This rail project contains the potential for huge benefits for the region and the ALSTOM project is an excellent example of that.

ALSTOM will install the Country Train Safety System to 58 V/Line trains, including locomotives and Sprinter trains, along with the 38 V'Locity two-carriage fast trains.

The project includes track sensors being placed at key points along the Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong and Latrobe Valley lines.

The Fast Rail Project is a critical one for the state; an extraordinary investment by the government in the future of regional Victoria.

If it had not been undertaken, the rail infrastructure would have quickly fallen into disrepair.

Now Ballarat, Bendigo, the Latrobe Valley and Geelong will have rail services and infrastructure capable of serving them well into the second half of the century.

With that will come outstanding investment and lifestyle opportunities.

People will be more inclined to settle in centres with reliable and convenient transport infrastructure.

It will make it easier, therefore, for industry and business to attract the necessary workforce and make them more inclined to invest in the regions.

There have certainly been problems in the implementation of the Fast Rail Project and frustrations for travellers during upgrade works on the various rail lines.

There has been a blow-out in costs, although much of that has been to ensure the very latest in safety and signalling equipment is used in the new, updated system.

Reasonable concerns have also been raised about proposed timetables, but these have not been completed, and input from travellers following the release of draft timetables is being considered.

Eventually the rail services concerned will be vastly improved.

The regions affected are benefitting already - the ALSTOM deal is the latest example - and there will be more benefits to come when the new services start rolling in 2006.