Development of transport is on the priority list of the authorities of Victoria state in Australia, a state which is trying to revitalize its entire system by implementing railway projects and urban rail projects.
Due to the projects planned to be implemented and to the projects underway, the transport system in Victoria state will be based on railways, thus stimulating the economic growth and increasing the share of the transport sector, which will thus meet the mobility needs of goods and passengers and the environmental requirements. Regional Network Development Plan is the first long-term strategy whose goal is to significantly improve the regional public transport, which involves upgrading and development of the network, increased number of operational trains, resulting into more services and optimization of facilities. Built on the three strategic pillars – network development, focus on passenger needs and development of local transport solution, the Plan will provide new modern services for commuters with 20-minute frequency, and 40-minute frequency for connections to Melbourne, off peak hours. For services outside the regional lines from Warrnambool, Bairnsdale, Albury-Wodonga, Echuca, Swan Hill and Shepparton, five services for five days a week will be put into operation. For this program, the Government invested 1 billion USD between 2016 and 2017 and included several projects, among which procurement of rolling stock, introduction of more than 170 transport services, and has ensured the maintenance of the lines. Recently, Victoria Government has announced that the Federal Government has confirmed the allocation of 1.16 billion USD for the Regional Rail Revival program. The investment package allocates 400 million USD to upgrade Ballarat Line, with additional 30 million USD for the 2nd phase, which will result into better services for Ararat and Maryborough.
“This is a once in a generation investment that will deliver improvements for every regional passenger line in Victoria. It will upgrade track, stations and signalling across the state, to run more trains and get people home sooner, wherever they live,” Minister for Public Transport Jacinta Allan said. July marked the beginning of the Regional Rail Revival program with the announcement of the favourite bidder for the modernization of Ballarat Line. The consortium made up of Lendlease, Coleman Rail and SMEC has been selected to perform works of 518 million AUD (USD 401 million) within the project. The duplication of 18 km line between Deer Park West and Melton, the electrification works to Melton, the upgrading of the existing infrastructure, and of the stations, and, the construction of new parking spaces are the main works of the project. Bendigo Metro Rail is another project that will stimulate the development of services for commuters in Bendigo, with significant increase in the number of trains operating from Epsom, Eaglehawk and Kangaroo Flat to Bendigo. 2 billion AUD (1.55 billion USD) have been allocated to implement this project, including 69 million USD for upgrading. In June, the Government also received 70.47 million USD from the Federal Government to upgrade Bendigo and Echuca lines. The Murray Basin Rail project is meant for goods traffic and involves standardization of the lines and it will increase the axle load from 19 tons to 21 tons. With a value of 440 million AUD (USD 340.7 million), the goal of the project is to standardize a network of 1,055 km that serves the Murray Basin region in North West Victoria. At the end of June, McConnell Dowell, in partnership with Martinus Rail, was selected to implement the project that should be completed by August 2018. The implementation of the project will result into increased export of cereals from the Murray Basin to 2 million tons per year, export of mineral sands to 1.5 million tons per year, and 13,000 export containers and 500 import containers of various goods. For “New Trains”, the public budget 2016-2017 includes 875 million AUD (677.6 million USD) for the procurement of 28 high capacity trains and X’Trapolis trains. This year, Public Transport Victoria and Alstom signed a contract of 100 million EUR for 9 additional X’Trapolis trains for the suburban Melbourne network.
A year before, the two companies signed another contract for 5 X’Trapolis trains with 6 carriages. The contracts expand the PTV rolling stock to 101 trains (606 carriages) delivered through the manufacturing facility in Ballarat. The deliveries are taking place this year, and the last train will be supplied in 2018. To procure new trains, the 2016-2017 budget included 161.4 million USD for 27 VLocity carriages, built in Dandenong by Bombardier manufacturer, which have 66.5% local content. To note that Victoria allocated 2.3 billion AUD (1.78 billion USD) for the biggest train procurement project in Victoria’s history, whose goal is to buy 65 high capacity trains for Melbourne metropolitan network. The Government signed a PPP contract with Evolution Rail Consortium made up of Downer Rail, CRRC Changchun and Plenary. All the trains will be manufactured in Victoria, with 60% local content. They will become operational in 2019, on the regional lines: Cranbourne, Pakenham and Sunbury and will transport 20% more passengers than the existing trains. Apart from these projects, Victoria is implementing line upgrading projects, signalling, safety and control upgrading projects, and removal of level crossings – the latter aims at removing 50 such level crossings in Melbourne, to significantly cut the congestions. Increasing regional connectivity is also part of the plan of the authorities. A 13.5 mil USD contract has been signed with the mobile carriers Telstra, Optus and Vodafone to fix the mobile blackspots along five heavy traffic corridors (Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Traralgon and Seymour). The program started through a pilot project to install mobile reception repeaters on VLocity trains that will cover the entire network, from the 50% at present. If the project is successful, it will be implemented on all VLocity trains in 2018.
by Pamela Luica
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