The Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) is a
fully automated rapid transit
Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be ...
system under construction in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...
,
Victoria,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
. The project would connect suburbs from the
Central Business District
A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...
(CBD) along an approximately corridor. The two main stages, SRL East and SRL North, would together form a single
orbital line with 13 stations between
Cheltenham
Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...
and
Melbourne Airport
Melbourne Airport , colloquially known as Tullamarine Airport, is the primary airport serving the city of Melbourne, and the second busiest airport in Australia. It opened in 1970 to replace the nearby Essendon Airport. Melbourne Airport is t ...
, connecting eight existing
Melbourne rail lines. The SRL Airport component, in the city's west, would be formed by the separate
Melbourne Airport rail link
Melbourne Airport Rail is a rail link under construction from the Melbourne CBD to Melbourne Airport at Tullamarine. Since October 2022 the project has also been branded as SRL Airport. The rail link is to run through the under-construction Metr ...
project, which began construction in 2022.
Several orbital rail schemes have been proposed and some constructed throughout Melbourne's history, but the rail network has remained largely radial. The SRL received significant attention in 2018 when the
Labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the la ...
government of Victoria
The Victoria State Government, also referred to as just the Victorian Government, is the state-level authority for Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Like all state governments, it is formed by three independent branches: the executive ...
led by
Premier
Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier.
A premier will normally be a head of governm ...
Daniel Andrews announced it as a policy in the lead up to the
state election of that November. Initial planning for the SRL was carried out in secret prior to its announcement, and, when the plans were released, publicity was widespread. The SRL plan was praised for its long-term vision and ambition, as well as being an innovative solution to the difficulties faced by
Melbourne's transport network, but criticised for its political motives and enormous cost.
Construction of the SRL would take more than 25 years and is estimated by the project's business case to cost between $30.7 and $57.6 billion depending on project staging, of which capital costs would be between $24.1 and $45.1 billion. SRL East and North will be built entirely
underground
Underground most commonly refers to:
* Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth
Underground may also refer to:
Places
* The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston
* The Underground ...
along new rail alignments. In the west, SRL Airport will be formed by the at-grade and elevated Melbourne Airport rail link and SRL West has not yet been defined in detail, but may be formed by electrifying and extending the existing
Deer Park–West Werribee railway line
The Deer Park–West Werribee railway line is a non-electrified rail line on the western fringes of the metropolitan area of Melbourne, Victoria. The line carries the Geelong-Melbourne rail service operated by the state regional rail provider ...
to
Werribee station. The project has been divided into four distinct stages.
In 2021, the Victorian government announced that the first stage of the project between Cheltenham and Box Hill, SRL East, would commence construction first and be open by 2035.
On 2 June 2022, early works began on SRL East with major construction expected to commence in 2023, followed by tunnelling works in 2026.
Background
![Melbourne rail map with former lines and planned extensions](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Melbourne_rail_map_with_former_lines_and_planned_extensions.svg)
The Melbourne transport network was substantially developed in the late 19th century, when the newly available technology of the railway enabled population growth away from the city centre. The result was the development of a largely radial network, which, over the following century, reinforced a model of urban development focused on heavy daily commuter flows into and out of the CBD. Furthermore, a program of
freeway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...
construction in the wake of the
1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan
The 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan was a road and rail transport plan for Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia, instituted by Henry Bolte's state government. Most prominently, the plan recommended the provision of an extensive ...
reinforced the structure of the suburbs and introduced
car dependence
Car dependency is the concept that some city layouts cause cars to be favoured over alternate forms of transportation, such as bicycles, public transit, and walking.
Overview
In many modern cities, automobiles are convenient and sometimes nec ...
to new regions of development not served by the legacy rail network. As a consequence, Melbourne, unlike many cities of comparable size, did not develop any major centres of employment or dense population in its outlying regions over the course of the 20th century.
A number of orbital lines were constructed at the peak of railway development, but most failed to attract the necessary traffic of passengers and goods to remain sustainable into the late 20th century. The
Outer Circle, which ran from
Oakleigh on the
Dandenong line to
Fairfield on the
Hurstbridge line via the
Glen Waverley
Glen Waverley is a list of Melbourne suburbs, suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Monash local government ...
and
Lilydale lines, was constructed between 1888 and 1891 but closed by 1897, though it was partly reopened as the
Alamein branch line.
