SIR, – Congratulations for the article ‘Mayor explores Overland option’, The Weekly Advertiser, January 22.

I have also emailed Horsham mayor Mark Radford congratulating him on his initiative in doing the train trip. At least he could then make accurate and informed decisions about the service.

I have been campaigning for over 12 months to have governments commit to funding for the continuation of The Overland.

We had a 12-month reprieve in 2019 and then a ‘painful’ extension to March 2020, but we still hang in the balance for a positive outcome for the long-term future.

Hopefully all the discussions going on behind the scenes will result in its future as it would be isolating for us further up the track in Nhill and those little towns along the way.

However, having said that, I am also hopeful that some sort of rail will be introduced from Nhill to Ararat, which would completely open up this part of the world to industry leading on to professionals and further infrastructure.

If the 1000 jobs predicted for Stawell come to fruition, these little towns would be a commutable distance, thus helping solve the housing problems which will limit further progress anywhere along the Western Highway.

Your article was informative, balanced and very well written. Hopefully more people might realise rail services are in jeopardy up here and well worth fighting for.

Margaret Millington, OAM

Nhill

The entire February 5, 2020 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!