• Ballarat, Bendigo and Traralgon - less stops melbtrip

Yep, classically flawed Victorian thinking.

What exactly is the difference that magically allows such a change which can't be achieved now.

The decision to base service patterns and vehicle classes on the arbitrary distinction between Metro/spark and Vline/diesel would be considered laughable abroard -

such as running high capacity metro stock on an all stations service to places like Pakenham.

On actual electrification, Geelong might be done as 25kVAC since it is totally segregated, but there is no need to complete any other regional lines at the same time. The same sort of rollingstock that would serve Geelong should be serving places like Pakenham, Cranbourne, Frankston. It's cognitive dissonance to suggest Geelong should have comfortable services with express running but places with longer commuting times are stuck with slow, uncomfortable metro stock simply by virtue of being under wires.

Melton electrification will be essentially a 'new' line for the suburban network, so it will need new rollingstock that can be specified as dual-voltage if necessary. Likewise for Wallan. I would not be surprised if the specification for the Comeng replacement (Next Generation Train) will include dual-voltage capability or at least an easy upgrade path for it. LancedDendrite