New rail service for Western Victoria

[ozbob]

This was an APRIL FOOLS prank, although grounded in some real hope.   

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From the Dimboola Weekly News 29th March 2021

New rail service for Western Victoria

Victorian Government sources have revealed that VLine will be introducing a daily return service between Ararat and Serviceton.

These services will connect with VLine Ararat - Melbourne services.  The community in western Victoria has been asking for a regular rail service that will allow citizens to journey between towns and major regional centres such as Ballarat and to Melbourne. The Overland on a normal timetable provides only two weekly services and doesn't service all major towns on the line through to Adelaide.

A spokesperson for VLine said that R766 and leased standard gauge carriages would be used, pending the availability of standard gauge VLocity trains. R766 has recently been converted to standard gauge 1435 mm (4' 8.5") from 1600 mm  5' 3" gauge. 

The new service would connect Serviceton to Ararat with stops at Nhill, Dimboola, Horsham, Murtoa, Stawell, and with the connection at Ararat to Melbourne.  People of Western Victoria are deserving of public transport as are citizens of Melbourne. The services are expected to commence on the 4th May 2021.

The service will be popular with rail tourists as well as servicing transport needs of Western Victoria, it was reported.



R766 before conversion to standard gauge.
Credit: Weston Langford https://westonlangford.com/images/photo/123574/

[ozbob]

R766 Update group --> https://www.facebook.com/groups/184532572293583

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/ozbob13/status/1377273311512551427

[ozbob]

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=577781586161783

" After well over a decade in restoration and conversion to standard gauge.
R766 is making its first movements under steam in NSW as part of testing and trials.
Congratulations to project manager Mark Stapleton and his team on this major achievement. 11-3-2020 .. "

[ozbob]

Orange indicates the Broad Gauge network, while Blue indicates the Standard Gauge network.
The line from Ararat through to Serviceton is now standard gauge.  Ararat - Ballarat to Melbourne is 5' 3" gauge.


https://vicsig.net/index.php?page=infrastructure&district=victoria

[ozbob]

Serviceton

[ozbob]

This was an APRIL FOOLS prank, although grounded in some real hope.