The Government of Victoria, Australia, has announced that the Gippsland regional line upgrade project is now completed. Passengers will soon benefit from more than 80 extra weekly services, with trains set to run approximately every 40 minutes, seven days a week between Melbourne and Traralgon – situated 160 km south-east from the capital city.
Trains returned to the line in the second week of August after a 55-day winter construction blitz to complete and commission a new train control system between Drouin and Traralgon.
Crews worked more than 80,000 hours during the final construction work to install new rail signalling equipment and safety-test the new system, before V/Line completed driver training.
Starting 14 September, 55 new weekday services and 32 new weekend services are added to the line, with 14 of those on Saturdays and 18 on Sundays – made possible by the completion of the Gippsland regional line upgrade project.
The new train control system will allow the trains running on the Traralgon and Bairnsdale line to be more reliable and run more frequent services as it will also enable the new platforms at Morwell and Traralgon stations to operate.
Completed upgrades to Morwell station include a new second platform, an enclosed waiting room and improvements to accessibility, while Traralgon’s second platform has been rebuilt to allow for more frequent and reliable services.
Passengers have already been enjoying better journeys from the Gippsland Line upgrade project, which enabled second platforms at Bunyip and Longwarry stations last year and modern VLocity trains to travel to Bairnsdale for the first time in 2018.
The Gippsland Line upgrade is jointly funded by the Australian and Victorian Governments aiming at delivering more frequent and reliable train services to the growing communities of Gippsland region, extending from Melbourne’s eastern suburbs to the New South Wales border.
The project covered the modernisation of the line and four station – at Morwell, Bunyip, Longwarry and Traralgon – the construction of one bridge over the Avon River at Stratford.
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