A controversial city-shaping rail project is facing mounting community backlash as its future hangs in the balance.
Melbourne's Suburban Rail Loop has become a political punching bag over cost concerns and criticism is increasing among local residents and groups.
A document prepared by the Suburban Rail Loop Authority in July 2024, obtained by the Victorian coalition under freedom of information laws, suggests opposition is mounting to station precinct plans for high-rise apartments.
Some 71 per cent of initial consultation responses on the six station precincts in Cheltenham, Clayton, Monash, Glen Waverley, Burwood and Box Hill were assessed to agree to the plans, compared with 19 per cent for disagree.
Within a matter of months, overall support had fallen to 50 per cent and opposition was up to 42 per cent following a second round of consultation.
Changing sentiment was particularly stark for draft plans in Cheltenham and Box Hill, with support plummeting from 63 per cent and 71 per cent to 23 per cent and 22 per cent respectively.
Overall disagreement jumped from 25 per cent to 66 per cent for Cheltenham and from 17 per cent to 71 per cent for Box Hill.
Victorian Opposition Leader Brad Battin, who has called for the state government to immediately cancel the project, said the loop has "no friends", and the feedback sends a clear message to Premier Jacinta Allan.
"The Allan Labor government have taken a dud project to the election on two separate occasions with not all the facts," he said.
"And now those facts are coming out on the table, the Victorian community simply don't want it."
The proposed 90km orbital rail loop is intended to run from Cheltenham in Melbourne's southeast to Werribee in the outer west via the airport at Tullamarine.
The entire project was originally estimated to cost $50 billion when unveiled by Victorian Labor ahead of the 2018 state election.
Its price tag was revised to $34.5 billion for the eastern section alone, but Infrastructure Australia recently cast doubt on that estimate and called for an "exit strategy".
Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny suggested the government was not dissuaded by the negative community reaction and would plough ahead with the project.
"This is a project that is going to be delivered over 10-20 years," she said.
"This is a project that is setting Victoria up for the future ... this is a project that is going to put Melbourne on the world map."
She swatted away repeated questions on whether the debt-saddled state can afford to pay for the rail loop, with Victoria counting on the federal government to cover a third of its cost.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has branded the rail project a "cruel hoax" and pledged to cancel $2.2 billion in federal funding earmarked for the first stage, if elected on May 3.
