How to reintroduce rail to Western Victoria if you’re going for low-cost and easy. Pretty sure the Nationals proposed something similar to this in 2018 but only to Horsham/Hamilton.
V/Line (purple) and The Overland (black) are left as is. SG trains are acquired and connect to Ararat trains.
If I was the Vic transport dept or V/Line and I was tasked with doing this sort’ve thing on the cheap, I’d look at what SG passenger trains were available in NSW or something. Or see if a small fleet could be acquired overseas and modified locally.
Alternatively use a couple of N Sets and N class locomotives that are freely available on the network.
Source: https://x.com/timothyjweber
I’m gonna say something that will horrify every Victorian gunzel out there: if you are going to the expense of running trains to the Wimmera, why not go the whole hog and run them to Melbourne via Geelong?