No answers on when Melbourne’s west will link up to rail loop
The Allan government has defended its multi-decade plan to connect the west with the Suburban Rail Loop after criticism residents have been “strung along”.
Victoria
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The Allan government is refusing to say when Melbourne’s west would be connected to its 90km Suburban Rail Loop after the opposition warned it was unlikely to happen for at least 40 years.
As debate rages over the mega project’s funding, Suburban Rail Loop Minister Harriet Shing was grilled about whether she could tell voters in this weekend’s Werribee by-election when the section of the SRL linking their suburb to Tullamarine would be running trains.
The SRL was announced in 2018 by former premier Daniel Andrews, with the aim to build the project in three stages, starting with a 26km tunnel between Cheltenham and Box Hill in Melbourne’s southeast.
The final section would be the Tullamarine to Werribee section.
In response to questions about the western section’s timelines from opposition major projects spokesman Evan Mulholland, Ms Shing said the project was a “multi-decade” plan, and pointed to the 56 years it took for the City Loop to be planned and built.
“The City Loop … was first proposed in 1929, and it was delivered in 1985,” she said.
“We need to make sure that as (the SRL) is staged, and as we work through everything from value capture through to development, we are doing so in a way that is careful, based on information that is current at the time, and is responsible.”
Mr Mulholland said the SRL West was a “cruel hoax on the people of Werribee”, and that on construction schedules available for the first two sections, it would be unlikely to be built until the 2060s.
“The people of Werribee have been strung along for years while Jacinta Allan funnels billions into the Suburban Rail Loop, ignoring the urgent needs of Melbourne’s western suburbs,” he said.
Ms Shing also faced questions about the release of a secret document on SRL risks created in 2020, which the government fought to suppress for three years.
As revealed by the Herald Sun, the “strategic risks” spreadsheet raised concerns about funding – which have still not been solved – and had advice to control information on costs during the early stages of its development.
Ms Shing said that document was “out of date”, but dodged questions about why her government had fought so long to keep it secret.
Billions of dollars have already been spent on the SRL East, which is a $34.5bn tunnel between Cheltenham and Box Hill, and major contracts worth $5.3bn have been inked.
Premier Jacinta Allan said the government still wanted a third of that project’s funding to come from the Commonwealth, but has only been promised $2.2bn by the Albanese Government.
The state opposition has criticised the SRL, but has not said whether it would scrap the Suburban Rail Loop if it won the 2026 state election, calling for the Government to come clean on whether there are exit clauses in the contracts already been signed.
Labor figures say the opposition would have two choices, to tear up signed contracts or pause the project – both of which would have significant costs.
Originally published as No answers on when Melbourne’s west will link up to rail loop
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