Very interesting to read in the December 10 edition of the Sentinel-Times that there has been a suggestion made that with Wonthaggi and Bass Coast’s booming population, there will be a need for rail services (Re: ‘We need rail, they say’).
I harken back to the infamous Lonie Report tabled in State Parliament in September 1980, which recommended mass closure of country railway lines in Victoria including the Nyora-Wonthaggi railway line.
I was part of a group who called themselves the ‘Save our Train Committee’ and our aim was to save the Wonthaggi line from destruction.
At the time we were ridiculed by many who said rail would never be needed again in the Bass Coast area and Wonthaggi township. I recall we stated back then that Wonthaggi would grow and that there should be a long-term vision to retain and upgrade the then Nyora-Wonthaggi railway line.
Victoria is now seeing country rail undergoing huge patronage growth and current train capacity is regularly exhausted with more rolling stock being constructed.
How ironic that our vision has now come to pass and the call is out for rail to return to the area. Is it not also time for a re-think on the proposed removal of the Nyora to Leongatha railway?
Graeme Skinner, Eltham.
Huge patronage growth in rail
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G,day Graeme, totally agree with your comments. Yes i too was a part of the save our train committee, even went on the special train and marched on parliament. Remember at the time the govt said of the line was too expensive to up keep for the patronage it was receiving. I worked in my spare time for Moyles general carriers picking up all the non-perishable goods for the twice weekly goods plus all the beer etc for the hotels. For goodness sake every business in Wonthaggi got something off the goods trains. So the first thing that happened after the line closed was the Bass Hwy started to crack up due to the sudden increase of truck traffic. And as for the passenger service, well, of course it was not well patronized, just look at the rolling stock. The Walker Rail Motor entered service in 1948 with a service life of 10 years, the last one ran a Leongatha service in 1981. They were cold rough and very prone to failure, love the photo on this post which show a well used Walker sitting at the refueling shed at Wonthaggi with I think driver Andy Main striding towards it. In closing, how much money has been spent on the highways in the last 40 odd years in the area? It would be interesting to compare. I hope some sense prevails and the link to Leongatha is reopened and improved for the future, Sth Gippsland is only going to move forward and it will need a decent rail link.