With stage one promising a fifth return service between Shepparton and Melbourne — delivered earlier this year — the attention now turns to ensuring at least nine return services are delivered within three years.
Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell claimed a document was leaked to her office that stated "approval of additional funding in the order of $282.5 million is required to support ... increasing the daily return weekday services to nine".
Shadow Minister for Public Transport (Metropolitan) David Davis said concerns over the funding bought him to Shepparton today.
“This is more than a simple case of gilding the lily. $282.5 million is a huge black hole, without the additional allocation of which in a future budget, nine return services a day to Shepp is simply a pipe dream,” Mr Davis said.
The project, which is expected to be completed by 2022, includes upgrading 59 level crossings and the building of platform extensions at Mooroopna, Murchison East and Nagambie.
Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allan said Shepparton had been crying out for better train services for years, only to be ignored time and again by the Liberal and National parties.
“It was these same members of parliament who sat in the failed Baillieu-Napthine cabinet and did not fight for one dollar for improving Shepparaton train services — it wasn’t until Shepparton put an independent MP in parliament that Shepparton’s voice was finally heard,” Ms Allan said.
She said the Victorian Government had delivered five daily return services to Shepparton and was working hard to provide nine.
“We’ve said from the start that this project needed to be delivered in stages and right now we are working on the track and signalling work that is required to bring more trains to Shepparton,” Ms Allan said.
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