Friday the 3rd was the first day of VLocites on the Geelong line.
The train pulled in to Geelong at 11:30, only taking 50 minutes to travel from Melbourne. And this wasn’t at full speed either.
However, there were only a dozen passengers on board. All government officials.
Free goody bags for all!
The Victorian Premier Steve Bracks and Transport minister Peter Batchelor arrived at12:40 for the launch ceremony, along with a lot of other local politicians. There was a lot of newspaper photographers and TV cameramen there as well. The next 20 minutes was taken up by speeches.
The ribbon cutting followed.
The train took off at 1:30, but Steve Bracks never caught it. He just watched it depart from Geelong, while Peter Batchelor was on board, but bailed out at Lara. To go by road I assume…
I stayed on all the way to Melbourne. And grabbed a goody bag. Or half-dozen…
And now I have a lot of V/Line pens. And rail yard full of cardboard trains…
Footnote
cool cardboard trains!!! Show us them. And make ur pictures work dammit!!!