The
Inner Circle linking the modern-day
Upfield and
Mernda
Mernda is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 28 km north-east of Melbourne's central business district, located within the City of Whittlesea local government area. Mernda recorded a population of 23,369 at the 2021 census.
Hi ...
lines, was opened in 1888 but closed to passengers in 1941.
The
Albion-Jacana line and
Newport-Sunshine line in the city's west, though performing a similar purpose, were never intended to carry passenger traffic.
In the late 20th century, interest grew in enabling orbital journeys between Melbourne suburbs. Included in the 1969 Plan were a number of orbital freeways, virtually all of which were constructed over the following decades. The
M80 Ring Road through the outer western and northern suburbs was constructed in stages between 1989 and 1999, and, by the time of its completion, was claimed by its advocates to have been partly responsible for a massive economic boom in the western suburbs, centred on its points of intersection with existing radial routes.
EastLink, a similar orbital freeway through the eastern suburbs, opened in 2008,
but was less successful, failing to reduce traffic meaningfully on parallel arterials such as
Springvale Road.
Detailed plans for the
North East Link
The North East Link is an under construction 26–kilometre tolled motorway scheme in Melbourne, Australia. Its stated objective is to connect the Metropolitan Ring Road at Greensborough with the Eastern Freeway at Bulleen, where the freeway ...
, connecting the Ring Road and EastLink to complete the orbital route, were released in 2018, with construction expected to start in 2020 for an anticipated completion date of 2027.
Despite the investment in orbital road transport from 1990, little changed in the structure of the public transport network. No new suburban railway lines after 1930, and trams were increasingly delayed by traffic congestion on key routes.
From 2002, the
SmartBus program introduced three orbital bus routes in an attempt to meet the city's burgeoning need for outer suburban public transport. In addition to serving new corridors previously without mass transit, the buses were operated at a relatively high frequency and along direct routes, in contrast to the existing network of infrequent and circuitous routes. As a result, the SmartBus routes became the most heavily used in Melbourne, and were widely praised as a model for recasting the future public transport network.
History
Proposal
In August 2018, three months prior to the
2018 Victorian state election
Eighteen or 18 may refer to:
* 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19
* one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018
Film, television and entertainment
* ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short ...
, incumbent Premier
Daniel Andrews promised that a re-elected
Labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the la ...
government would undertake "the biggest public transport building program in Australian history", in a speech to the
Committee for Economic Development of Australia
The Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) is a bipartisan, non-profit organisation providing thought leadership and policy perspectives on the economic and social issues affecting Australia.
Its expressed aim is to "promote nat ...
. The comments were interpreted as a hint that as-yet-unannounced projects would be revealed closer to the election, although Andrews provided no detail in his speech.
On 27 August, Andrews revealed plans for the Suburban Rail Loop for the first time: a orbital line for Melbourne's rail network, connecting 11 of the city's existing rail lines and serving new regions of the middle and outer suburbs at an estimated cost of $50 billion.
The government committed $300 million to complete a business case and feasibility study should it be re-elected, noting that the project would take several terms of government to complete.
In the days following the proposal, the government revealed that its plan had been under consideration within
Development Victoria
Development or developing may refer to:
Arts
*Development hell, when a project is stuck in development
*Filmmaking#Development, Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting
*Development (music), the process thematic material ...
, a planning agency under the
Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning
The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) was a government department in Victoria, Australia.
Commencing operation in January 2015, the DELWP was created in the aftermath of the 2014 state election, with Premier Daniel Andr ...
for 12 months. Controversially, neither
Infrastructure Victoria nor
Transport for Victoria
Transport for Victoria is a statutory office of the Department of Transport that is responsible for the planning and coordination of all transport systems in Victoria, Australia.
It acts as an umbrella agency for Public Transport Victoria (PTV, ...
, both established by the Andrews government, had been involved in the SRL's planning stages; furthermore, neither agency had identified the need for a similar project in their long-term plans for the transport network. Andrews defended the decision to develop the SRL independently of infrastructure authorities, arguing that while Infrastructure Victoria "have lots of good ideas, they don't have every good idea".
