Future Victoria: What travelling around Melbourne will be like once major rail, road projects are finished
Major rail and road upgrades will transform how Victorian drivers and commuters get around Melbourne in 10 years. See the incredible map that shows how fast you will get to work and around by 2030.
Future Victoria
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Years of road and rail pain for Victorian commuter will see a big pay-off take shape next decade, with daily travel savings of up to 50 minutes on key routes.
By 2030, trips between outer Melbourne suburbs and St Kilda, or from the southeast to Parkville, should be between 15 and 25 minutes quicker with the new Metro rail tunnel.
By that time, public transport trips will have soared by 50 per cent — with 2.7 million passengers using the network.
In regional areas, rail upgrades will allow for more services along key routes such as to Ballarat, Gippsland, and Geelong.
And roads such as the North East Link will be built, shaving travel times to the airport for eastern suburbs motorists by up to 27 minutes in the morning peak, and 29 minutes in the afternoon.
Shortly after 2030 the new Tullamarine rail link should also be finished, giving another option for commuters.
By the middle of next decade, local traffic will be boosted by 75 level crossing removals, which will also see 36 new stations built.
While there will be pay-off for the travel pain, there are also new projects set to spring up around the state to keep pace with growing transport needs.
This will fuel job growth, with more than 100,000 people expected to be employed as part of the infrastructure boom over the next decade.
If the state opposition is elected the list of projects would include an East West Link, with Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien declaring unequivocally this would be part of its transport policy in 2022.
“I really wish that the premier would just put his ego back in its box and accept that East West Link is a project whose time has come,” he said.
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Mr O’Brien said he wasn’t necessarily opposed to the Suburban Rail Loop, although he warned if it ended up costing $100 billion it could be putting too many eggs in one basket.
This new orbital underground rail line would connect Cheltenham to Werribee, with connections at almost all major lines that currently operate in Melbourne.
The first section of that orbital loop is likely to be opened at around 2030 or just after, connecting Cheltenham in Melbourne’s southeast to Box Hill in the east.
