By NOEL MURPHY
A PROPOSED rail link to Drysdale will compete with traffic on other lines unless planners can overcome a single-line bottleneck south of Geelong station, Public Transport Users Association has warned.
State Government announced $300,000 in this week’s budget to investigate the feasibility of rail lines for Drysdale and Torquay.
Drysdale’s line would extend east from South Geelong, while Torquay’s would head south from a new $26 million Grovedale station, tipped to open mid-2015.
South Barwon MP Andrew Katos said Public Transport Victoria study would investigate the feasibility of a new broad-gauge line next to the existing tourist railway at Drysdale.
“On top of the very welcome funding announcement for construction of Grovedale’s new railway station, the study is further good news for Geelong,” Mr Katos said.
“After the Queenscliff line was closed in 1976, the successful volunteer group that now operates the Bellarine Railway took over the running of trains between Drysdale and Queenscliff but did not use the rail alignment between South Geelong and Drysdale.
But the Public Transport Users Association said the new line faced an uphill battle providing sufficient services to lure commuters from their cars and into trains.
Association Geelong convenor Paul Westcott welcomed the study but said the great challenge for rail services to Drysdale and Torquay alike was providing enough carriages at regular intervals to satisfy demand.
He said the immediate sticking point was the single line south of Geelong station, linking South Geelong and Marshall stations and further west to Colac and Warrnambool.
“Putting a line in doesn’t necessarily give you a useable service,” Mr Westcott told the Independent.
“Providing lines and station doesn’t give good services – they have to be frequent enough to attract people from their cars and provide better services than buses can now.
“At the moment, trains run to Marshall and they will eventually run to Armstrong Creek but how do you service it properly if every second one goes to Drysdale?
“That’s always been the query when this is raised: how to provide decent service.
“You have to treat Drysdale as separate. The line branches off at South Geelong but again there’s the problem of a single line through the tunnel from Geelong.
“Every train can’t be sent to Marshall at peak and that’s the problem.”
