LABOR’S RECORD INVESTMENT IN MELBOURNE’S SUBURBAN RAIL LOOP - SUNDAY, 12 MAY 2019

12 May 2019

A Shorten Labor Government will deliver the single biggest federal investment in a public transport project in history, with a $15 billion, 15 year investment in Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop.

This election will be a choice between a united Shorten Labor Government which will build the essential transport infrastructure Melbourne needs, or more of the Liberals’ cuts and chaos.
 
We need real change, because more of the same isn’t good enough.
 
Premier Daniel Andrews announced the Suburban Rail Loop project last year. It will be a 90 kilometre rail ring around Melbourne’s suburbs, with 12 new underground stations connecting the city’s major train lines.
 
Suburban Rail Loop will be a game changer for Australia’s fastest-growing city. It means faster travel times and more jobs for Victorians.
 
It will allow passengers to move between Melbourne’s suburbs without the need to go via the central business district, making public transport much quicker and more convenient.
 
Planners expect the new network will attract 400,000 passengers a day and take 200,000 cars off Melbourne’s roads.  
 
This investment will be delivered over 15 years. It includes the previously announced $5 billion investment in the Melbourne Airport Rail Link and is in addition to $300 million already allocated by Labor to support the development of the business case and progress planning work for the Suburban Rail Loop.
 
The new investment means that when construction is ready to go in 2022, a
Federal Labor Government will have the funds in the budget to help get it started.
 
Melbournians expect their Federal Government to support the Suburban Rail Loop. If you don’t back the Suburban Rail Loop, then you’re not backing Melbourne. 
 
Only Labor will build Suburban Rail Loop – a Victorian Labor Government and a Federal Labor Government.
 
Federal Labor’s commitment to work with the Andrews Labor Government on the Suburban Rail Loop is part of our plan to increase investment in public transport around the nation.
 
This investment means the Andrews Government will have a real partner in Canberra, so they can get on with delivering the pipeline of transport infrastructure that Victoria needs.
 
Despite Victoria being home to one in four Australians, the Liberals and Nationals in Canberra have slashed the state’s share of the federal infrastructure budget to as low as seven per cent.
 
As Treasurer, Scott Morrison cut Victoria’s schools and hospitals, and as
Prime Minister he’s refusing to give Victorians their fair share of infrastructure funding.
 
Scott Morrison and the Liberals in Canberra are anti-public transport and
anti-Victoria.
 
End the chaos. Vote for change. Vote for Labor. 
 
Labor can pay for this commitment to the Suburban Rail Loop because we are closing unfair loopholes for multinationals and the top end of town.
 
Federal Labor’s investment in the Suburban Rail Loop is part of our infrastructure plan for Melbourne, which also includes:

  • $2 billion to help deliver the Metro Tunnel.
  • Building Victoria’s first fully separated high-speed busway from Doncaster Road to Hoddle Street as part of a $2 billion commitment to the North East Link project.
  • More than $1.5 billion to upgrade key roads across Melbourne’s northern and south eastern suburbs.
  • $475 million for public transport solutions to serve the needs of
    Monash University and employment precinct.
  • $225 million to fast-track the Frankston to Baxter Rail Upgrade.
  • Funding for Park and Ride commuter parking upgrades for railway stations across the Melbourne network.  

Funding for this commitment has been included in Labor’s Fair Go Budget Plan, available at http://www.alp.org.au/labors_fiscal_plan