The tender process for the
Melbourne Airport rail link
Melbourne Airport Rail is a rail link under construction from the Melbourne CBD to Melbourne Airport at Tullamarine. Since October 2022 the project has also been branded as SRL Airport. The rail link is to run through the under-construction Metr ...
project was launched in mid-September, and the state government confirmed that it anticipated the airport link would form part of the SRL West, with construction beginning in 2022
In mid-October, Labor
federal Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten
William Richard Shorten (born 12 May 1967) is an Australian politician currently serving as Minister for Government Services and Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme since 2022. He previously served as leader of the opposition a ...
announced support for the SRL, including a commitment for $300 million in initial federal funding should the Labor Party be elected.
The state government also indicated that it would be prepared to add additional stops to the loop to those included in the original announcement, particularly in the western suburbs.
Days later, a leaked document from Transport for Victoria showed that the SRL had not been included in the transport authority's long-term plan for the rail network.
Planning
$300 million was allocated to planning works for the SRL in the 2019 state budget.
Rail Projects Victoria announced registrations of interest for potential contractors were open in June,
and the first geotechnical investigations began in July in Box Hill.
The state government announced the formation of a Suburban Rail Loop Authority in September, at the same time as confirming station precincts for SRL East.
In November 2019, the government announced that the loop would be an operationally independent, standalone line using different rail technology from the
existing suburban rail network.
The system would use new, smaller
metro
Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to:
Geography
* Metro (city), a city in Indonesia
* A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center
Public transport
* Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...
rollingstock that is four to five carriages long, allowing shorter platforms.
The Premier announced an intention to use private investment to help fund the line, but did not indicate whether the line would be
driverless.
In 2020, the government committed a further $2.2 billion for initial and early works on the loop, with expressions of interest opened for contractors to deliver these works.
Jacinta Allan
Jacinta Marie Allan (born 19 September 1973) is an Australian politician serving as the 29th and current Deputy Premier of Victoria, deputy premier of Victoria since June 2022. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party (Victorian Branch), Vi ...
, who in her role as Minister for Transport Infrastructure had overseen the SRL since its inception, was given the additional role of Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop.
Release of Business and Investment Case
The Business and Investment Case of SRL was released in August 2021, primarily focusing on SRL East and North.
SRL East will commence building in 2022 and is expected to finish by 2035. The rail line will be fully underground between Cheltenham and the Airport, while SRL West is subject to further investigation, planning and development.
The business case modelled two staging scenarios. The first scenario has SRL North opening in two sections, the first from Box Hill to Reservoir opening in 2043 and the second between Reservoir and the Airport opening in 2053. This scenario has estimated capital costs of $24.1 to $40.2 billion and total costs of $30.7 to $50.5 billion, with estimated benefits of $48.5 to $58.7 billion.
The second scenario is faster but higher cost and has the section from Box Hill to Reservoir opening by 2038 and the full SRL North corridor from Box Hill to the Airport opening by 2043. This scenario had capital costs of $27.1 to $45.1 billion, total costs of $35.1 to $57.6 billion and benefits of $54.7 to $65.8 billion.
The timing and cost would be further refined through the tender and planning process. This gave the project a cost-benefit ratio range between 1.0 and 1.7.
The government stated that it expected $30 to $34.5 billion would be spent on the project over the 14 years to the opening of the first stage in 2035, with significant works on SRL North taking place as part of that expenditure.
An Environmental Effects Statement (EES) process for SRL East was initiated in late 2021 that provided more detail on the station locations, the precinct designs, the local effects of the project and the design of the train system.
Community and stakeholder consultation was launched as part of this process.
In October 2021, the Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allan introduced legislation to the Victorian Parliament to establish the Suburban Rail Loop Authority as a statutory government body and grant it a number of transport and planning powers.
SRL East construction
Early works
In November 2021, the State Government committed $9.3 billion in funding towards SRL East on top of $2.5 billion previously allocated for planning and early works.
Engineering firm Laing O'Rourke was awarded the contract to deliver early works, which were set to begin in 2022.
In March 2022, a tender process was opened for two major works packages to deliver the SRL East tunnels.
The first is a tunnel contract between Cheltenham and Glen Waverley, the second is from Glen Waverley to Box Hill. The government announced that up to ten tunnel boring machines would be used to dig SRL East.
