Last week we had three wonderful announcements for our Shire which were funded within the Victorian State Budget including four weekend passenger rail services which will enable a service into Maryborough both mornings and returning to Ballarat and Melbourne in the late afternoon. This will significantly boost visitation and support recovering industry. It will also enable residents better opportunity to travel to events or catch up with family and friends.
Our Shire sits between the two fastest growing regional cities in Australia and we have a population growth corridor between Ballarat and Maryborough supported by passenger rail. It is fantastic to see that service take the next critical step in its development.
Passenger rail connectivity is something our residents really want and we also keenly welcome visitors to our unique and very beautiful Shire with its splendid gold rush heritage.
I appreciate some residents in Dunolly were disappointed that the Budget announcement focused on expanded services to the existing passenger rail sector which concludes in Maryborough. Although Council is thrilled with the announcement, our advocacy for enhanced passenger rail services including Dunolly will continue.
We can however all share in the excitement of the present announcement by promoting our beautiful assets and touring routes to visitors in a range of ways including train travel and car hire in Maryborough. Also let’s use the added services when they commence, for our Ballarat and Melbourne weekend visits. Very clearly all the residents in our Shire benefit from this new exciting passenger rail announcement.
