Train depot opens at Drysdale station

TRAIN journeys on The Bellarine Railway are on track to be better and more versatile with the completion of a new and larger train depot.

Located next door to Drysdale railway station, the depot can comfortably hold a pair of steam locomotives with four carriages each, indoors and side-by-side.

The Bellarine Railway now has the option of starting journeys in Drysdale instead of only at the Queenscliff end, and moving restaurant The Q Train is expected to be mostly stabled in the new depot.

The first stage of the works, backed by $300,000 of state government funding and well as some support from the City of Greater Geelong, also include extra rail infrastructure, power, water and fencing.

It will also reduce running costs for the railway’s operators, which include The Blues Train and Day Out with Thomas services.In the second stage of The Bellarine Railway project, supported by $3.4 million from the Stimulus Round of the Regional Tourism Investment Fund, 16.5km of railway track will be upgraded between Drysdale and Queenscliff.

Bellarine MP Lisa Neville helped drive one of The Bellarine Railway’s trains on the short trip from Drysdale station to inside the depot to officially open the facility.

Passengers included City of Greater Geelong mayor Peter Murrihy, Borough of Queenscliffe mayor Ross Ebbels, Labor candidate for Bellarine Alison Marchant, The Blues Train founder and proprietor Hugo T. Armstrong, and several of The Bellarine Railway’s board members.

The Bellarine Railway president Steve Dalton said the shed was the realisation of a plan to improve infrastructure for the tourist railway service.”It improves amenity, importantly, to provide a base for The Bellarine Railway services, namely The Q Train, which will be here most of the time.”

Ms Neville said she had been on a “long journey” with the railway over her time in Parliament and had worked closely with the city and the borough on the shared piece of infrastructure.

“It is the one thing that does link the two council areas.

“My 20 years in politics have been very much connected to The Bellarine Railway – there were different iterations of presidents, and secretaries, and committee members that have come to see me over the years about continuing to invest in this railway.

“In my first term, I think you were one of the first groups to come and see me, and I think we’ve invested almost in almost every term we’ve been in government.

“This, I think, is really going to grow this as a destination, and as a steam railway, and as a celebration of that.”

Mr Murrihy said he was impressed by the size of the new facility.

“To be told you’ve got to go down and speak at the opening of a shed, you think ‘okay…’ – now this is a shed!”

The Regional Tourism Investment Fund is part of the state government’s $465 million Victorian Tourism Recovery Package.