In May 2022, prior to the
2022 Australian federal election
The 2022 Australian federal election was held on Saturday 21 May 2022 to elect members of the 47th Parliament of Australia. The incumbent Liberal/National Coalition government, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, sought to win a fourth conse ...
, Labor leader Anthony Albanese pledged $2.2 billion in federal funding for the SRL if his party was elected. Following the party's success at the election, the new
Albanese Government allocated the money in its October 2022-3 budget.
In June 2022, construction work began on the project with early works and utility relocations commencing at the Clayton precinct.
Major construction
In August 2022, the Victorian Environment Minister
Lily D'Ambrosio
Liliana D'Ambrosio (born 30 July 1964, in Melbourne) is an Australian politician. She has been a Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly since 2002, representing the electorate of Mill Park. She is presently Minister for Ener ...
approved the Environment Effects Statement planning process, meaning the project could proceed to other necessary planning approvals and towards major construction. The approval recommended a number of extra actions by the SRLA to minimise impacts to local residents, including replacing open space on the project, limiting construction noise, additional cycling and walking connections, and more support for local businesses. Shortly after, the Victorian Liberal Opposition Leader
Matthew Guy
Matthew Jason Guy (born 6 March 1974) is an Australian politician. He has been a Liberal Party of Australia Member of the Parliament of Victoria since 2006, representing Northern Metropolitan Region in the Legislative Council (2006–2014) an ...
announced he planned to scrap the project if his party formed government after the
2022 Victorian state election
The 2022 Victorian state election was held on Saturday, 26 November 2022 to elect the 60th Parliament of Victoria. All 88 seats in the Legislative Assembly (lower house) and all 40 seats in the Legislative Council (upper house) were up for el ...
.
Project description
![Box Hill Station Street](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Box_Hill_Station_Street.jpg)
The 2021 Environmental Effects Statement outlined the key design elements of the project, saying the SRL would provide a high-frequency metro service with
fully automated, four-car trains.
The trains would be approximately 93 metres long, 3.2 metres wide and 4 metres high, capable of an operating line speed of 100 kilometres per hour, running on an alternating current system.
This design differs from Melbourne's
existing heavy rail system, which uses longer, heavier rolling-stock on a direct current power system.
The project has two initial stages, SRL East and SRL North, which will consist of 13 stations and twin tunnels running from Cheltenham in the city's south-east to Melbourne Airport in the north-west. The design of a future western stage from the airport to Werribee was not detailed in the project's 2021 business case.
SRL East will be the first section to be built, with planning and construction to move immediately onto SRL North.
SRL East from Cheltenham to Box Hill is planned to be open by 2035, with SRL North to then open in two stages, the first from Box Hill to Reservoir, and the second from Reservoir to Melbourne Airport.
Stations will be two level, with large concourses and escalators, with interchanges to connecting train and bus services.
Stations are also set to include bicycle parking, over-site developments and broader precinct redevelopments.
A train stabling and maintenance facility is planned to be built in
Heatherton on a former landfill site to accommodate the train fleet for both SRL East and North.
Under state legislation passed in 2021, the Suburban Rail Loop Authority was given planning powers over the area from each SRL station.
This grants the authority the power to bypass local councils and rezone or develop land in the station precincts, allowing for increased housing and job density, a move that prompted criticism from councils.
Proposed route
The SRL consists of four sections. SRL East and SRL North will form one continuous rail line stretching from Cheltenham to Melbourne Airport. The two western sections, SRL Airport and SRL West, are separate lines formed by distinct projects that would require an interchange to access.
The SRL Strategic Assessment produced by Development Victoria in 2018 identified four distinct sections of the route, some of which are formed by other projects or existing rail corridors. The overall corridor selected was originally identified as a "middle" corridor, and was assessed against other routes closer to and further from the CBD before being prioritised for further investigation.
