A discussion about the proposed Western and Northern rail plans, aimed at bringing electrification to Melton, Wyndham Vale and Wallan
Pictured here is a Vline Sprinter at Wallan Station btw taken about a year ago.
I do feel like the RRL has been a bit of a victim of its own success in this regard. The RRL was built specifically to seperate vline trains from suburban electric services, but now they’ve ended up doing suburban services anyway under diesel traction. Unsure of if this is the case already but I feel like any electrification should include quadruplication as well to ensure that the fast path is preserved for long-distance services.
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This is exactly what we want to happen though. Rail is an excellent means of moving a large number of people over medium to long distances, and it is relatively easy to increase capacity by increasing length of trains. Going from three carriage diesel interurban trains to six carriage electric trains is a measure of how successful the line is.
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I think for the Geelong line they should really just make a High Capacity Regional Train (DMU Regional variant of the HCMT) exclusively for that line. And then displace the Vlocities onto other regional Vline services, particularly more service for Seymour and Gippsland to phase out the sprinters and some additional services to Bendigo and Ballarat would also be ideal.
They are already hearing up to run 9 car vlocities to Melton. Just electrify the damn thing at this point!