Electioneering (1): The Frankston Line

So, there's a state election due in November.  Given that our local station is served by Frankston line trains and there are a number of marginal seats along this line, I can see that this going to generate some bloggable material! I've previously mentioned that we've been seeing some money being spent on the line, although how it is that the painting of stations  (possibly at the expense of work needed elsewhere) will win votes, I don't know, but that's politics I guess.

In the meantime, a "Frankston line" election brochure produced by the Liberals has already arrived in our letterbox.  There's a website, too.  The messages are mixed:   things are better than they were and new trains will make things better.    Of course, the proposed airport rail link gets a mention, as well.  But there's a lot of negativity, too, as we are invited to recall that the service wasn't too good when the previous government was in office.   True, and, yes,  some improvements to frequencies were made shortly after the last election (the price being, elimination of most loop trains).   But if we are invited to recall the past, will we also remember the fact that a station at Southland was promised at the last election and is still nowhere near being built (and is being re-announced)?  Or that last January, the services for the whole month were reduced by 50%, with bizarre results during the peak periods?   Or that on a recent train trip, just a few days back, the in-train displays and announcements weren't working properly?
The brochure makes the point that there wasn't much movement on level crossing removals when the previous government was in office.  Well, although there's been some activity on this over the last four years (Springvale and out Mitcham way), the world hasn't exactly been set on fire in this respect during this Government's term, and certainly not around here (although action is now being promised, by both sides of politics).

To state the obvious, the issue is credibility.    Promises, promises.....   And I guess that applies to both sides of politics!

I wonder if similar publicity will be developed for other lines (such as the Dandenong corridor), although my limited googling didn't turn up any dedicated websites.