The New Deal for Country Passengers was a timetable introduced on 4 October 1981 in Victoria, Australia which revolutionised the provision of country passenger railway services in that state. Thirty-five little-used passenger stations were closed, rolling stock utilisation was improved, and new rolling stock introduced. The timetable and associated service changes resulted in an average patronage growth of 8.7% per year, from 3 million in 1981 to 5.6 million passengers in 1990/91.^[1]

The Victorian Railways had been stuck in something of a "time warp" for a number of decades. The Bland Report of 1972 recommended the restructuring of railway management, the closure of uneconomic branch lines, and the replacement of most country rail passenger services with road coaches. By the start of the 1980s, passenger numbers had fallen to around 3 million per year, due to ageing rolling stock, unattractive timetables operating at poor frequencies, and the attractiveness of private motoring. After the Lonie Report of 1980 recommended further cuts to the network, many people called for the State Government to maintain a viable rail system.

Alan Reiher became Chairman of the Victorian Railways Board in July 1980, with the Victorian Railways having by then been re-branded as VicRail. By February 1981. Reiher's lobbying had resulted in a $115 million commitment from the Hamer Government to revitalize country rail passenger services in Victoria, the concept of which originated within the Planning Branch of VicRail.

VicRail pushed hard for the new timetables to be introduced by October 1981 so they would operate throughout the summer before the 1982 Victorian election.^[2] The Thompson Government, which had succeeded Hamer's ministry in June 1981, lost the 1982 election and was replaced by the Cain Government. However, the New Deal proved to have bi-partisan political support, and was further expanded by incoming Transport Minister Steve Crabb.

Before the new timetable could be introduced, stopping patterns and running times were scrutinised to maximise the utilisation of locomotives and rolling stock. The majority of the country timetable had not been revised since the steam era of the 1950s, with excessive turn around times at termini and excessive numbers of stops at little-used stations. The research found that 30% to 50% more services could be run with a new timetable but with fewer carriages.^[1]

The railways went through a period of flux between 1980 and 1983, as the concept of the New Deal evolved.

As of February 1981, the initial elements of the 1981 New Deal included:

• Rebuilding of the four DRC railcars
• Rebuilding of six DERM railmotors with twice power, using 75 ft Harris carriages as new trailers to replace the MT series.
• Planned rebuilding 26 B class locomotives with new power plants and traction equipment, later known as the A class
• 4 6-carriage interurban electric sets for the Traralgon line, likely similar to the Comeng suburban trains then under construction
• Refurbishing 27 of the late 1930s-late 1950s S and Z type carriages
• Extending the 30/36-car order to 54, later 57 air conditioned steel bodied passenger cars, formed into 18/19 3-car N sets
• Elimination of older non-airconditioned wooden bodied carriage stock (including the E and W type carriages)
• A new timetable incorporating faster and more frequent services
• Changes in work practices onboard trains
• Operation of trains as fixed consists, instead of the previous labour-intensive practice of shunting and altering train sizes continually
• Introduction of a new computer seat reservation system VICRES
• Replacement of most branchline railcar services with road coach services

The new timetables were fairly successful, with adjustments made as the engines proved better timekeeping with lighter loads and as the fixed-set policy simplified shunting at Spencer Street station.

However, one of the sticking points was the lack of reliability from the railmotor fleet; by mid 1982 none of the DRC railcars were in good condition, and the DERM fleet was only achieving 38% availability; this required 'scratch' sets of between 2 and 4 older wooden carriages hauled by locomotives as replacements. VicRail looked into the costs of buying a new fleet of railmotors and found the cost for a 2-carriage airconditioned railmotor to be in the range of $1.6-2.5 million each. An alternative, cheaper proposal was to rebuild the DRC's electrical systems, and to replace other railmotor rosters with T class locomotives and refurbished Harris carriages. The proposed consist at the time was H-H-T-H-H, with the outer H carriages fitted with driving controls and all cars fitted with multiple-unit cabling.^[3]

Further improvements were carried out under the Cain Government from 1982:

• Ten N class diesel locomotives were ordered (later extended to 25, and the B class to A class conversions were cut back from 26 to 11)
• Thirteen T class locomotives were rebuilt into the P class incorporating Head End Power
• Former Harris suburban electric train carriages were converted into the H type carriages for Interurban services

By April 1983, the proposals to rebuild the DERM fleet had been dropped, and instead four 60 ft Harris carriages were to be rebuilt to complement the DRCs. The electric interurban sets had been dropped in late 1982; by this point the order for suburban Comeng vehicles had been nearly doubled (due to failures in refurbishing the Harris suburban fleet for continued electric network operation), so the interurban Comeng fleet wouldn't have been delivered until late 1986.

Although the total cost of the New Deal eventually topped $100 million, the new services were far cheaper to operate and were far more attractive. By April 1983, VicRail General Manager R. J Gallacher claimed that country passenger traffic had increased by around 20% in the eighteen months since the New Deal had begun.^[5] By 1989 the strong growth in Interurban travel had led V/Line and the Government to look at the need to acquire further rolling stock, deliberations that would ultimately result in the introduction of the 130 km/h (81 mph) Sprinter railcar.^[5]

The strong foundations laid in the 1981 New Deal undoubtedly led to further massive investment in Country Rail Passenger services in Victoria in the early 2000s which resulted in the total re-building of Spencer Street station (Melbourne) as Southern Cross station. Also the four Inter-urban routes to Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and Traralgon were upgraded to allow a new generation of V/Locity trains to operate at up to 160 km/h. This program was known as the Regional Fast Rail project upgrade. From 1980/81 to 2007/08, patronage grew from 3 million trips to 12 million.

Further patronage increases and expansion of the V/Locity train fleet led to the need to provide separate tracks within the Inner Melbourne area for V/Line trains to access Southern Cross from the South Western, Western and Northern lines. The Regional Rail Link project included a new route to Geelong via Wyndham Vale that opened in June 2015.

• Rail transport in Victoria
• Operation Phoenix
• Regional Fast Rail project