That track still would have been constructed anyway (regardless of the gauge differences) as it is within ARTC jurisdiction and it is primarily used for freight rail. They still would have prefered to keep the freight rail isolated from the passenger, this happens in other states regardless of the track gauge. This is because ARTC standard are a lot stricter than V/Lines and differ way more than just a track gauge difference. And this is fair enough since ARTC have to accommodate for different loading conditions. So there would have been a lot more that needed to change in V/Lines juristiction if they wanted to match the requirements for ARTC to run through that line.