While the official head count is yet to be known, hundreds of residents rallied in Mildura yesterday to send the Victorian government a clear message: "Give us back our train"

MARK HENDERSON, Mildura Rural City Council CEO: When you get numbers of that magnitude turning out on a Sunday at short notice it really does tell you that this is an absolutely vital service for the community.

MARIA REIDL: The amount of people there on the Sunday, elderly, inferned, disabled. They walked, they crawled to the train station. They're going to walk and crawl to the meeting.

The Coalition put a stop to the passenger train service between Melbourne and Mildura in 1993.

The Victorian Labor Government then made a nineteen ninety nine (1999) election promise to return it by 2004.

Its return is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

There has also been community uproar about what campaigners say has been a lack of promotion about government organized consultation sessions.

There will be one held at the Best Western Swan Hill Resort tonight, the Ouyen Footy Club tomorrow night and the Mildura Setts on Wednesday night.

MARK HENDERSON: To the best of our knowledge Mildura is the only significant inland regional city in Australia that doesn't have direct access to a passenger rail service.

MARK REIDL: This is about giving everybody in our area, all the way along the line, the option to travel in an environmentally sustainable way at an economic cost they can wear.