N Class driver training underway between Maryborough and Dunolly today.

For what purpose?

Passenger service to Dunolly?

Driver training for heritage trips coming up.  Nothing to do with a new passenger service before anyone gets too excited and foamy.

Which gauge?

Irish Gauge. Big 707 Ops trip next weekend with A66 & S306 to Quambatook.  And also in May to Sea Lake with R707, and Cruise Express Steam Spectacular in late-May with every Steamrail kettle...

For what purpose?

High time Governemnt got cracking after 2 years of 2018 Election to activate extension of Maryborough VLocity on broad gauge as promised to Dunolly . Initially can be done as Evening Down and am Up only with the VL set running Ety Cars  Mbh  Dnly and still stabling overnight at Mbh.  Local Council asleep at the wheel here and should be "rattling the bars"  to sse this doesn,t fall of the Governments radar; otherwise it just returns prior to the 11/22 election re-packaed by the spin doctors with some sort of alleged track upgrade (maquerading for catch up maintennace) to "pave the way" for V/Locity services to be extended to Dunolly" which are just meaningless "weasel words."

Not that I am advocating for it one way or the other, but it wouldn't be that much involved aside from the initial capital of re-opening the station at Dunolly to modern standards. I mean, Dunolly is only 23km further down the line, and even if the branch-lines to Sea Lake and Manangatang do ever get converted to standard gauge, there is no real reason the line between Maryborough and Dunolly can not remain dual gauge for this passenger service.

And, no, V/line will not run a regular scheduled service to Dunolly without the appropriate upgrades to bring the station up to standard. At the very least, decent lighting, refurbishment of the platform surface and a sealed carpark suitable for road coaches would be required at Dunolly.

It also must be said, Dunolly is a town of less than 1000 people. It really is questionable why this town would get a re-introduced rail service while many larger towns miss out.

Not that I am advocating for it one way or the other, but it wouldn't be that much involved aside from the initial capital of re-opening the station at Dunolly to modern standards. I mean, Dunolly is only 23km further down the line, and even if the branch-lines to Sea Lake and Manangatang do ever get converted to standard gauge, there is no real reason the line between Maryborough and Dunolly can not remain dual gauge for this passenger service.

And, no, V/line will not run a regular scheduled service to Dunolly without the appropriate upgrades to bring the station up to standard. At the very least, decent lighting, refurbishment of the platform surface and a sealed carpark suitable for road coaches would be required at Dunolly.

It also must be said, Dunolly is a town of less than 1000 people. It really is questionable why this town would get a re-introduced rail service while many larger towns miss out.

Not really sure about the practical uses of an extension of the Maryborough service to Dunolly - St Arnaud is the logical extension destination with almost 3,000 people.

There's a lot going for the place not the least of which is the recent (2019) refurbishment of the railway station.'

EDIT: Oh yeah, standard gauge only is the answer.

The only Labor promise in 2018, under the presumably now-defunct Freight-Passenger Rail Separation Project (Ballarat), was:

“The project will retain the dual-gauge connection between Maryborough and Dunolly to allow future passenger rail to Dunolly.”

https://infrastructuremagazine.com.au/2018/07/06/passenger-rail-returning-to-dunolly/


80 km/h might be another consideration.

100.

Irish Gauge. Big 707 Ops trip next weekend with A66 & S306 to Quambatook.  And also in May to Sea Lake with R707, and Cruise Express Steam Spectacular in late-May with every Steamrail kettle...

https://www.railpage.com.au/events/the-grainlander-overnight-featur

It is worth the question, if we can run a passenger service as a heritage tour train then what is stopping V/Line from running a regular twice daily service to Ballarat?

If they did what would the timetable look like?

An inherent lack of demand, perhaps?

Dunolly is 23km from Maryborough by rail. With a presumed line-speed of 80km/h I would expect it to take between 18 and 20 minutes to cover that ground. Probably closer to the latter with V/Line's penchant for adding extra padding into their timetables. As I said in my earlier post, this in itself is not a barrier.

As for why a heritage operator can run there, yet V/Line can not? I will point out that the heritage operator (707 Operations) are not planning for their upcoming tours to stop at Dunolly as far as I am aware. They did run a tour there a few years ago featuring B74 & T413 but a heritage operator running a tour to a small town with a population of under 900 every few years is not the same thing as the state's passenger rail operator running a 3 car Vlocity there daily.

There just isn't the demand.

For V/Line to re-commence rail service to Dunolly station, it would have to be upgraded to meet 21st Century standards. At the very least, the platform would need to be renewed, new lighting, CCTV, and a sealed carpark would all be required. And all of this for a station that could quite possibly see no patronage at all on many days.

That is the reason it will not happen.

A station at dunollybeojkd bit need millions spent on it. Where does the idea of gold plating everything come from ?

Some platform works and gardening all that is required for a service.

A station at dunollybeojkd bit need millions spent on it. Where does the idea of gold plating everything come from ?

Some platform works and gardening all that is required for a service.

Surely you jest.

It cost $2,500,000 to reopen just one railway station at Talbot in 2014. Two point five million. Let that sink in for a minute.

Dunolly is 23km from Maryborough by rail. With a presumed line-speed of 80km/h I would expect it to take between 18 and 20 minutes to cover that ground. Probably closer to the latter with V/Line's penchant for adding extra padding into their timetables. As I said in my earlier post, this in itself is not a barrier.

As for why a heritage operator can run there, yet V/Line can not? I will point out that the heritage operator (707 Operations) are not planning for their upcoming tours to stop at Dunolly as far as I am aware. They did run a tour there a few years ago featuring B74 & T413 but a heritage operator running a tour to a small town with a population of under 900 every few years is not the same thing as the state's passenger rail operator running a 3 car Vlocity there daily.

There just isn't the demand.

For V/Line to re-commence rail service to Dunolly station, it would have to be upgraded to meet 21st Century standards. At the very least, the platform would need to be renewed, new lighting, CCTV, and a sealed carpark would all be required. And all of this for a station that could quite possibly see no patronage at all on many days.

That is the reason it will not happen.

WRONG  jacinta Allan went up to Dunolly in despearte attempt to win RIPN back to labor and promised to extend Maryborough V/Locity services to Dunolly.  Two years later no sign of anything happening.

Works required upgrade existing platform, lighting, surface, seating etc. Provide dg to paltform.

Initially would just be am Up originate Dunolly and PM Down terminate Dunolly.  Such short distance initially the VL set would run MT cars to/from Maryborough and still service/stable overnight at Maryborough as now.

Why would SG be required into the Platform when we would be talking only an BG service, is there something else you might also have in mind?

A station at dunollybeojkd bit need millions spent on it. Where does the idea of gold plating everything come from ?

Some platform works and gardening all that is required for a service.

I'm going to guess you've not actually been to Dunolly and seen the station area in recent times. There's a number of problems with it including (but not limited to)

• The current (former) station is located in the middle of the Graincorp complex with the sites' weighbridge and testing area just behind it
• The derelict state of the station building and verandah would require a huge amount of money to rehabilitate to even make it look presentable let alone serviceable
• Platform is very uneven (one could argue borderline dangerous at points) and would need complete rebuilding to make it wheelchair accessible
• A complete lack of any car parking area

Seriously, if you're looking at reintroducing passenger services to Dunolly, which is a waste of time in itself, then you'll be far better served by doing as was done at Talbot and building a completely new platform and shelter.

https://goo.gl/maps/LkNLRwjYi2iaHFJB7

100% agree.  The current station is borderline derelict.  Best to have it as a new platform North of Thompson St on the Dual Gauge section IMO.