SRL East
SRL East between
Southland station on the
Frankston line
The Frankston railway line is a 42.7 km commuter rail passenger train service in Melbourne, Victoria. It operates between Flinders Street in the Melbourne central business district and Frankston through the south-eastern suburbs includi ...
and
Box Hill station on the
Belgrave railway line
The Belgrave railway line is a commuter rail line operating between Flinders Street in the Melbourne central business district and Belgrave, through the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, including Richmond, Cremorne, Burnley, Hawthorn, Hawthorn ...
and
Lilydale railway line
The Lilydale railway line is a commuter railway line operating between Flinders Street in the Melbourne central business district and Lilydale through Melbourne's eastern suburbs including Richmond, Cremorne, Burnley, Hawthorn, Hawthorn Ea ...
would be the first constructed, and be entirely underground along a new alignment. From south to north, SRL East would also include stations at
Clayton on the
Dandenong rail corridor;
Monash University
Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...
's
Clayton campus;
Glen Waverley station, the terminus of
the line by the same name; and
Burwood, near the main campus of
Deakin University
Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia.
Its main campuses are in Melbourne's Burwood suburb, Geelong Waurn Ponds, ...
. Government press releases identify Clayton as the location of a "super-hub", allowing interchange between SRL services, frequent Dandenong corridor services, and regional
Gippsland line services.
SRL East began construction in 2022 and is planned to open by 2035.
SRL North
SRL North between Box Hill station and
Melbourne Airport
Melbourne Airport , colloquially known as Tullamarine Airport, is the primary airport serving the city of Melbourne, and the second busiest airport in Australia. It opened in 1970 to replace the nearby Essendon Airport. Melbourne Airport is t ...
would be constructed after SRL East, and include stops at
Doncaster
Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...
, a middle suburb long proposed for the terminus of a
new rail line;
Heidelberg station on the
Hurstbridge line;
Reservoir station on the
Mernda line;
Bundoora, home to the main campus of
La Trobe University
La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria an ...
;
Broadmeadows station on the
Craigieburn line; and the airport itself. This section of the SRL would also be constructed entirely underground, and Broadmeadows would function as a "super-hub" for the
Seymour and
North East regional lines.
SRL Airport
The under-construction Melbourne Airport rail link between the airport and
Sunshine station will form the SRL Airport section of the loop, with one intermediate station at
Keilor East
Keilor East is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Brimbank and Moonee Valley local government areas. Keilor East recorded a population of 15,078 at ...
. Trains will not continue onto Werribee, however, but will run into the
Melbourne CBD
The Melbourne central business district (also known colloquially as simply "The City" or "The CBD") is the city centre and main urban area of the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, centred on the Hoddle Grid, the oldest part of the city lai ...
via the
Metro Tunnel
The Metro Tunnel (previously known during planning as the Melbourne Metro Rail Project) is a metropolitan rail infrastructure project currently under construction in Melbourne, Australia. It includes the construction of twin 9-kilometre rail tun ...
.
Interchange would be required at
Melbourne Airport station and Sunshine station to connect with other sections of the SRL.
This section would be mostly constructed along the existing railway corridor at surface level, commencing construction at the same time as the SRL East section in 2022. It is planned to open in 2029.
SRL West
Apart from the termini at Sunshine and
Werribee
Werribee is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Melbourne City Centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham Local government areas of Victoria, local government a ...
, the Strategic Assessment did not identify specific routes, intermediate stations or connections to other lines for SRL West, and suggested it would be the final section constructed. The
Western Rail Plan
The Western Rail Plan is a metropolitan rail infrastructure project being planned in Melbourne, Australia. The project was initially announced during the 2018 Victorian State Election by the State Government. It includes the electrification of two ...
published by Transport for Victoria in October 2018 suggested that the role of SRL West could be undertaken by
electrifying the
Deer Park - West Werribee line to
Wyndham Vale station as an extension of the radial suburban network, and extending the
Werribee line to meet it at Wyndham Vale.
Later documents released by the government confirmed that Wyndham Vale would become an interchange station.
Reception
Political
Federal
Infrastructure Minister Alan Tudge
Alan Tudge (born 24 February 1971) is an Australian politician. He is a member of the Liberal Party and has been a member of the House of Representatives since the 2010 federal election. He was a cabinet minister in the Morrison government fr ...
said that the Suburban Rail Loop's "big vision is great" but said the federal government would withhold its support until further details and costings of the plan were provided.
