: that is not good enough. Our train systems need to be able to rely on the signals, and the signals need to be reliable. I call on the government to investigate this problem. I call on ARTC to report to us. We need to be able to rely on our signals, our trains and our public transport.