The number one issue that has haunted Ballarat’s V/line service for the past year has been reliability. Happily after several timetable meltdowns, where the concept of a schedule seemed to many commuters like a work of fiction, the service is clawing its way back to a level of reliability and punctuality that they expect and deserve. Even more optimistically, the key issues of planning and infrastructure appear to have been embraced in the State Budget because it is the continual roll out of these bigger picture projects that are vital for any long term ability to meet these targets. But it doesn’t stop there.
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The Regional Network Development Plan should be the blueprint for transport for decades to come. In furtherance of this idea it contains a recognition that rail connections to Melbourne invariably hinge and are adversely affected by exploding metropolitan population growth. It’s in the west that Ballarat has felt the squeeze the most. This is the hotspot for congestion, delays and overcrowding. Caroline Spring is over twenty years old and is still waiting for a railway station. If the suburb of Toolern, filling the last gap between Melton and Caroline Springs, will be home to another 100,000 people in the decades to come one hopes they are not still waiting for a train station in 2036. As such it is good to see this station name included in the longer term Future Directions. There s also the suggestion that Ballarat may need more stations, perhaps stations in our expanding western growth areas to match a network extension like Waurn Ponds was to Geelong in 2014.
On the positive side of the ledger are the first steps in major works that will shape the future; duplication as far as Melton, second platforms and passing loops. But however costly and complex, this impetus should be the driving force for even longer term ideas to make an even more sustainable regional service, stepping stones for other necessary projects like electrification to Melton and full duplication.
But on other hand like many of the ill-fated transport master plans of past governments, the RNDP is a disappointment. While there is inclusion of some of the bigger concepts and projects necessary to keep the system working, there is a remarkable paucity of detail on the logic and justification of these priorities. More importantly there are no key milestone dates to ensure as a transport wishlist it doesn’t just disappear into the thin air of good intentions and fickle changing governments.
