Vic Rail Improvements ?

[mdaly@pcug.org.au (Maurie Daly)]

This info taken from Rail 2000s newsletter.
A couple of Vic rail improvements which are apparantly being considered
by the Bracks Govt are.

$4.5 M for std guage sidings at Geelong,mainly for the grain loop. (A good 
idea.)

Standardization of some more BG lines.
Apparantly there is $40 M available from a fund called the
Regional Infrastructure Development Fund, (anyone know what this is?)

Projects include Mt Gambier, (I presume this means Heywood to Snuggery) and 
more interestingly the conversion of the existing BG line from Seymour to 
Benalla and Yarrawonga to SG.

The above project seems to me a bit odd,in that whilst it makes sense to close 
the BG line to Wodonga / Albury ,provided you can run the pass & freight 
trains on SG,(which would be IMHO a good idea as it would allow NXP to run 
trains to Wagga from Melb on a daily basis) ,I cant see why you wouldnt just 
close the BG line north of Mangalore and run all the pass and goods trains on 
SG.

It would seem to me that both FA and NXP would be entitled to some sort of 
compensation if either of these projects went ahead,from the perspective that 
both organizations would incurr extra costs in running on SG.

MD