Regional Fast Rail project

The Regional Fast Rail project (or RFR project) was a rail transport project of the State Government of Victoria, Australia undertaken between 2000 and 2006 aimed at improving the passenger services on the Victorian regional railway network (operated by V/Line), specifically to reduce travel times, enhance service frequency and safety.

Despite initial setbacks and criticism, by 2009 the project had a legacy of success. Record passenger numbers and a substantial contribution to the growth of regional Victorian economies have both been attributed to the project with several substantial spin-off projects and subsequent calls for further upgrades and investment.

Before the 1999 State election in Victoria, the Labor Party under Steve Bracks promised to “kick start the development of more frequent, competitively priced, fast rail to regional centres [through the] consideration of the feasibility of more frequent, competitively priced, fast rail".

Part of the Linking Victoria program, the Regional Fast Rail project was launched by the governing Victorian Labor government on 5 September 2000 and described by Transport Minister Peter Batchelor as "the biggest project we've probably seen in Victorian rail in decades",

The fast rail initiative included 5 key components:

The delivery of these objectives entailed upgrading 500 km of rail lines from the track bed up, installing 400 new and upgraded railway signals, installing more than 460,000 concrete sleepers, upgrading 170 level crossings, introducing new rail safety systems (later including the Train Protection & Warning System), developing new train timetables with improved services, and the laying of new fibre optic cable along the rail corridors to allow for better signalling and also provide enhanced broadband facilities in regional areas.

The VLocity trains began running at increased speeds from December 2005, with 160 km/h services beginning on the Geelong, Ballarat, and Bendigo lines on 3 September 2006.

...
Wikipedia