The Dan Andrew’s Government’s $50 billion Suburban Rail Loop was announced just prior to last year’s Victorian State Election. It was never subjected for assessment by Infrastructure Australia or Infrastructure Victoria. There is no business case. And Victoria’s transport department wasn’t even told about the plan for fear that it would attempt to block the project within government.
It is not surprising, then, that a wide variety of transport experts have slammed the suburban rail loop, including: the Grattan Institute; Professor John Stanley – one of the authors of Plan Melbourne; Dr Crystal Legacy – Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning at the University of Melbourne; and Des Grogan – civil and traffic engineer.
Now a coalition of transport groups, councils and planning academics have attacked the $50 billion Suburban Rail Loop project, claiming the money would be far better spent on the Metro 2 tunnel connecting Melbourne’s North and Western suburbs:
