A major obstacle to a $100 million upgrade of the Warrnambool-Melbourne rail line has been cleared with the state government providing detailed costings and plans for the proposed project.
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The state and the federal governments have been at odds since May over the project with the federal government refusing to commit to the project until the state provided costings and plans.
The state government announced the upgrade in its May budget but the project was dependent on federal funds.
Member for Wannon Dan Tehan said on Friday that federal infrastructure minister Darren Chester had told him the state government had provided the costings and plans, opening the way for the governments to sort out funding for the project.
“I am going to work to see whether we can deliver funding,” Mr Tehan said.
He said there were two pools of funding the project could potentially access, one of which was the unallocated $450 million in the state budget for infrastructure spending.
The $450 million was part of $1 billion provided by the federal government but the state said using that money for the Warrnambool line’s upgrade would mean a review of its $1.45 billion regional rail plan.
Another funding source is from the federal government’s $10 billion rail passenger fund but that won’t be available until 2019-2020.
“I would prefer to see this (funding for the upgrade) delivered immediately,” Mr Tehan said.
