BALLARAT’S rail manufacturing sector is set to benefit from 65 new jobs after the Victorian government announced the local production of seven X’Trapolis trains.
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Victorian Treasurer Kim Wells and Minister for Regional Cities Denis Napthine made the announcement at rolling stock manufacturer Alstom’s Creswick Road workshop yesterday, and said the trains would feature more locally made components than previous models.
“The fit out of these trains will add jobs for people here at Alstom’s plant in Ballarat in addition to another 70 indirect jobs expected to be created as a result of this contract,’’ Mr Wells said.
“The trains will have more than 30 per cent local content, which is a great result for regional Victoria.’’
The French-owned company will invest $8 million to upgrade the historic Ballarat workshops, helping create trains for Melbourne’s metropolitan rail network which handles more than 800,000 trips every day.
Mr Wells said the purchase of seven new trains would add to Victoria’s existing fleet of X’Trapolis trains, which represents nearly a third of the state’s overall fleet.
Ballarat West MP Sharon Knight used the visit of four senior Baillieu government ministers to call for more allocations for Ballarat under the Regional Growth Fund.
Ms Knight said of the $80 million in infrastructure projects announced from the fund over 2011 and 2012, Ballarat had received only $5 million.
“Victorian Government allocations from the fund for infrastructure development has bypassed Ballarat with funds funnelled to smaller cities with National Party MPs. Ballarat is the second largest city in regional Victoria but the Baillieu government is choosing to provide four times as much funding to projects in Mildura than in Ballarat.”
