Nothing could be more pleasing to the current commuter lamenting the delays and cancellations and of our current metropolitan rail connection than the prospect of a 45 minute commute to Melbourne.
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The Courier has long advocated that an efficient system that links regional cities is a lot more than convenience, it becomes a key plank in any future growth not just of Ballarat but many outlying regions. Connectivity plays a key part in the desirability of living in regional Victoria, shares the growth beyond a megapolis, enriches the collective capacity of any regional city and when it can’t offer the employment or high education a bigger city offers ensures there is less brain drain.
So to take the long-running campaign of a single symbolic service from Ballarat to Melbourne running under the hour and slash another 14 minutes from it verges on the incredible. But this is the bold promise of the State Opposition in the lead up to the 2018 election that, no doubt, many will scoff at. Perhaps a lack of detail gives weight to that scepticism, but what must be commended is the principle of making a substantial gesture towards decentralisation that stretches long beyond a single term in office. Moreover the long-term massive financial commitment ($19 billion) that is essential to make this more than a grand idea, requires a bipartisan agreement on its end objectives and implementation. Only this will convert the ‘pipedream’ into a decade of practical and efficient work.
But before commuters start enjoying a longer lie-in dreaming of a 45 minute dash to their jobs in Melbourne, a few sobering thoughts; speeds of 200km/h sound wonderful but are immaterial if those same trains get caught behind other delayed trains. This could happen anywhere on the unduplicated line (as commutes well know) which the current $518 million investment is seeking to alleviate. Yet on this project alone there is much more to do.
Likewise such speeds add little if the CBD congestion the 2026 Metro tunnel seeks to alleviate means trains can’t get to Southern Cross. Melbourne’s unbridled growth in that decade will compete for even more solutions and funding. It will take firm and visionary government to postpone those pleas for such a fabulous amount for the regions.
There are many more technical questions about just what capacity the current tracks can handle. Given they labour under speed restrictions in current hot temperatures in the 30C’s to 90km/h, is the promise of 200km/h, like labels of ‘very fast trains’ doomed to disappointment?
No doubt the massive bill will seek to upgrade some of these issues. Full duplication should be a starting point, without it current problems will simply prolong into the next decade and beyond.
Then there is the question of Melton electrification, surely a given given Melbourne’s western growth but there is no detail in this plan about how it will be executed. Likewise it is itself not implementable before 2026 when the Metro tunnel take the first steps in clearing up the city loop congestion. But that outer Melbourne addition, increasingly a necessity, also demands added expense, including the mandatory quadruplication at least as far as Melton to separate metro and regional trains however fast. Without these infrastructure steps, current delays are inevitable. (This is to say nothing of level crossings.)
And by the time that necessity becomes a reality (we are certainly out to the second half of the twenties by then) electrification plans should also be in place for a growing Bacchus Marsh.
That added service may be some consolation for the booming satellite town and a lot of others who, no doubt, the 45 minute express will bypass to meet that magical number.
Whichever way you look at the gap between ideal and reality, a long trip is just beginning.