Fresh calls to review regional train lines

An XPT train travelling from Sydney to Melbourne derailed last Thursday night, killing the 54 year-old driver and the 49 year-old pilot.

Just under 160 passengers were on the train, and 11 were taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Speed is one of the factors being investigated, after it was reported the train should have slowed to 15km/h as it was diverted through a different part of track near Wallan station.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is looking at the maintenance of the train and railway line as well as signalling data.

Shadow Regional Public Transport Minister and Euroa MP Steph Ryan said the incident was horrific.

"I'd been raising my concerns about the delays and cancellations of the line for years but I never thought a serious accident like this would happen," Ms Ryan said.

"It's frustrating that it takes a disaster like this to happen to get people's attention honed to issues that have been ongoing for the best part of a decade."

She acknowledged that the issues she had been raising - punctuality and reliability - may not have directly resulted in the derailment, but said the incident had made people realise there were a number of ongoing issues with that train line and other regional lines.

She said a lack of investment in V/Line's regional networks meant they were running really old trains which were extremely unreliable.

"There have been delays and cancellations because things go wrong all the time," she said.

Unless the government was willing to invest in regional transportation, she said it would be difficult to encourage people to move to regional communities.

"The things people look for when they're considering relocating are good schools, health care and accessibility, and if you've never lived in the country before, it can seem like a huge leap to make the move and a good public transport system would give people the security to get back to Melbourne easily," she said.

She said the network was in desperate need of investment.

"The investment just hasn't been there, and now they're looking to make further cuts to state government services and I'm really worried about what that's going to do to V/Line's capacity to provide a reliable service," she said.

"If any investments are made, they tend to be on the centralised lines like Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat."

Ms Ryan said the impact this had on regional communities' potential was astonishing.

"In many places, we have the capacity to take a greater population, that can bring more prosperity to the region, can be a driver for better jobs and ensuring we have good quality schools," she said.

"We have to change the settlement patterns by sharing the prosperity and opportunity for growth across the state.

"With that comes infrastructure, services and jobs."

Public Transport Minister Melissa Horne said the federal and Victorian and NSW state governments were working closely to support all those involved in the train derailment incident.

Ms Horne said the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator would conduct a full and thorough investigation to establish the cause of the incident.