Rail revival has place in corridor growth, writes Chris Earl
LOOK at government policies and there’s usually the mention in growth, development and service provision frameworks for good and accessible transport options.
Looks good on paper but what are the realities beyond the Keilor Hills and within the core of regional capitals?
Lip service you could well say. Afterall, a small duplication of a section of the Calder Highway between Marong and Derby was to have been finished five years ago.
Latest excuse: Designs are being drawn up. Guess that’s an admission from government and bureaucrats that either the original plans were inferior or there’s an ingrained culture of spending money again and again and again.
But the Calder Highway project is only playing catch up, the need for work only increasing as Bridgewater increasingly positions itself as an accessible lifestyle alternative for families who may have been priced out of the Bendigo market and Inglewood and Wedderburn are sharing in the appeal of having a Loddon abode.
What’s needed now is vision for where our communities could, or is that will, be in a decade from now.
Only a few years ago it was floated that re-opening the train line could be part of the future growth vision.
There has now been talk in Marong that trains should be timetabled to Bendigo’s western suburb. One advocate has eruditely mentioned that the population of Marong is already far greater than Raywood and Goornong where trains now stop.
There’s a state election in November next year. We know this state has more financial challenges that the woes faced by the last long-term Labor government back in the early 1990s. 
But elections, and politics, should be a competition for ideas, of vision and at least putting in place the frameworks from which to build future superstructures supporting communities and people.
Using the premise, the work must start now in advocating for train services to any community within half an hour of Bendigo because, fast forward, 10 or 20 or 30 years from now there will be a most definite need for an adequate suite of transport options.
It may take that long - government projects afterall are not overnight fixers - to achieve what is truly needed.
The same approach is needed on services to support and help people. Inglewood Ward councillor Miki Wilson in this week’s Loddon Herald has raised concerns about people being allocated public housing when the services they need are not in the town.
With poor public transport connections to Bendigo, their accessibility options are limited and few. Another reason for trains?