“I wouldn’t usually visit Melbourne unless I needed to, but I believe it’s important to do so today. Because every day, too many Gippsland commuters are stuck here for too long.

Too many Gippsland trains running express are stuck behind all-stops services on the Cranbourne and Pakenham line. To give an example, if you catch the 17:38 to Traralgon from Southern Cross, it takes you 1 hour and 19 minutes to reach Pakenham. That’s absolutely pathetic. It’s actually an identical time to the 17:34 to Pakenham from Southern Cross, which takes 1 hour and 19 minutes as well!

Things have gotten so bad that Traralgon and Gippsland commuters have been saddled with a barrage of extra metro stops. Most Gippsland services make six stops at metro stations – this is a shocking figure when you consider that Ballarat and Geelong services make two, Bendigo services make three, and Seymour services four. But they have no alternative, as otherwise off-peak services would be stuck behind all-stoppers, as the peak trains are.

Things cannot go on like this. People take the train to get out of traffic, not to avoid it. And it’s a twisted cycle – yes, commuters on the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines deserve frequent service, but the better and more frequent service they get, the worse services get for Gippslanders.

And why? Because despite being highly different services – one designed to transport regional people to the city and back, and the other designed to take people across the suburbs, they have to share the same tracks. Gippsland services should be able to run express through the suburbs, stopping only at a few major hubs where passengers are able to interchange with metro services if they wish.

When the Metro Tunnel opens in a few years, Gippsland line trains will be able to run without impediment from Southern Cross to Caulfield, presuming Pakenham and Cranbourne trains continue to run express from South Yarra to Caulfield, but this still creates opportunities for congestion on the over 46 km of track between Caulfield and Pakenham.

This is why the Socialist Party is today making a policy pledge to quadruplicate the rail track between Caulfield and Pakenham, alongside third and fourth platforms at Dandenong and Pakenham. Presuming an average speed of 100 km/h from Southern Cross to Pakenham, this quadruplication will cut travel times to 35 minutes, meaning a commute that is 44 minutes faster. This means that 17:38 from Southern Cross I mentioned earlier would be able to arrive at Traralgon in only 1 hour and 49 minutes.

The new quad track line would also have a junction with the Cranbourne line, in order to enable Leongatha trains to eventually use the express track when service is provided from Southern Cross to Leongatha instead of the existing Cranbourne to Leongatha shuttle.

We know that schemes like this work. The Regional Rail Link provided Geelong and Ballarat lines with a dedicated express track from Southern Cross to Sunshine, and resulted in a huge boost to commuter patronage on both lines. Trains on these lines now no longer have to sit behind metro trains, and can serve regional Victorians faster.

I am incredibly proud of the Socialist Party’s record on rail. We’ve shown we can deliver on bringing more services to regional Victoria and Gippsland with the opening of the new Maffra railway line, and the Regional Rail Revival will deliver record frequencies for regional Victorians, making no more than a 20 minute wait between services when completed.

But there is still more to be done. The Socialist Party will deliver on these express tracks, opening up greater capacity on the Cranbourne and Dandenong lines and speedier commutes for Gippslanders. The days of being stuck behind suburban services will end if you give your vote to the Socialist Party in the Senate.”