Victoria's public transport network maintenance and renewal program.

TRANSCRIPT:

PREMIER:
The government is investing a state record of over $6 billion in infrastructure. 

The works that we will be dealing with are already underway in many areas, but these works are in infrastructure projects right across metropolitan and regional Victoria for public transport, roads, hospitals, major upgrades, as well as police stations and other community projects. 

In addition, the government is in 2011/12 investing a record of more than $350 million to begin addressing the public transport maintenance backlog, and that will seek to improve reliability and build capacity for future infrastructure development. 

Now, over the coming months commuters will witness rail and tram maintenance works right across the network.  So, over the next few months there will be rail and tram maintenance works right across the networks, and they will be apparent to commuters. 

The scale of works to be completed across the network is likely to result in changes to train and tram services on parts of the networks on most weekends. 

Fixing this maintenance backlog will cause some disruption, but it is absolutely essential to fix the problems in our transport system and deliver a better public transport service for Victorians. 

MINISTER FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORT:
To give you a bit of a rundown on where we are at at the moment, in this financial year this government is spending $353 million on maintenance and asset renewal of Victoria’s rail network and $54 million on the tram network.  

Metro will replace more than 32km of rail and more than 132,000 sleepers. 

Twelve stations will have been repainted and 27km of overhead wire will be replaced. 

V/Line will construct or renew 14 level crossings, upgrade more than 100km of track, restore eight regional stations and replace or restore 20 rail bridges on their network. 

This slide shows the extent of the works that will be carried out between now and the end of May. 

Work has been directed at areas where the greatest need is, as well as those areas where works are underway for rail extensions or for new stations. 

As you can see, extensive works are set to take place on the Werribee line and the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines, with the major works also being carried out on the Sydenham and also Hurstbridge lines. 

In some cases, Metro and V/Line have synchronised their maintenance schedules so that we carry out as much work as possible along the entire length of a line at the same time. 

Yarra Trams will renew more than 11km of tram track, 15 track junctions, 16km of trolley wire, in addition to upgrading 300 overhead poles and replacing five automatic points. 

The vast majority of the maintenance and renewal works are performed out of hours to ensure that commuters are not impacted. 

Last weekend, part of the Sydenham line and Bendigo and Ballarat lines were shut down to allow Regional Rail Link to successfully complete 4,000 man hours of work on this important piece of infrastructure on a section between Footscray and Deer Park. 

This shutdown dealt with the demolition on the east side of Nicholson Street Bridge, the installation of safety fencing, overhead foundations and cabling and other preparatory works. 

Bus services successfully replaced trains on all three affected lines with minimal inconvenience to passengers. 

V/Line and Metro will be undertaking major works over Easter this year, which will result in disruptions to normal services. 

For the first time the Department of Transport NetLink and, when it begins next month, Public Transport Victoria, will publish details of planned service disruptions months in advance to help commuters plan their journeys. 

This will provide comprehensive details of the works going on and how it will affect their journey time.  

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