FORMER deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer has called for a senior Victorian public servant to explain a decision made about the Ballarat train line, which has led to timetable chaos.
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Mr Fischer believes a decision not to create a rail fly-over at the Deer Park-West Werribee Railway Junction, which would prevent Geelong trains impacting Ballarat services, is responsible for Ballarat commuter woes.
“A senior public servant in Victoria was responsible for the final decision...they should step forward and explain their actions,” he said.
Mr Fischer said it was a “shocking blunder” to have created the section of the Regional Rail Link without rail grade separation.
“Ballarat and Geelong commuters have a right to be very angry with the new timetables and new train links,” he said.
“They have been massively short changed.”
“We have timetables that are clunky, to say the least, and worse still, since their introduction there has been under-performance... almost every day," he said.
Mr Fischer said there was scope to introduce a rail-fly over, but doesn’t believe this would happen any time soon.
But Public Transport Users Association regional spokesman Paul Westcott said allowing rail grade separation at the Deer Park-West Werribee Railway Junction wouldn’t resolve problems on the Ballarat train line.
“It’s not the only problem on the Ballarat line, the major one is the majority of the line is a single track,” he said.
"It is a single track almost all of the way from Sunshine to Ballarat...(which means) you can’t have trains running both ways.”
He said late city-bound trains impacted the arrival of Ballarat-bound trains, and vice versa, despite there being crossing loops in place on the line.
Mr Westcott said Ballarat was one of the only-regional train lines that did not have double tracks for most of the journey.
He said the cost of building a rail-fly over at the Deer Park-West Werribee Railway Junction would outweigh the benefits of having one.
Mr Fischer’s call comes as Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan said she would wait for findings of the Regional Public Transport Development Plan before determining ways to improve the current Regional Rail Link system.
Ms Allan experienced the rail faults first hand when travelling from Ballarat to Southern Cross on July 27.
