It’s a fine line

A PLAN to fast-track the restoration of the railway at Yarra Glen received overwhelming support at a packed community meeting on Thursday night.
That around 180 people braved a bitterly cold night to hear about a proposal the Yarra Valley Railway (YVR) and the Yarra Glen Township Group (YGTG) believes has the potential to boost the economy of the struggling town, was taken as a positive in itself.
The presentation was two-dimensional – about instilling confidence that the YVR could successfully expand their Healesville operations to include Yarra Glen, and about garnering the local support and volunteers needed to make it happen.
YGTG president Dean Putting said the project had the group’s full support.
YVR vice-president Brett Whelan said the ultimate aim was to run a tourist/commuter train service between Healesville and Yarra Glen.
He said a new management team had already made significant progress on cleaning up the Yarra Glen station area and on track restoration at Yarra Glen.
He said the YVR had 300 members and had notched up 40,000 volunteer hours last year.
About 20,000 people had ridden the Walker Rail Motor in its first year of operation and 4000 people attended the Heritage Festival, Mr Whelan said.
“We want to link Yarra Glen into this to help share the economic benefit between the two towns,” he added, spelling out a three-stage program to get the track operational between Yarra Glen and Healesville.
It would start with rebuilding the line between the Yarra Glen station and Train Track winery.
“We would hope to run a trolley service out of Yarra Glen next year,” Mr Whelan said.
Stage two would extend the line to the old Tarrawarra railway station and stage three would connect the two towns.
Cr Jeanette McRae said $33,000 had been allocated from bushfire funds for the railway station which it was estimated would cost $350,000 to rebuild.
“I think this is an amazing opportunity for people who want to be involved in restoring the railway station to all work together to get something going for Yarra Glen,” she said.
Mr Whelan declined to put a figure on the total cost of the project, saying it was dependent on how labour and materials were sourced.
He said however, that if the funding was there, the track could be fully operational in about nine months.
A show of hands overwhelmingly supported a motion that the meeting endorsed YVR’s presentation and “looks forward to the future progress”.
Henry Verhoeven from the Yarra Glen Men’s Shed project added their support.
Mr Putting said the presentation had succeeded in delivering an important message to a good representation of the Yarra Glen community.
He said a working group would be set up for the station restoration and invited people to get involved.
“I can see this creatingopportunities for business and community groups as well as employment opportunities in the town,” he said.
“It is not going to happen overnight, but if we don’t start, if we sit back and say ‘bloody railways aren’t doing anything’, we will have only ourselves to blame if nothing happens for Yarra Glen,” he said.
Anyone wanting to help can contact Mr Whelan on 0412 080 900, YVR president Brett Morton on 0407 688 060 or Mr Putting on 0409 330 458.