The government should move to immediately start an electrification programme covering (as mentioned previously) the Geelong and Ballarat Lines with progressive introduction of EMU at 160 km/h to augment current VLocity services. We need to start this work now. The state has plenty of money to get this done.No it doesn't, the state has spent all it's money on existing committments. In fact, it's forward sold some of it's expenditure based on forecast stamp duty revenue which is not guaranteed...
Excess DMU sets can be moved to other routes away from Geelong. Bendigo and Pakenham.
Besides, why? When hybrid diesels that use 50% less fuel are now a reality, as well as hydrogen ones...
http://www.alstom.com/press-centre/2017/04/alstoms-shunting-loco-prima-h3-receives-final-homologation-from-eba/
http://www.alstom.com/products-services/product-catalogue/rail-systems/trains/products/prima-shunting-and-works-locomotives-/
https://www.railpage.com.au/news/s/ecotrain-hybrid-dmu-demonstrator-takes-shape
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/traction-rolling-stock/single-view/view/ecotrain-hybrid-dmu-demonstrator-takes-shape.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_train
http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/rolling-stock/db-to-convert-dmus-to-bi-mode-hybrid-trains.html
https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2016/09/germany-hydrogen-passenger-train/501575/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/03/22/worlds-first-zero-emissions-hydrogen-train-coming/
http://www.alstom.com/press-centre/2017/03/alstoms-hydrogen-train-coradia-ilint-first-successful-run-at-80-kmh/
Why would we spend all that money installing overhead infrastructure that will be redundant soon enough, and is subject to vandalism and breaks stranding passengers, and expensive maintenance....