Melbourne's transport divide: The Allan government's priorities are off track

The Age

17 hours ago

In August 2018, three months out from the state election, then premier Daniel Andrews stepped out of the locomotive of Victorian government and changed the points on transport policy.
Until then, his voting and taxpaying passengers had been heading towards destinations known as Metro 2, creating a new underground line between Newport and Clifton Hill via Fishermans Bend, and the Western Rail Plan, which would have seen train lines to Melton and Wyndham electrified to meet growing passenger demand and ultimately improved connections between Melbourne and the regional centres of Ballarat and Geelong.
But that August a number of unscheduled stops were added to the route. Ministers, bureaucrats and key government agencies were all blindsided by 'the biggest public transport project in history', at first known as Operation Halo but now familiar to us as the Suburban Rail Loop. Originally costed at 'up to $50 billion', that has now become the estimate just for construction of the first two stages, connecting Cheltenham to Box Hill.
That the eastern part of the loop was given priority – and, indeed, that the belated business case presented for it only considered that section of the mammoth project – both raised doubts about whether we would ever reach our earlier destinations. Those doubts were compounded when the government reneged on its commitments to build new lines to the city's west.
This week our reporters' freedom of information requests unearthed a letter Paul Younis – this state's most senior transport bureaucrat – wrote to his Commonwealth counterpart a year ago. In it, he refers to a report warning of a transport crisis in Melbourne's northern and western suburbs if their rail systems are not comprehensively overhauled.
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We can't show you that report because neither the Allan government nor the Albanese government will divulge it. But we have been covering the facts on which its conclusions are built for years. The west is the fastest-growing part of our capital, with estimates suggesting its population will reach 1.47 million people by 2046. In his letter, Younis wrote that 'more than twice the population of Canberra is forecast to move into [Melbourne's north and west] in the next 15 years'.
Even as Australia's peak infrastructure body casts doubt on whether the SRL East can really be delivered to the projected time frame and cost, and calls on the Allan government to develop 'exit strategies', the rest of the city is left watching the screen and wondering if their service will ever arrive.
The inhabitants of the north and west cannot continue to be so poorly connected to the rest of our city if our economy is to prosper. As opposition public transport spokesman Matthew Guy has said: 'The Suburban Rail Loop is a nice to have, but electrifying to Wallan, Melton and Wyndham Vale is a must-have.'