Victorian transport minister Jacinta Allan said that a dedicated project team within the existing Melbourne Metro Rail Authority will officially oversee the USD 518 million upgrade of the state’s Ballarat Line.
The Ballarat Line project includes duplication of the line between Deer Park and Melton to run to more frequent and reliable services to Melbourne’s outer western suburbs, Melton, Bacchus Marsh, Ballan and Ballarat.
The Ballarat line is one of V/Line’s busiest, and it’s getting busier. Since the opening of the Regional Rail Link project in June last year, patronage on the Ballarat corridor has jumped 12.8 per cent. Now almost a quarter of all V/Line trips across Victoria are taken on the Ballarat corridor, with more than 375,000 passenger trips in October alone.
To cater for this growth, the Government has ordered 48 new regional carriages and the first six have been added to busy Ballarat line services. The extra carriages will double the number of seats on four busy peak services, reducing crowding and creating a more comfortable ride for thousands of passengers.
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