Associate Editor of Business Terry McCrann likes what he sees with this years Victorian State budget
COMMUTERS will travel on four new superlines linking Melbourne’s outer suburbs as part of Melbourne Rail Link.
Southern Cross will become Melbourne’s main rail station after the works have been completed.
Victorians will have to wait at least nine years before they can use the $11 billion rail link that includes a train line to the airport.
The State Government today announced the biggest cash allocation for transport projects pledging $24 billion.
Work on the Metro Rail Link project will begin this year and the State Government has shelved its original plan that would have torn up Swanston St.
Instead, twin tunnels will be built from Southern Cross to South Yarra and travel through Fishermans Bend,
Underground stations will be built at Domain on St Kilda Rd and Montague at the new suburb of Fishermans Bend.
It will add 30 additional peak hour services and 35,000 extra passengers, when they begin running in 2023.
As part of the project the rail network will be made up of six separate lines.
For the first time someone in the outer east will be able to travel directly to Frankston via the new underground tunnels.
Commuters will also be able to travel directly to the airport from Pakenham and Cranbourne.
A new station will be built at Melbourne Airport with the train picking up airport passengers at Sunshine, Footscray, North Melbourne, Southern Cross, Flinders St, Richmond, South Yarra and Caulfield.
Treasurer Michael O’Brien today said plans were changed because the original blueprint had 19 peak services with 20,000.
“We get more services, more passengers and an airport for he same amount of money … and we avoid disrupting the CBD for years, shutting down businesses and costing jobs,” he said.
“This is very much the right decision to make. This is a budget that allocates money to build this project.”
MEANWWHILE, the Government’s plan for free travel on trams in the CBD will cost $60 million in its first year and almost double by 2017/18.
The plan to put more ticket inspectors on trains, trams and buses will cost $7.7 million.
There has been $300,000 set aside for planning for a train link to Avalon Airport.
The taxi reforms will be monitored with $1.1 million allocated.
The removal of four level crossings in Glen Iris, Ormond, Blackburn and St Albans will cost $3.1 million in its first year.
The Western Section of the East West Link will cost up to $10 billion, and will connect with the road’s eastern section at City Link to the Western Ring Road.
Funding has been allocated to boost one of Melbourne’s busiest train lines with $2.5 billion going towards the Cranbourne-Pakenham Rail Corridor Project.
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