The Nationals leader and State Member for Murray Plains, Peter Walsh, has called on the state government to remove and safely store the abandoned railway carriages at Echuca Railway Station.
Mr Walsh declared the carriages a symbol of the government’s inability to manage finances and called it a “disgraceful trainwreck”.
The carriages are currently being held on a side track at Echuca Station, and since their discontinuation, have been broken into and graffitied.
“From day one they have become a target for vandals – and I mean target, with windows having been shot out,” Mr Walsh said.
“They have also become an irresistible canvas for graffiti vandals, who have daubed them in colour from one end to the other.”
“And others have got inside and caused all sorts of damage – it is an appalling waste of valuable assets. It has also left Echuca with a glaring eyesore.”
A V/line spokesperson responded to Mr Walsh’s claims and agreed that vandalism in the rail corridor was an eyesore that can be very dangerous and encouraged anyone who witnessed these acts to contact Victoria Police or Crime Stoppers.
“V/Line does not tolerate vandalism or graffiti on the network, and we will work closely with Victoria Police to identify those responsible,” they said.
V/Line also said it is introducing new, modern, and reliable VLocity trains onto the network, while progressively retiring classic fleet rolling stock. These include H-set carriages, with the last H-sets making their final journey on the network earlier in February.
“We’re continuing the rollout of modern, reliable VLocity trains onto the network to replace the ageing classic fleet, with a new train entering service approximately every two months,” they said.
“As we remove classic fleet rolling stock from the network, V/Line works closely with tourist rail operators and other interested parties to find an alternative use for them, and we have been successful with repurposing some of the sets and parts.”
But Mr Walsh said that if the trains were genuinely not needed as functioning transport carriages, they had other uses that could benefit the local community.
“They would have made brilliant short-term accommodation for seasonal workers; they could go to community groups around the state for conversion into all sorts of venues as a low-cost option,” he said.
“And that’s assuming they could not have been sold elsewhere, or at worst, donated to an overseas country in dire need of assets such as these.”
The V/Line spokesperson said they had recently donated 30 carriages, vans and wagons to tourist and heritage rail operators and that as per protocols for the disposal of excess rolling stock, it had spoken with tourist rail operators to gauge their interest in these carriages. As a result, one set will be donated to Seymour Rail Heritage Centre, while two sets are being recycled by a third party recycle centre.
The spokesperson also said interest from the tourist rail sector has been mainly focussed on parts and components, which resulted in V/Line donating more than 600 parts to the tourist and heritage sector to be repurposed for existing heritage rolling stock, and that V/Line is continuing to explore options for the remainder of the carriages.
Mr Walsh called on the Premier to immediately intervene and have these carriages cleaned, repaired, and then moved somewhere secure to prevent Echuca locals from having this blight on their landscape.