Monash University has no plans to make any financial commitment to the Suburban Rail Loop

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has hinted that organisations based along the Suburban Rail Loop could stump up money but one university has no plans to help fund the controversial project.

Monash University is set to reject any requests from the state government to stump up cash towards the controversial Suburban Rail Loop.

Asked on Thursday if the university would be expected to help pay for the $34.5bn first stage of the project, Premier Jacinta Allan said the government was “having conversations with stakeholders”.

“We already know that a whole range of organisations are already making business investment decisions … because they know that not only is there going to be a train line that’s going to connect them to their precinct, there is also the planning that’s going on around that train station,” she said.

A Monash University spokesman later said it was working collaboratively with the Suburban Rail Loop Authority as construction on the Monash station begins.

Premier Jacinta Allan says the government is having conversations with stakeholders on SRL funding. Picture: Valeriu Campan

“Close co-ordination with project teams has been ongoing to ensure that the station’s integration aligns with the university’s long-term campus and precinct development plans, anticipating future growth and addressing sustainability goals,” he said.

But sources told the Herald Sun that Monash University had not made any financial commitment to the project, and had no plans to do so.

It comes as the government continues to bat away questions as to how it will secure the $34.5bn needed for just the first section of the project, linking Cheltenham and Box Hill via a 26km tunnel.

This week, the federal government announced it had released $2.2bn that it had promised at the last election.

Sources say Monash University has no plans to make any financial commitment to the project.

But the state government, which has set aside $11.5bn towards the first stage known as SRL East, is banking on the commonwealth to match that amount. And it is relying on value capture – cash generated through taxes on developments or improved land values around project precincts – to deliver the rest, though Ms Allan was unable to say when that money would begin flowing into state coffers.

With the government also rebranding the loop as “Australia’s biggest housing project”, Ms Allan denied suggestions that was an acknowledgment the public might view the SRL as an unpopular transport project.

“We were always clear when we announced the Suburban Rail Loop that we weren’t just building a train line,” she said.

But in a heated 40-minute press conference, she failed to answer a barrage of questions about when the first house associated with the project would be built.

Facing about the 20th question on the loop, she said “No, I’m done on the SRL, no, I’m done,” and walked away.

Originally published as Monash University has no plans to make any financial commitment to the Suburban Rail Loop