Regional Fast Rail Explained & The 2000s: V/Line Transporting Victoria Ep4

Throughout the 2000s, a number of regional rail projects were undertaken in Victoria, including Regional Fast Rail, Bringing Trains Back To Victorians, the North East Rail Project and many others. Let's dive in to all of these.
Credits:
Footage from ‪@Taitset‬, ‪@Schony747‬, ‪@reidgck‬ and ‪@vrfan‬.
Images from numerous people including Wongm, moo transit, weston langford and friends on discord
Under the clocks blog on bracks that was a useful source undertheclocksblog.wordpress....
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:26 1992 state election
01:15 Regional Fast Rail overview
01:37 Regional Fast Rail - Geelong
02:59 Regional Fast Rail - Ballarat
04:08 Regional Fast Rail - Bendigo
07:27 Regional Fast Rail - Traralgon
08:27 RFR Summary
09:04 V/Locity trains
10:30 Bringing Trains Back To Victorians Summary
11:08 Bairnsdale Line Project
12:26 Ararat Line Project
13:59 Mildura Line Project
14:07 thegovernmentcancelledthevinelanderunexpectedlyonsundayaweekaheadofitsscheduledlastservice
14:12 Mildura Line Project
15:34 South Gippsland Project
17:04 Cobram Line Project
17:20 Bringing Trains Back To Victorians Conclusion
17:43 Rail Gauge Standardisation
19:01 Demise of West Coast Railway
20:12 Demise of Hoys Roadlines
20:32 Echuca Line Upgrade
20:52 Maryborough Line Reopening
21:40 North East Line Project and Wodonga Rail Bypass
23:05 Outro

[@MetroManMelbourne]

Correction at 21:00: The Echuca line actually saw service resume in 1996

[@tomhenry6440]

2:25 it was 2005

[@thenetheriteminecart384]

Something seems sus, towards Melbourne in the morning and towards Traralgon in the evening is not okay because Traralgon is mainly for people going to Rosedale Speedway and they arrive in the morning and leave in the evening so that seems wrong.

[@mwe1337]

Great video mate. I'm really sad that there's no service to Leongatha. I had a girlfriend down there many years ago and had to drive there each weekend from Mordialloc. I really enjoy regional rail travel. Also our family had a block of land close to Maryborough and I just loved it up around that area. If I could I wouldn't mind living up around there but not able at the moment. Anyway great work mate.

[@AndrewCastlemaine]

I still shake my head at the stupidity of the single track between Kyneton and Bendigo. It means only one northbound service prior to 9 am which is jammed full of school kids and other commuters trying to get to school or work in Bendigo

[@SonicbusterX2000]

Originally came into the video quite skeptical, but was pleasantly amazed by the detail that you've gone into this presentation. Loved the flashbacks of the archive footage! Looking forward to Part 2, well done mate!

[@yangerz2009]

The effort you put in is outstanding

[@iannosworthy1529]

Long but fascinating. Well done once again for a very informative post dealing with VicRail history

[@FromtheWindowSeat]

Very interesting. Thanks for putting this all together! 😀

[@iannosworthy1529]

Another great post!, well done

[@NicholassTrainChannel]

Brilliant video mate. Interesting story on the Regional fast rail project.

[@handyandyaus]

Great to see some video of the Rail Truck!

[@1994ToyotaCamryEnjoyer]

Great video!

[@aidanthomas2510]

Who would have thought those P class locos would eventually be used to transfer some of the Comeng's later on...

[@djrail_vic]

Great video! I had never heard of freight Australia or west coast railway so was really interesting to hear about.

[@vincentweatherly9991]

Vline used to have freight and passenger. They then split it into Vline Pass and Vline Freight which the latter was sold. That be some Freight Victoria later being renamed to Freight Australia. Pacific National then bought the company and to this day, you can still some locos wearing FA’s Green and Gold livery

[@itechcircle9410]

after being updated on this for a while on discord and you teasing us about how long this project was it is finally here YAY

[@fredfredrickson8892]

theres a discord?

[@itechcircle9410]

@@fredfredrickson8892 yes I think there's a link in the about section.

