THE State Government is hoping a $612.8-million upgrade to rail lines between Melbourne and Albury will improve a poor performance by train services on the Seymour line.

But not everyone shares its optimism.

Northern Victoria MP Donna Petrovich recently told State Parliament that the Seymour V/Line train, which serviced Broadford, Kilmore, Heathcote Junction, Wandong and Wallan, had failed to meet its service targets for every month this year.

“There has been a lot of fanfare by this government about its regional rail link, but unfortunately this rail link will pass Seymour commuters by – they do not get a look in,” she said.

“It seems if you do not live in Ballarat, Bendigo or Geelong, then you are not seen as part of this government’s regional Victoria.”

In V/Line’s service charter, performance targets dictated that at least 96 per cent of scheduled services operated and the punctuality target was for these services to run on time at least 92 per cent of the time, she said. “On time” was defined as arriving within five minutes and 59 seconds of the scheduled timetable.

Ms Petrovich said Seymour trains had been more than six minutes late 21.1 per cent of the time in January, 24.5 per cent of the time in February, 19.6 per cent of the time in March and 20.6 per cent of the time in April.

“Train services between Southern Cross station and Seymour and Shepparton were replaced by road coaches on many occasions, and many commuters had no idea that was happening,” she said.

“Those who had the foresight to check on the V/Line website were warned to allow for an additional 40 minutes of travelling time, but poor unsuspecting travellers had no choice but to endure the extra travelling time.

“Seymour services rate the worst of the short distance journeys; members may have guessed it – the other services are Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo, with Gippsland thrown in for good measure,” she said.

“For some reason V/Line is able to deliver a better, more reliable service on these lines.

“I would like to inform the government that there are a lot of other people living, working and raising families in a lot of other places in country Victoria and they deserve its attention and financial support as much as the chosen few.”

A State Government spokesman said Ms Petrovich had failed to acknowledge current efforts from all public transport stakeholders to improve service to rural and regional Victoria.

“Ms Petrovich ignores the fact that the Rudd and Brumby governments, together with the Australian Rail Track Corporation, are spending a total of $612.8 million upgrading the rail line between Melbourne and Albury which is used by Seymour trains,” he said.

“We recognise that passengers expect more trains to arrive on time, and that is why the improvements to the track will improve reliability of services.

“Improvements to the reliability of Seymour services will also improve once Regional Rail Link is complete, as this project reduces congestion between suburban and V/Line services.”