Questions have arisen about the tender process for the maintenance of 23 new V/Line trains after seemingly mixed messages from the state government.
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Under its 2023-24 budget, the state government funded the construction of 23 new nine-car VLocity trains, to be built at French rolling stock manufacturer Alstom's South Dandenong facility.
In March earlier this year - during the V/Line fare price cap announcement, premier Daniel Andrews said the new trains, once constructed, would be maintained at Alstom's Ballarat East facility.
The announcement could have meant more maintenance work for the Ballarat facility, and potentially more jobs for the region.
However, in a recent visit by the premier to Alstom's South Dandenong facility it was revealed the 23 new trains would now be maintained at Alstom's West Melbourne facility.
An Alstom spokesperson later confirmed the West Melbourne site would handle the new train's maintenance, but did not reply in time for publication about why the change from Ballarat to West Melbourne occurred.
Premier Andrews said despite the maintenance contract not going to Ballarat, the site would still have a role to play in maintaining the state's rolling stock.
"The maintenance facility (Alstom Ballarat East) has never had more work to do," he said.
"So there's no change to maintenance activities, the cleaning and maintenance activities.
"They work pretty much 24/7 making sure that a big portion of our V1 fleet is on the rails, taking people where they need to go.
"Ballarat workshops have a very secure future, which wasn't the case a few years ago because the previous government really didn't have an agenda for V1."
The new VLocity trains will be deployed on the Melton line to improve capacity, as part of the $650 million Melton Line upgrade.
For the nine-car VLocity trains to run on the Bacchus Marsh and Melton corridors, platform extension works are needed at Bacchus Marsh, Cooblebank, Caroline Springs, Ardeer and Deer Park stations.
Additional stabling facilities will be built at Maddingley as part of the project.
The new trains will not be running to Ballarat.
In 2021, the state government committed almost $1 billion to build 25 new sets of X'Trapolis 2.0 trains in Ballarat, which will replace the ageing Comeng metropolitan fleet with "state-of-the-art" new trains.
However, it came after a long campaign from Alstom workers, represented by the Electrical Trades Union and Rail, Tram, and Bus Union, among others, for the state government to announce the contract and avoid leaving workers in limbo.
After several rallies at the Creswick Road site and at government MP offices, Alstom acquired competitor Bombardier, and some workers were able to be redeployed at its Ballarat East train maintenance facility.
It was noted at the time that the stop-start nature of these large public transport contracts meant workers were often left behind between projects.
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