MILDURA councillors have been told a $200 million Federal Government injection into Murray Basin Rail Project will have little impact on the speed at which freight can be moved from the region to Melbourne.
Cr Glenn Milne told Wednesday night’s monthly meeting of councillors that while the additional funding would be of great benefit to the Ararat region, a further similar amount was needed to help growers in north-west Victoria.
The federal package includes $5 million for planning the full standardisation of the network which the Victorian Government has been asked to match.
Cr Milne said only then could the Mildura region hope to benefit from the project.
“The upgrade of the track will help the likes of Ararat, so there are parts of the state that it really will assist because that track did need upgrading, but it doesn’t help Mildura get the freight quicker through to Melbourne,” Cr Milne said.
“But there’s also $5 million in that package that needs to be matched by the state and that’s to do a proper business plan to actually finish off the original Murray Basin Rail plan,” he said.
“That means connecting it straight through from Dunnolly through Maryborough, Ballarat and into Melbourne rather than going via Ararat, Geelong et cetera, which takes hours.
“Hopefully, that work will get done and then we need to be looking at the next $200 million to actually fix the track and give us a modern-day system.”
Cr Milne said completing the original, full business plan would come at a “substantial” cost of $200 million or more.
“Either way the government has to deliver on the original business case because we need efficient transport links into Melbourne and into the Port of Melbourne,” he said.
“Obviously the Federal Government is right behind it and are saying they want the whole system standardised, which actually makes sense.
“That still needs to happen and that requires dual-gauging through from Maryborough through to Ballarat — that’s still got to happen and at the moment the State Government has got no intention of doing that.
“We need to see the problem solved and that is the full business case.
Cr Milne said that while the Federal Government funding was welcomed, he hoped that work “gets done properly this time, very quickly and we’re looking at the next $200 million or whatever it costs to fix the rest of it”.
“That funding is basically bailing out the state and saving them the embarrassment, but it’s still not solving the problem.”
The Victorian Government requested the federal package following its completion of a revised business case that required an additional $244 million towards the project.
The state has already committed $48.8 million towards the revised project.
