Greater Shepparton is a region of enormous opportunity owing to our ideal location, 182km from metropolitan Melbourne. In the food bowl of Victoria, the region stands tall and proud of its contribution to the horticultural industry, fruit production and exports.
Recent investments in the Goulburn Valley Health redevelopment, the new Shepparton Art Museum and the Museum of Vehicle Evolution, as well as improving opportunities for secondary and tertiary education, a proud history of welcoming and celebrating multicultural communities, community-minded people with passion for volunteering, all enhance the liveability of our region.
However, there are barriers to making our region better and one of the key factors is the presence of a decent train network, that is, modern, reliable and faster, providing more frequent trains between Greater Shepparton and Melbourne.
Currently the train fleet is old and needs a major overhaul and line upgrades are essential. I acknowledge the hard work put in by the Member for Shepparton District, Suzanna Sheed, in attracting $356M from the State Government for stage one and stage two of the Shepparton Line upgrade.
The project is now in stage two and once this work is complete, we will have the first lot of five daily VLocity trains between Shepparton and Melbourne that will offer a more reliable service and comfortable journey to passengers. However, we need more than five, the likes of Bendigo and Ballarat already have more than 20 return services a day.
The State Government has committed to nine daily return VLocity return services for Shepparton in stage three. I have been advocating strongly at all forums for these nine services and, if elected as a councillor, will ensure that this target remains on the priority agenda. I will continue to lobby with the State Government for Shepparton to get these extra trains at the earliest possible date.
In the meantime, I’d like to see train services from Shepparton to Seymour increase, to take advantage of the existing Seymour to Melbourne timetable.
We’ve waited long enough to unlock the potential of Greater Shepparton. We need these train services as soon as possible.
Seema Abdullah
Candidate for Greater Shepparton City Council
