Trains arrive ahead of time

Bombardier Transportation has celebrated delivering the final 43 VLocity carriages for the Regional Rail Link – five months ahead of schedule.
The manufacturer also marked completing the Refresh Program with an event at its Dandenong plant on Thursday 2 June.
Refresh introduced new intermediate carriages to convert the VLocity trains from two to three-carriage sets.
Dandenong MP Gabrielle Williams spoke at the event, praising the work Bombardier did in Dandenong and for the Victorian manufacturing and transport industries.
Bombardier’s Australian CEO Rene Lalande said the VLocity milestone could only have been achieved as a partnership between Bombardier, the State Government, Public Transport Victoria, V/Line and the local supply chain.
He asked everyone who had worked on the project since it was first awarded in 2001 to raise their hands and gave them a special thank-you for their long-term commitment.
The carriages were designed, manufactured and delivered locally, with 66.5 per cent local content.
VLocity has supported more than 580 jobs across Victoria, including 118 at Dandenong.
The State Government’s 2016-’17 budget included 27 additional VLocity cars on top of a 21-carriage order the previous year.
On Tuesday 15 March the Government announced that it would nearly double its high-capacity train order from 37 seven-carriage sets to 65.
Bombardier is in the running for the contract with Eureka Rail and Evolution Rail the competition.
An announcement is expected late this year.