Edited 31 Dec 2015 10:49, 6 years ago, edited by 62440

As another of the rail page club involved in the RFR, yes, the flagships were a contractual requirement and the required timing had to be demonstrated and modelled. However, on the Bendigo line for sure and probably on the others, the timing was to Sunshine, not SSS and a time was deemed for the run in. Every curve was analysed and the line studied in detail with every saving of a few seconds knocked off the time. There was one curve with a bridge part way along, which had a speed restriction. The line was singled so the curve could be eased, saving about 15 seconds. Other short cuts included using bidirectional signalling so only one track was upgraded to concrete and the flagships would run on the upgraded section. I did similar for Drouin.
There was a flurry of activity, similar to now with level crossings, as we were also doing what we called Regional Slow Rail at the same time, upgrading Mildura, Leongatha, Ballarat-Ararat and Bairnsdale to passenger standard. Koo Wee Rup swamp was the nail in the coffin for Leongatha.
In common with all these projects was doing the minimum necessary to achieve objectives with sot repairs instead of face reconstruction, from recent observation, something which has not changed.