A rail link to Melbourne Airport could not be built without a metropolitan rail tunnel, federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese says.
The Melbourne Metro rail tunnel was vital to ease congestion on Melbourne's rail system and allow new projects such as the airport rail link and Doncaster rail link to be viable, Mr Albanese said.
Three billion dollars in federal funding was available for the metro tunnel but the Victorian government appeared to have walked away from it, he said.
"Unless you do the Melbourne Metro you can't do the Doncaster extension, you can't do an airport line," Mr Albanese told Fairfax Radio.
"You need to fix up that congestion that is there on the inner rail system."
Mr Albanese said politics had got in the way of discussions with the Victorian government on the metro tunnel and he hopes after the federal election the state government will reconsider taking the funding.
The Victorian government lists the East West road tunnel as its number one transport priority.
The federal opposition has committed $1.5 billion to funding the road link.
Comment is being sought from the Victorian government.
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