i think it is important that we re-establish rail links to regional and rural victoria but with 70% of the population in Melbourne and growing fast, there needs to be options for other towns to get bigger, like Ballarat and Bendigo, if you can reduce the commute from these places to lower than what the average joe public in Glen Waverley or Ringwood does, i think you may have a case for being able to shift population out of MElbourne into the country and still have that city connection.
Geelong has a role to play in this also, but it's a shining example of brumby and lynne kosky's incompetence.
I know that Terry Mulder who is the spokesperson from the opposition is supportive of regional rail also.
Some of the upgrades that Brumby & Co have slated are based on a "Gold/Silver/Bronze" and they're focussing on the "silver" rail lines, like ones to ouyen, the problem is that the lines they're looking at restoring have trees growing in the middle of them, or blue metal stone chips in massive piles on top of the tracks.
There could also be a case for making it a reasonable commute between Melbourne and Sydney.
If you could get a WiFi link on it, you could sell it as a better option to travel to sydney. If you can keep it under say 5 hrs, or even make it 4 hrs, you would be able to sell it as being more efficient than the plane.
Considering 1 hr to get to the airport, 30 mins checkin, 1hr 15 min flight (if not delayed) then landing, get your baggage then taxi to your hotel.