Victoria's Rail Revival Alliance announces the organisation will contest the 2018 Victorian State Election by nominating candidates for the seats in Bendigo East and Rippon.

The election is scheduled to be held in November 2018 where Victorian Transport Policy is expected to play a major role in determining state electorates especially outside Melbourne.

The group has been campaigning consistently for several years about the lack of viable transport policy for rail passenger and freight services calling for service and rail upgrades across the central Victoria electorates without success.  Successive Victorian Government transport upgrades have largely ignored the region with specific emphasis on the re-commissioning of the rail link between Castlemaine and Maryborough which has laid waste for several years.

The organisation has commissioned it's own study into reactivating the rail infrastructure providing detailed cost estimates for the works.  Unsurprisingly the government's own study calls for an investment at nearly 10 times that of the Regional Rail Alliance which has it's own infrastructure engineers.

Transport Minister Jacinta Allan has repeatedly refused to meet with the organisation to hear concerns and be briefed on community needs, however federal government representatives have sought information on the project showing interest in its merit.

Under Ms Allan V/Line has struggled to maintain its passenger numbers with the exception of the Geelong Line fielding increasing criticism of service delivery and capacity on lines such as Bendigo and Ballarat.  The minister has presided over V/Line outages, Wheel Wear issues, train and maintenance failures on the Bairnsdale and Albury rail lines.