Metro Tunnel cuts deliver major blow for commuters in Melbourne’s west

Melbourne’s west will be worst hit by cuts to the Metro Tunnel project, with services to be slashed in growth suburbs due to budget blowouts.

Commuters on the Werribee and Williamstown lines will be the most affected.

Commuters in the west will miss out on some benefits from the $14bn Metro Tunnel – including fewer services – because of cutbacks, transport experts have warned.

The latest part of the project to be scrapped due to budget pressures is understood to be the “Eastern Turnback” which would have allowed extra services in the western suburbs.

It affects trains on the Sandringham, Werribee and Williamstown lines.

The business case said massive population growth meant there would demand for more frequent services in these western areas, while Sandringham was already well served.

The Eastern Turnback would have made it easier for trains to turn around towards Werribee rather waiting to than travel down the Sandringham lines.

This would mean more trains could be directed to the booming west.

But this will no longer built because the project was removed to offset blowouts.

Rail Projects Victoria has previously argued the benefits of this project could not have been realised because early works to set them up were not done as planned

Rail Futures Institute resident John Hearsch said the extra services had been clearly set out in the original plans for the project.

“Werribee certainly needs more services and so does Craigieburn and Upfield,” he said.

“I hope they go through with all that when the time comes.”

Communters in Melbourne’s west will miss out on some of the benefits of the Metro Tunnel after part of the project was scrapped. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Public Transport Users’ Association spokesman Daniel Bowen said the descoping of signalling meant some services to the west and southeast of Melbourne would be restricted.

“It means some of the trains will have to turn around at West Footscray or Westall,” he said.

“Hopefully the trains are running frequently enough that you are not booted off the train and have to wait a long time for the next one.

Mr Bowen said hoped the issue would also be revisited to increase the smart system’s coverage to Dandenong, which would be a destination venue for many passengers.

When the $14bn massive project was first announced, its business case spruiked “wider network enhancements” that would see passengers across the city hop on to more frequent trains.

The document detailed upgrades to multiple railway lines that would allow Metro to maximise the benefits of taking the Sunbury, Cranbourne and Pakenham lines out of the City Loop

But a Victorian Auditor-General’s Office report in July revealed some of these benefits had been changed to save money, described as “descoped”, to offset blowouts.

This included delaying the amount of high capacity signalling upgrades delivered, which allow trains to run within seconds of each other.

“This will reduce the new signalling technology by about 27km, or about one third, of the previously announced coverage.

“This reduction in scope has freed up $91m for RPV to redirect to other areas of the project.

“The government has also agreed to descope several ‘wider network enhancements’ from the original Metro Tunnel Project budget (worth $236m) and reallocated this to offset overspends in various areas of the project.”

High capacity signalling upgrades between West Footscray and Ginifer will now be built during the airport rail project.