Most expensive project in Melbourne’s history shouldn’t be rushed

The Suburban Rail Loop’s $30bn-plus budget is a generation’s worth of infrastructure spending, which means the details must be right the first time.

No state government in Australia has embarked upon a public transport project as expensive and complex as the Suburban Rail Loop.

The full loop is a 90km orbital rail system that would run between Cheltenham and Werribee and reshape middle Melbourne.

It would be split into three sections, with the first – SRL East – to connect Cheltenham to Box Hill.

The entirety of the initial 26km line, except for a brief journey to daylight next to a planned maintenance and storage facility, would be underground.

According to an investment case developed after the government announced the project, the cost of SRL East would be $30-34.5bn.

That cost is, as many transport and planning experts have pointed out, a generation’s worth of infrastructure spending.

An artist's concept of a Suburban Rail Loop train.

None of the above is a reason not to build this vast new transport link.

It is certainly a reason to proceed with caution, however, and to get the details right.

An environmental effects statement has been released by the Suburban Rail Loop Authority, and will begin public hearings next month.

This statement provided crucial information about the project’s effect on the environment – everything from wildlife, to buildings, groundwater, and so on.

Submissions to that process were limited to a few weeks in the lead-up to Christmas, but despite the challenges of that time frame hundreds were sent in, and many of the groups and individuals want to take part in the EES hearings.

Few of the submissions are urging the government to abandon the project entirely.

Most do want more information about how the tunnel will be built and the impact on them or their communities.

When the Herald Sun revealed that Monash University sent in a critical submission about the design process so far and pointing out the lack of information on key vibration and electromagnetic interference data, some readers were surprised.

Why would a tertiary institution that has advocated for a rail link to its door for decades be attacking the design of a link to its doorstep?

The university, to be clear, is not urging the government to abandon the project. It is, however, seeking a slight realignment to protect sensitive equipment and buildings, or mitigation measures and protections provided if needed.

Suburban Rail Loop trains aren’t set to hit the tracks until 2035.

In order to properly ascertain the expected impact on these expensive and important assets, as well as on student life at one of the country’s leading universities, it desperately wants more information.

A lot more information.

Some similar concerns were raised about the $13.7bn Metro project, linking South Yarra to Kensington via a 9km tunnel, by scientific organisations around the Parkville precinct last decade.

Mitigation measures were promised and assessments were extensive, and there was an added benefit that a version of the Metro project had been planned and scoped for almost a decade.

It is also stating the obvious to say the SRL is a very different project to Metro, especially in the way it originated.

One can only hope detail pleaded for by eminent Melbourne institutions will be forthcoming over the following months when the EES process is held.

Some people may scoff at a self-interested university (and other world-leading scientific organisations in the precinct) having concerns, or about golf courses speaking out about fears of irrevocable damage to water tables in the southeast.

What they are speaking to, however, is the importance of getting this right and only embarking on a 26km tunnel once there is clear information about how impacts – and there will be major impacts – can be minimised or avoided.

Given the immense size, scope and complexity of this project, there should be no haste in assessing these things carefully and ensuring the best version of the link is contracted.

Concept designs for Suburban Rail Loop Box Hill station.

An incredible amount of money is being spent on a project expected to change suburban life, work, and connectedness.

Suburban Rail Loop Minister Jacinta Allan has repeatedly said this is “more than just building a rail line”.

It is also about “shaping our growing middle suburbs so there are more jobs, homes, services and open spaces closer to home”.

Even with this vast, city-shaping rhetoric, Allan insists that works on the project should begin this year – although this is not major tunnelling and the SRL East won’t open until 2035.

Given the number of mega projects already proceeding around Melbourne, including the North East Link, Airport Rail Link, West Gate Tunnel and Metro Tunnel – two of which are massively over budget – there should be no concerns about a pipeline of infrastructure work in the next couple of years.

In fact, industry is pointing the other way at the moment, with skills and materials shortages a major concern.

Again, this isn’t a reason not to plan or build a new rail tunnel, but a reason to proceed with caution.

If this government has learnt nothing else since it came to power in 2014, it should be that poorly scoped infrastructure rushed for political purposes can have disastrous consequences.

Matt Johnston is major projects editor for the Herald Sun.