{"id":359285,"date":"2026-01-31T13:54:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T03:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=359285"},"modified":"2026-01-31T14:01:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T04:01:40","slug":"nationals-member-for-lowan-emma-kealy-calls-for-overland-upgrades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=359285","title":{"rendered":"Nationals Member for Lowan, Emma Kealy calls for Overland upgrades"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Nationals Member for Lowan, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?tag=emma-kealy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Emma Kealy\">Emma Kealy<\/a>, has implored the Allan Labor Government to fund long-overdue upgrades to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?tag=the-overland\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"The Overland\">Overland Train<\/a> service, with the growing service still operating without basic amenities at key regional stops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ms Kealy said passenger numbers had continued to steadily rise, and tourism operators and locals were increasingly relying on the Overland, yet Labor had failed to keep facilities in step with demand. A tourism operator recently told Ms Kealy about an 80-year-old train tour guest who, during a day trip, had no access to toilets at the Horsham station and was forced to relieve themselves behind bushes.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"869\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/618795869_10236812869093094_3778577912378971567_n-869x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-359365\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/618795869_10236812869093094_3778577912378971567_n-869x1024.jpg 869w, https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/618795869_10236812869093094_3778577912378971567_n-255x300.jpg 255w, https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/618795869_10236812869093094_3778577912378971567_n-768x905.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/618795869_10236812869093094_3778577912378971567_n.jpg 1190w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 869px) 100vw, 869px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>The operator said the experience was deeply distressing for the visitor and embarrassing for the region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ms Kealy said the incident made clear that Labor had not delivered the most basic requirements<br>for a service that was designed to support local communities and the tourism industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The operator said the experience was deeply distressing for the visitor and embarrassing for the region. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":222121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[273,47],"tags":[19431,12401,993,10486,8],"class_list":["post-359285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-rail-news","tag-emma-kealy","tag-horsham","tag-melbourne","tag-the-overland","tag-victoria"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=359285"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359374,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359285\/revisions\/359374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/222121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=359285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=359285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=359285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}