Re: (Vic)Mildura passenger service plan

["John Wayman" <trecker@optusnet.com.au>]

"Vaughan Williams" <ender2000@my-deja.com> wrote in message
874bb6$mlj$1@nnrp1.deja.com">news:874bb6$mlj$1@nnrp1.deja.com...
> I doubt National Express would voluntarily return the Vinelander unless
> the government paid hansomely for it, so its important that the govt
> screws NatEx for as much as they can. After all, NX is only interested
> in making money, not providing a community service!
>
> What Mildura really should be getting is a much better standard of
> service than it had before the demise of the Vinelander. Say, two
> daylight trains (fast ones - should be able to do it in say 5 or 6
> hours) plus a slower overnight service.
>
> PTUA has a small but active group of people in the maryborough region
> who have been agitating for trains to return there as well. The
> Vinelander isn't a good option for Maryborough because of the odd hours
> it passes through there.
>
> What PTUA would like to see:
> * Half hourly trains to Ballarat with some straightening of curves on
> that line to speed up trains. Scrap any plans for expensive super-
> dooper high speed trains and just use sprinters or the new "super
> sprinters" on repaired and in places realigned track. For example, that
> curve where the line wanders off to Bungaree (was there a local member
> there who wanted the line through his home town or was it just the
> hill?)
>
The railway and the road that became the Western Highway serviced the major
population centres, and was the route walked by diggers on their way to the
Ballarat Goldfields. The highway has now been deviated to avoid most of
these towns, but the railway still follows the original alignment.

The railway swung away from the original highway near Gordon, passing behind
Black Hill to Millbrook, then rejoining the highway at Wallace.

>From Bungaree it followed the easier route in Ballarat by swinging south of
Mt Warrenheip and following a watercourse into Ballarat, thus avoiding the
steep descents experienced on the highway.

Most of the towns along the route were important agricultural or
manufacturing centres that sprang up along the highway. The railway by
following this route to the Ballarat diggings, was able to pick much traffic
that otherwise would have gone by road. Of course this now all goes by road.

Cheers
John Wayman