Shannon Deery: Promise to scrap SRL could be a game-changer for Matthew Guy
Matthew Guy has given Victorians a choice: ride carefree from Cheltenham to Box Hill in a decade, or fix the state’s health crisis. Now time will tell want the state wants more.
Opinion
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Promising to scrap the most expensive infrastructure project ever planned in Victoria could be a game-changer for Matthew Guy.If it isn’t, it’s hard to know what other rabbits he could pull out of his hat to magically drag his team out of opposition come November’s election.
The Suburban Rail Loop has been touted as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape the future liveability, productivity and connectivity of Melbourne.
It is the feather in the cap of Daniel Andrews’ ambitious infrastructure agenda.
But it comes at huge expense.
The current $34.5bn price tag will be enough to fund just the first stage of the project – the development of a 26km tunnel between Cheltenham, in the southeast, and Box Hill, in the east.
The government wants that built by 2035 with plans eventually to extend the line to Melbourne Airport and then through to Werribee by mid-century. For the same money, a government could fund thousands of health professionals, ambulances or mental health practitioners.
Guy has vowed to inject every cent of the scrapped project into the state’s crippled health system.
In doing so, he appears to be giving Victorians a choice: ride carefree from Cheltenham to Box Hill in just over a decade, or fix the state’s worsening health crisis now. It should shore up votes for him, with many unconvinced about the need for such a train line.
Everyone from mayors along the proposed route to the Grattan Institute and the Rail Futures Institute have urged a rethink of the project.
The move is a case of history repeating itself.
Ahead of the 2014 election, Andrews, then a brash young opposition leader, pitched his vow to scrap the East West Link as a referendum between Labor’s plan for better public transport and premier Denis Napthine’s $8bn “dud tunnel”.
It ended up costing Victorians $1.1bn but saw Andrews win government.
Guy will be hoping he can follow suit – and save lives, as well.
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