Innovation Minister Philip Dalidakis said on Monday that they were already in talks with the telecommunications giants that could build the towers alongside regional rail lines all over the state. 

“The government and I in particular have had a number of informal discussions with two of the three major telco players. Obviously those three players include Telstra, Optus and Vodafone,” he said. 

“I feel confident we’ll be able to deliver on the aggressive timeline because the Andrews government is keen to get on with it.”  

The $18 million project is reliant on the support of any of those companies as it needs them to “co-invest” and build the towers. 

Regional Development Minister Jaala Pulford said the project, which aims to give the Ballarat, Geelong, Bendigo, Seymour and Traralgon rail lines uninterrupted 3G or 4G mobile connections, would make the commuting experience much better. 

“This program will deliver the change that anyone who catches (the Ballarat service) or any other service are desperately crying out for,” she said. 

Shadow Assistant Treasurer Gordon Rich-Phillips said it was unclear where the Wi-Fi money had gone. 

“Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan must come clean to regional Victorian commuters on where this money is being redirected to,” he said. 

Ms Pulford said the previous government’s plan to install free Wi-Fi on V/Line services was overkill. 

“The former government had it wrong when it came to providing connectivity for our V/Line commuters,” she said. 

She said opposition claims $22 million had disappeared from the budget allocation of $40 million were not correct. 

“They’re confusing a couple of separate programs and projects,” she said. 

Mr Dalidakis re-iterated the Wi-Fi plan was not workable on Monday, saying the $20 million set aside for the project in the 2014 Budget was not enough. 

“As part of the review when we came into government, we had to look at a range of policies out there, and one of these was of course the thought bubble by the previous government, and so what we had to was look at the money that was available for this project and how we could best deliver it,” he said.