Shepparton rail upgrade: VLocity train to Melbourne could face Cragieburn congestion issue
If you were hoping the Shepparton rail upgrade would drastically shorten your trip to Melbourne, you may be in for some bad news. Here’s why.
Goulburn Valley
Don't miss out on the headlines from Goulburn Valley. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Shepparton will barely get a faster train trip into Melbourne when the about $700 million rail upgrade has been completed, experts say.
The Shepparton rail upgrade will deliver nine return Vlocity services a day and an under two-hour trip when stage three of the project is completed by late-2023, bankrolled by both the Commonwealth and state governments.
But Rail Futures president John Hearsch said even after the upgrade, trains from Shepparton to Melbourne would run only 10 minutes faster in off-peak.
And while the trains would be more comfortable and more frequent, he said peak-hour services would travel into the city in 2023 about the same speed they do now.
Presently trains take about two-and-a-half hours to travel from Shepparton to Melbourne’s CBD.
Mr Hearsch, who has worked in the Australian rail industry for more than 50 years, said this was caused by increasing congestion on the train line from Cragieburn, which was set to worsen with population growth in north Melbourne suburbs.
While the Vlocity trains on the upgraded Shepparton line would be able to travel at 130km/h in some sections, the trains would be forced to slow down once they entered the suburban train system.
“As the suburban train timetables become more intense, it’s not entirely a satisfactory picture,” Mr Hearsch said.
“Congestion is going to start at Cragieburn and continue into the city.
“It will be pretty bad at peak times, and it will extend into the off peak.”
However, Mr Hearsch said train times would be longer if the upgrades were not to happen.
Congestion on the “shared regional and metropolitan network” was flagged as one of several “challenges” to arriving and departing train times in the Victorian Auditor General’s 2017 report on VLine.
“VLine operates more than 32,500 services a year across the metropolitan network, and its trains fail to consistently arrive at the metropolitan boundary in time to use their scheduled path,” the report said.
But the Stronger, Together project – a high-speed rail business case commissioned by the City for Greater Geelong and written by finance and infrastructure experts in Australia and the UK – proposes a solution.
The plan centres around constructing a separate Melbourne Airport Rail tunnel from the airport to Sunshine.
It proposes regional fast train routes from Shepparton, Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong are linked to the Melbourne Airport, and travel through the tunnel into the city.
The business case shows a tunnel would forge the path for electric trains to travel 200km/h all the way to Melbourne, instead of being caught in the suburban gridlock.
It estimates a fast train from Shepparton into the Melbourne CBD could take about an hour-and-a-half.
Project lead Luke Fraser, who has 20 years experience as in public policy and infrastructure analysis, said “some of the best economists in Australia” through the National Institute of Economic and Industry Research (NIEIR) examined the project.
They found the project would grow the state economy by 5 per cent and shift half a million extra people into regional Victoria in 50 years, among other benefits.
It also has the backing of regional councils, committees, and organisations including La Trobe University.
While both the Federal and state governments have put $5 billion each on the table for a Melbourne Airport Rail link, Mr Fraser said the State Government was leaning towards the “cheaper and less-direct” airport rail solution – which does not include a tunnel.
“The gains that NIEIR has modelled are so enormous and so desperately needed post-pandemic that it makes perfect commercial and financial sense to use stimulus to build the tunnel,” he said.
The anticipated cost of the business case has not been made public, but Mr Fraser said it was the cheapest high speed rail option available.
Among its advocates is Federal Minister Nicholls Damian Drum, who is pushing hard for the project in Canberra.
He said fast rail would bring regional communities closer to metro areas, with “dramatically greater investment” back into the regions.
Mr Drum called on the state government to commit to the dedicated tunnel and not to fund the “cheaper” and “nastier” airport rail project.
However, Mr Hearsch said it was up to the federal government to take the lead on a project such as this.
A Federal Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications spokesman said a National Faster Rail Agency was developed in July last year to support “delivery of a 20-year Faster Rail Plan”.
The spokesman said a $7.5 million faster rail business case for northern Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne, announced in the recent budget, “will deliver a business case for options to improve passenger rail access”.
The spokesman said the government has been “working closely” with Victoria on the Melbourne Airport Rail Link design.
A state government spokesman said the Shepparton Rail Upgrade would “deliver faster, more frequent and more reliable services for northeastern Victorians”.
It is understood the state government does not see a separate airport rail tunnel as being related to regional rail.
MORE GOULBURN VALLEY NEWS