The Commonwealth Bank’s chief economist Craig James, who was speaking to a number of high schools throughout the region on Friday, said speedy access to Melbourne will play a big part in allowing Ballarat to make the most of its lower house prices and cost of living. 

The push comes after statistics released on Thursday revealed Victoria to be the most popular state for interstate immigration.  Victoria overtook Queenland with a net influx 17,185 people deciding to call the Victoria home in the year ending September 2016. 

Mr James said while Victoria had positioned itself as one of the strongest performers in the Australian economy, quality connectivity with the city would ensure growth was spread equally across the state. 

“The tyranny of distance still exists within Australia and we've still got to try and address that distance,” Mr James said.  

“If you could get high speed rail operating between Ballarat and Melbourne, where it took 45 minutes...that means people effectively could be commuting on a daily basis and that represents tremendous opportunity.

“(It also means) we would be able to open up more housing opportunities for more Australians.” 

The call comes as the state government looks to provide greater incentive for regional living in an effort to combat the rapid growth of house prices in Melbourne, with median growth tipping 10 per cent in 2016. 

From July 1 first home buyers will not have to pay stamp duty on properties worth less than $600,000, while the first home buyers grant will double to $20,000 for regional properties. 

Mr James said a major transformation of the state’s regional rail system would require political vision beyond the regular four-year election cycle. 

“Politics represents a real constraint on our ability to get things done in Australia, and until we get the two major parties coming together (on major infrastructure issues) they’re not going to get done.” 

Earlier this month the Melbourne Metro Rail Authority opened the tender for the $518 Ballarat line upgrade which was announced in the 2016/17 budget, which will see a number of passing loops installed along the line as well as the duplication of track between Melton and Deer Park. 

Construction on the line is not expected to begin until 2018, with the full suite of developments to be completed by the end of 2019. 

Public Transport Victoria chief executive Jeroen Weimar said while the $3.65 billion Regional Rail Link had played major part in changing perceptions of the state’s three biggest country train services in Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong, there was still much to be done to improve the commuter service. 

“What we've seen in the last five or six years is we’re moving from a country rail network into an inter-urban commuter network, because from Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo you've got people making those journeys every day now,” Mr Weimar said.  

“They are now making their property, schooling and work decisions based on a frequent reliable rail service existing. 

While the upgrades will not necessarily improve the speed of the service, which currently can take as long as 74 minutes during peak hour, Mr Weimar said it would help to ensure reliability which was a crucial element for commuters. 

“If you look at the Ballarat line we've still got significant stretches of single track so if a service hits any kind of disruption you get a far greater knock on affect than if you had complete twin track,” Mr Weimar said.