Following the plan's original announcement, federal Labor leader Bill Shorten said that he "liked the principle" of the SRL, but would not immediately commit to supporting it with federal funding.
He announced federal Labor's official support in mid-October 2018, committing $300 million in business case funding and saying the project responded to an "old map of Melbourne...
hat
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
simply doesn't work any more". His infrastructure spokesman,
Anthony Albanese
Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2019 and the member of parlia ...
, said that "this project here in Melbourne is the most transformative project for any capital city in Australia".
Shorten later called the project the "
Holy Grail
The Holy Grail (french: Saint Graal, br, Graal Santel, cy, Greal Sanctaidd, kw, Gral) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miracul ...
" of public transport projects.
State opposition treasury spokesman
Michael O'Brien said that the SRL was a "plan for the next election rather than a plan for the next generation", and called on the government to send its plans to Infrastructure Victoria for independent costings and analysis.
The plan was embraced by influential former Liberal premier
Jeff Kennett
Jeffrey Gibb Kennett (born 2 March 1948) is a former Australian politician who was the 43rd Premier of Victoria between 1992 and 1999, and currently a media commentator. He was previously the president of the Hawthorn Football Club, serving ...
, who called for bipartisan support for the project immediately after it was announced, despite expressing doubts about the accuracy of the $50 billion costing.
At the election of November 2018, the traditionally Liberal-held seats of
Mount Waverley
Mount Waverley is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Monash local government area. Mount Waverley recorded a population of 35,340 at the 2021 census.
It ...
,
Burwood and
Box Hill – all falling along the path of the SRL proposal – were claimed by the Labor Party after large swings, leading to speculation among Labor MPs and electoral commentators that the SRL announcement had contributed significantly to the government being returned with an increased majority. The phenomenon was also replicated in a number of safe Labor seats which would benefit from the line.
Opposition Leader
Mathew Guy announced he would cancel the Suburban Rail Loop if the
Liberal party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
won the
2022 state election, arguing that the project was a waste of money. The SRL became a major and contentious issue during the campaign, with Guy pledging to reallocated the saved money to health infrastructure. Described by some commentators as a politically risky move in Melbourne's eastern suburbs that will be connected by the line, Guy committed to honour the $2.2 billion early works contract but reappropriate the remaining $9.6 billion allocated to the SRL by the government. After the Labor government won a third term at the election, Premier
Daniel Andrews said the result was the second clear endorsement of the project by Victorian voters.
Media
''
The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'', in its editorial the day following the announcement, wrote that "there are so many reasons to endorse this proposal that it’s easy to get carried away", but observed that "good government is ultimately about more than just vision. It’s about having the inventiveness, discipline and fiscal capacity to make that vision reality", and suggested that the true test for the SRL would be the government's ability to complete it.
''
Herald Sun
The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald S ...
'' political editor Matt Johnston was less supportive of what he called a "highly political" project, arguing that the comparisons to other major global cities ignored the fact that "Australia is fairly remote, has a relatively small population and has higher labour costs". However, Johnston also noted that "the route of the suburban rail loop... would go near to, or through, Liberal-held state seats such as Mount Waverley and Burwood
ndnear to, or through, federal Liberal seats such as Chisholm and Deakin".
Experts and lobby groups
The SRL was warmly received by the
Public Transport Users Association
The Public Transport Users Association is a community-based public transport lobby group in Victoria, Australia, based in Melbourne. It is run entirely by volunteers and has no full-time staff.
History and aims
The organisation was founded i ...
, with spokesman
Daniel Bowen
Daniel Bowen (born 1970) is a Melbourne resident, best known for having been the president of the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA), and the author of the blog, ''Diary of an Average Australian''. Bowen has published this blog continuousl ...
describing it as "Big City thinking" in an opinion piece.
Prominent public transport advocate Graham Currie also supported the plan for its potential to induce new development in the outer suburbs, although he admitted being stunned by the government's secretive planning process.
The
Royal Automobile Club of Victoria
The Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV) is a motoring club and mutual organisation. It offers various services to members, including insurance and roadside assistance.
It has about 30,000 ordinary club members who have access to the li ...
also offered in-principle support, saying that "it makes sense for the state to protect a rail corridor through what is now 'middle Melbourne'", although it also argued that the SRL should not overshadow other improvements to the network such as
Melbourne Metro 2.
