The federal Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, has announced $2.2bn for the eastern section of the Victorian government’s Suburban Rail Loop, described as the biggest transport project in the state’s history.
Speaking to reporters in Box Hill, which takes in Victoria’s most marginal electorate of Chisholm, Albanese said the project would transform the way Melburnians travelled around the city.
“It will do what great cities do,” he said on Tuesday, standing alongside the state premier, Daniel Andrews, for the first time in this election campaign.
“If you think about the great cities of the world – London, Paris, New York – you don’t have to get into the centre to get around those cities. What the Suburban Rail Loop does is improve the efficiency of the entire rail network.”
Here’s what we know about the project.
When was the Suburban Rail Loop first announced?
The project was announced in August 2018, just months out from the state election, via a slick two-minute video posted on Andrews’s social media.
“The biggest public transport project in history is coming to Victoria,” the voiceover said, before unveiling a proposed 90km underground railway line, running between Cheltenham in the south-east and Werribee in the south-west via Melbourne airport.
The video said the new line would carry 400,000 passengers a day when complete, taking 200,000 cars off the road and thousands of commuters off existing city-bound trains.
At the time, Andrews said the government would commit $300m to a full business case, design and pre-construction works for the project.
“I won’t be the premier when this project is finished, but if we are re-elected I will be the premier that gets this project started,” he said in 2018.
The government went on to win in a landslide, with an above-average swing to Labor in electorates set to benefit from the loop. Three of the eight seats Labor picked up at the election – Box Hill, Burwood and Mount Waverley – had new stations promised.
Where is the project at?
It depends who you ask.
In November 2020, Andrews announced $2.2bn for early works for the first 26km of the project, dubbed SRL East, as well as the location of the six stations between Cheltenham and Box Hill.
The following year, the government released its business and investment case for SRL East and SRL North, which runs from Box Hill to Melbourne airport.
At the time, it was estimated SRL East would cost up to $34.5bn to complete by 2035. The business case did not detail plans for the western section of the loop, between Melbourne airport and Werribee.
In November 2021, the government announced a further $9.3bn for SRL East and awarded the contract for the first phase of works to global construction and engineering firm Laing O’Rourke.
The firm has since established its first work site at Clayton and will begin preparing for the launch of the tunnel boring machines, moving and protecting utilities, ground improvement, geotechnical investigations and road modifications.
Expressions of interest are now open for two tunnelling packages, to be awarded in late 2023 and 2024.
An environment effects statement is still being assessed for the project.
The state opposition, meanwhile, has promised an audit of the project before contracts are signed if it wins the 26 November election.
How much federal funding has been provided?
The short answer is none.
The federal Coalition government rejected a request for $11.5bn in funding over 10 years to help build the project, arguing it doesn’t stack up.
What are the major parties saying about the project?
After Tuesday’s announcement the prime minister, Scott Morrison, claimed Albanese was a “pushover” for Labor premiers.
“What would happen with Anthony Albanese, he’ll be happy to pay for the failures of state Labor governments with federal taxpayers’ money,” he said.
Andrews dismissed the criticism, saying the state did not get its fair share of funding from the Morrison government.
“Every federal dollar that Victorians get from the miserable Morrison government, [it’s like] we ought to bow our head and treat it like it’s foreign aid,” he said.
“We have been ripped off by this Liberal-National government, and instead of Mr Morrison talking about these issues, he ought to have been here delivering for Victorian workers and families.
“The contrast could not be clearer – Anthony Albanese is about building things. He’s about partnership. He’s about creating jobs.”
Albanese said he wanted to work constructively will all state premiers, noting more commonwealth funding was allocated to urban public transport during his time as infrastructure minister “than all previous governments combined”.
“I prioritise funding not based upon an electoral map, [but] on need,” he said.
Will the $2.2bn pledged by Albanese be enough?
During the 2019 federal election, the then opposition leader Bill Shorten appeared alongside Andrews and Albanese – who was then Labor’s infrastructure spokesperson – to announce $10bn for the project if Labor were to win government that year.
On Tuesday, Albanese said the $2.2bn commitment “should give the Victorian government confidence that they’ll have a partner with the national government”.
“This is a project that will go for a long period of time,” he said.
Andrews said: “We would always like more. But $2.2bn versus zero from Scott Morrison … this is the sort of stuff that comes out of prime ministers who are just run out of time.”