[@VOZVA]

Great video.. thanks

[@Mikjcal]

On 2007 they cut V/Line fares by 20% which also saw a large increase of patronage. Seeing those 2 car VLocities bring back memories.

[@BillWalters-iz3tv]

Great video, much better than what we've got in N Z, regional passenger train services in New Zealand are basically not existing so you have no choice but to drive every where out side of the 2 main centre s

[@MrKlonam]

Just found your channel, just wanted to say love your videos. Keep up the great work! You remind me of Ruairidh Macveigh (a good thing), who does videos on UK transportation. You have a new subscriber now for sure!

[@the_yesnt1358]

This series is very good 😎

[@melbournemetrotrainsvlogs9401]

Nice video!

[@Alexander_Dunn]

Find it interesting how if you go on satellite you can still see the og route! I didn't know about this before! Thanks! 3:35

[@MetroManMelbourne]

yep, you can often see routes of old railways too

[@jordandalgliesh1515]

Absolutely loving this series, thanks for your efforts! A little tip on pronouncing Tocumwal it's pronounced Toe-Ka-Mool Mool rhymes with rule. Keep up the great work!

[@joelpackett7582]

very good !!!!!!

[@shefan]

2:49 Vlocitys accualy did there first passenger service on December 23 2005, there were services in December 2005 after that day as well.

[@MetroManMelbourne]

They only entered service on the Ballarat line in December 2005 - they did not run on the Geelong line until February 2006, and some lines until much later in 2006.

[@ethanstransportvlogs45]

Sadly the Leongatha line is my local line and it will never be reopened. The rail trail is close to finish and nyora station building may be demolished.

[@Jordan-288]

Great video, and great series overall. On one of your final points I'm not sure what the problem here is in Victoria regarding mud holes. The metro network in Melbourne is littered with them all over the place, and that is to say nothing of the standard of track for V/Line services, as you rightly pointed out with the Albury/Northeast standardisation.

[@MetroManMelbourne]

I blame the decades of not maintaining the system properly.

[@bushranger51]

@@MetroManMelbourne You are correct there, track maintenance has been a very low priority for a number of decades now, the idea being that if a line becomes unviable due to lack of maintenance, then it can be closed and the job handed to road transport.

[@jordansmith7182]

This is reminiscent of Ruairidh MacVeigh and I love

[@FiveTangent4882]

Nice one Steve

[@itechcircle9410]

name leak

[@Aussie_Hset]

@@itechcircle9410 !!!!11!

[@MetroManMelbourne]

@@itechcircle9410 pretty sure he is referring to steve bracks as my name is not steve lol

[@itechcircle9410]

@@MetroManMelbourne oh haha

[@Austinniya.]

Residents of Talbot didn't want to be dropped off 8kms up the line in Maryborough to then have to drive south home.

[@Alexander_Dunn]

23:00 they shouldve standardised the og route and just had the pass trains run through the cbd and have all frieght trains go via the bypass, easy

[@MetroManMelbourne]

Thought of that as an option myself too, though I do like the development on the old route (I was there a week ago) so I forgot to mention that as a positive

[@superskier779]

Hey metro man Melbourne you should do a video about the talyllyn

[@MetroManMelbourne]

that's a british railway, i do australian stuff

[@RumSoviet]

Tbh the velocity trains are a stupid choice for long distance fleets. They're designed for commuting, not long distance travel.. Seats are too thing, there's not much legroom, and there's no catering. Hopefully they'll get a redesign soon.

[@handyandyaus]

The standard gauge variants do have catering.

[@staterailvlogs4167]

hey can you show me the original clip at 12:02

[@markjmaxwell9819]

Not much has been mentioned about regional trains by the current state government considering the mega dollars being spent on the Melbourne metro system. From what l have seen regional transport and trains have been neglected to some extent and some projects managed poorly. Andrews had better budget a lot of money for regional transport including roads. At least the Vlocity 160 trains have a fuel gauge in the drivers compartment at last...😂😂😂😂 The price of a regional rail trip will go up no doubt as the cost of fuel has skyrocketed....

