Pressure to save The Overland rail service is escalating, with Victorian government funding support due to run out next week. 

Wimmera leaders and advocates joined a virtual roundtable meeting observing the future of the key passenger rail link, which determined the service was in desperate need of remodelling and required greater promotion to be viable moving forward.

The future of the jointly funded passenger railway service between Adelaide and Melbourne has been under threat since the South Australian government cut its annual $330,000 subsidy in 2018.

Representatives from South Australia and Victoria joined forces at the virtual meeting on Friday, looking at ways to keep the train running and the value of establishing a ‘Friends of The Overland’ Facebook group.

Horsham Rural City Council mayor Mark Radford said the Facebook group would look at ways to help the provider, Journey Beyond, better promote its passenger rail service. 

“We’d like to establish a network of people with interest in the service to keep in touch and offer help to promote the service,” he said. 

“The service really needs a bit of a hand with its promotion. Our example in Horsham is... I can’t go to our visitor centre and pick up a brochure about the train. My understanding is that’s a similar issue along the line.

“We encourage people to keep writing letters of support to members of government in hope the service might continue.” Before borders were closed due to COVID-19, the train ran twice a week, carrying about 17,000 passengers a year.

The Overland stopped at Murray Bridge, Bordertown, Nhill, Dimboola, Horsham, Stawell, Ararat and Geelong. Many people on both sides of the border consider it a key transport option.  

Murray Bridge councillor Mat O’Brien said he believed the service would need to link into key tourist attractions to be viable in the long-term. 

“Many Victorians love South Australia and many South Australians love nothing more than to get over to Victoria,” he said.

“It would be beneficial for all if The Overland became more intertwined with the towns and cities it travels through and partnerships were formed with tourism operators and key attractions in the region that travellers could experience before and after they catch the train.”  

Nhill community leader Margaret Millington said she would continue to push to save the The Overland. 

“We haven’t got a lot out here, and they’re trying to take away what we have got,” she said. 

“I don’t know that any rail is running for a profit. I think the community deserves to have rail to connect us. Government at all levels have a responsibility to make sure we have that. 

“Journey Beyond needs to get behind it and do better marketing – show that it’s not just a train that rattles along the track with no other extension to tourism.”

Railway historian John Wilson, Federal MP Tony Zappia, former train driver Michael Hinch and University of Wollongong associate professor Phillip Laird all attended the virtual meeting.

– Dylan De Jong

The entire June 24, 2020 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!

The entire June 24, 2020 edition of AgLife is available online. READ IT HERE!