Article: Victorian government to spend millions on train maintenance

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From the Herald Sun click here!

Victorian government to spend millions on train maintenance

Victorian government to spend millions on train maintenance
Article from: Herald Sun

Ashley Gardiner

May 28, 2009 12:00am

MILLIONS of dollars will be pumped into railway maintenance after years of neglect.

The State Government said maintenance spending was out of date and expenditure on essential works to keep the system running smoothly would rise by 50 per cent a year.

Connex has a budget of $100 million a year for maintenance. The cash will not be given until December's new rail contract. Connex's future will be decided within weeks.

The Public Transport Users Association said the summer rail meltdown showed how poor maintenance was and it was a relief the Government had recognised it needed attention.

Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky said the Government would invest heavily in maintenance to improve train reliability.

"We are increasing maintenance spending in the new train contract by about 50 per cent," she said. "This will include our program to replace sleepers, grind track, refurbish points and improve signalling systems."

Ms Kosky's spokesman Stephen Moynihan said maintenance contracts began more than five years ago and did not reflect today's operations.

"Trains are operating more kilometres as we add more services and of course maintenance needs to increase as the system works harder," he said.

Transport users association president Daniel Bowen said last summer's air-conditioning breakdowns, signalling failures and track buckling across the network had resulted in chaos and could have been prevented.

"It's good to see the Government realises the previous level of maintenance spending has been inadequate," he said.