The SRL plan was criticised by rail lobby group the Rail Futures Institute, who argued that its benefits could be produced by a substantially cheaper network of orbital light rail routes.
Marion Terill of the
Grattan Institute
Grattan Institute is an Australian public policy think tank, established in 2008. The Melbourne-based institute is non-aligned, defining itself as contributing "to public policy in Australia as a liberal democracy in a globalised economy." It is ...
was also critical, saying that travel demand did not warrant the investment required for the SRL.
Public
Media outlets reported massive levels of public support after the initial announcement of the plan.
An impromptu competition organised by ''The Age'' to redesign the Melbourne rail network map to incorporate the SRL received entries from leading cartographers and attracted thousands of public votes in the days after the announcement.
Criticism
Cost
Both the plausibility and practicality of the government's initial headline $50 billion construction cost for the project were the subject of significant commentary at the time of the SRL's original announcement.
Political opponents suggested that the government had wildly understated the cost of the project, with former premier Jeff Kennett calling the figure "irresponsibly and fraudulently inaccurate",
state opposition spokesmen suggesting the cost could be between $50 and $100 billion,
and federal infrastructure minister Alan Tudge later saying he believed $100–150 billion was a more likely range.
Independent experts agreed that the project was likely to ultimately cost more than the government's claim.
Prominent transport commentator
Daniel Bowen
Daniel Bowen (born 1970) is a Melbourne resident, best known for having been the president of the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA), and the author of the blog, ''Diary of an Average Australian''. Bowen has published this blog continuousl ...
, in a "back of the envelope" analysis, concluded that the government was "close to the mark" but expressed reservations about the accuracy of his estimate.
All these estimates suggest the tunnel will be more expensive than the $16 billion
Gotthard Base Tunnel
, rm, Tunnel da basa dal Sogn Gottard
, image = 20141120 gotthard-basistunnel02-wikipedia-hannes-ortlieb.jpg
, image_size = 250
, caption = Turnout at Faido multifunction station
, line = Gotthard Line
, location = Switzerland (Uri, Grisons and ...
through the Alps in Europe
Separately, transport planners criticised the promises made by state and federal Labor for a total of $600 million in planning funding. ''The Age'' published comments from an engineer arguing that a "competent" business case could be completed for only $5 million.
Some commentary also questioned the capacity of the state to fund the project without severe impacts on its fiscal policy, irrespective of its actual cost.
In 2022, Victoria's Parliamentary Budget Office released analysis finding that the costs of SRL East would be in line with government's cost expectations at $36.5 billion by 2035, but that SRL East and North would together cost $81.7 billion to build when the full line opens in 2053, and $125 billion when including 30 years of asset expenditure after opening to 2085. The analysis, requested by the State Opposition, prompted calls in the media for the project to be shelved.
Patronage
The Strategic Analysis released by the government in 2018 projects total daily trips on the SRL of 400,000 by 2051, making the line the busiest in Melbourne. It suggests that morning peak would have a 60:40 ratio of clockwise to counter-clockwise travel, with the balance reversed in the afternoon peak; by comparison, Melbourne's radial lines operate at a 90:10 ratio.
Independent analysis of the plan by SGS Economics in the weeks following its release broadly supported the Strategic Assessment, noting that if the SRL had been in operation in 2018, a catchment around each station would have captured "roughly: 270,600 jobs, 416,100 residents, 212,300 workers, and 112,600 higher education students". It argued that SRL East, consequently, would have served 30,000–50,000 daily trips if in operation in 2018, with the qualification that the level of service provided would need to make travel time competitive with car journeys. However, it concluded that the benefits and potential patronage of the North-East and two western sections were more nebulous, as their impact would depend on the efficiency with which the project was leveraged to create new development.
Notes
References
External links
Department of Transport – Suburban Rail LoopVictoria's Big Build – Suburban Rail LoopSuburban Rail Loop - Business and Investment CaseSuburban Rail Loop - Appendix B1: SRL Precinct Location Options Assessment Summary
{{MelbournePublicTransport
Proposed railway lines in Australia
Proposed rail infrastructure in Australia
Proposed buildings and structures in Melbourne
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Underground commuter rail