[@mehrskywalkr7769]

The regional rail revival has been a godsend personally on the Ballarat line, but V/line is still infamous for constant delays and cancellations - usually without any warning. Wyndham Vale is starting to get more frequent and larger train sets (9 carriage Vlocity’s) however I still wholeheartedly agree with you that V/line is kind of a shambles. Hopefully with the commonwealth games coming up it’ll persuade Andrews to invest in some more electrification and more frequent V/line services instead of the big ticket tunnel projects.

[@Lachtrain]

Is this the end of the series

[@MetroManMelbourne]

no not at all, there's at least 2 more episodes coming

[@Lachtrain]

Ok

[@griffinrails]

finna whip the 𝓥/𝓛𝓲𝓷𝓮 𝓡𝓣𝓛 𝓒𝓵𝓪𝓼𝓼

[@joelpackett7582]

V/line RTL class is the most fine locomotive

[@MetroManMelbourne]

arguably saved the bairnsdale line other than that useless

[@joelpackett7582]

@@MetroManMelbourne its still in use tho well sort of well rarely ok fine useless besides that

[@griffinrails]

@@joelpackett7582 it moved ONCE in enfield 7 years ago

[@joelpackett7582]

@@griffinrails I’ve heard it’s moved a bit more recently then that but that’s just rumours may not be true

[@shefan]

2 car Vlocitys look cute (Dont take that wrong)

[@Jordan-288]

And they actually made a bit of sense too. Instead of limiting services to either 3 or 6 cars having a mix of 2 and 3 car sets means you can operate 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7 car services depending on what is needed for demand and what platform lengths allow for on different routes.

[@MetroManMelbourne]

​@@Jordan-288 Though the only thing lost from that really is the 2 car sets (too small anyway) and 7 cars, 4 & 5 car capacity can fit into a 6 car, soon we'll have 9 car trains too.

[@Alexander_Dunn]

12:00 what in the world of fuck?????

[@MetroManMelbourne]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V/Line_RTL_class

[@glenngogoll6166]

No trains to Mt. Gambier,,,, what would be the point of rebuilding from Heywood to Mt. G without upgrading the track from Ararat to Portland? & standardising? Ive lived in Casterton(beautiful station, no trains or tracks),for two years & travel to & through Hamilton quite a bit. Theres been a string of grain hoppers in Hamilton station now for nearly two years when some work was done on the track in preparation for its reuse. I dont think this actually happened. The tracks seem useable, but not in great condition., particularly for weight & speeds. Have you heard anything about this track reuse? Locals are ever hopeful of a reintroduced passenger service to Hamilton & Portland. Maybe a cross country link between Glenthompson (where the track turns north for Ararat)& the standard gauge where it crosses the Glenelg Hwy.

[@MetroManMelbourne]

Ararat to Portland is already standard gauge and is most likely going to get upgraded whenever the mount gambier line is reopened (at least from Heywood to Portland).

[@davidblowe9096]

@@MetroManMelbourne ?? Do you realise how close Hayward is to Portland ? In the overall picture of Ararat - Portland - Mt Gambier the Portland to Hayward section is insignificant. Hayward to Mt Gambier doesn’t need to be reopened it needs to be rebuilt and that would include a significant bridge. The port of Portland (deepest port in the state) is privately owned and has no interest in Grain or Intermodal Container Shipping, the line to Portland was standardised to accommodate grain and could do so if the parties we’re interested but it seems most export grain goes via Geelong - so much for Murray Basin export grain going via Portland which was a “selling point” for MBR.

[@robertcameron2808]

The overlander should run everyday a great way to travel to Adelaide not everybody owns a car rail is a great way to travel in the great state of Victoria the bus trips are rubbish

[@1978Prime]

I can't believe some of the dumb decisions done in the past.

[@shalami2]

first hehe

[@Melbournelost66]

Very good and informative. For perspective it must be said that the reason Jeff had to cut back services is because of John Cain’s economic mismanagement and incompetence which sent Victoria broke losing its triple A rating. Victoria was broke and Kennett was given the job of repairing the damaged state. At this time 10s of thousands of Victorians fled Victoria for Queensland. Those of us who can recall and lived through this era know only too well.