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The scrapping of a plan to build two new rail lines in Melbourne’s outer west was not a broken promise but part of an evolving commitment, the state government has said.
The Age revealed on Wednesday that new rail lines for Melton and Wyndham Vale trains have been cut from the long-awaited Western Rail Plan, sparking furious backlash from rapidly growing communities currently only served by crowded V/Line trains.
New documents obtained by The Age show that the project could have run trains through the area every four minutes during rush hour by 2031. Locals currently wait 20 minutes for a train during peak periods and fear the improvements now won’t be delivered.
Transport and Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan on Wednesday disputed The Age’s reporting, saying it did “not reflect decisions of government” which she said had been working hard for eight years to improve train services.
Public Transport Minister Ben Carroll said that “commitments are always evolving over time”.
“We’re going ahead with what was promised which is $650 million in the recent state budget to put more trains on the Melton line and make the Melton line level-crossing free,” Carroll said.
But Wyndham City Mayor Susan McIntyre said a new line was essential for getting more trains services into her area.
“If the government walks away from their promise, those accessing train services in these areas will be jammed onto just four tracks between Sunshine and the city, limiting the ability to deliver new services,” McIntyre said.
Premier Daniel Andrews and Allan announced the Western Rail Plan five weeks before the 2018 election, promising to extend the Metro train network to the booming outer west.
Duplicating the existing V/Line track would provide “full separation of regional and metro services” and mean “fewer stops, faster trips and less crowded trains”, a government press release said.
Documents obtained by The Age under freedom of information, however, show Rail Projects Victoria planning in February this year to operate Metro services to Melton and Wyndham Vale on the same track used by V/Line trains between Sunshine and the CBD, rather than building new electrified lines.
“The metropolitan services to Melton and Wyndham Vale will operate through Sunshine station on the [Regional Rail Link] line,” the document says. “The provision of metropolitan services is highly likely to involve electrification on the existing [Regional Rail Link] corridor.”
A document separately leaked to The Age shows Department of Transport bureaucrats anticipated significant service improvements for suburban and regional trains by 2031 if the lines were separated.
The 2019 Network Planning Requirements document forecast trains leaving every four minutes from Melton, Ardeer, Deer Park and Caroline Springs stations during the two-hour morning peak, and every 10 minutes through the day. That compares with every 20 minutes during rush-hour currently.
V/Line trains would have all been able to operate express rather than stopping at suburban Melbourne stations by 2031, the service plan says, which would save 10 minutes on a journey from Ballarat. Exact service levels would depend on the final design of the Western Rail Plan, the plan says.
But transport experts and local councils say frequency cannot be significantly improved if the new rail lines are not built, as the Rail Project Victoria documents suggest, because suburban and regional trains will continue to share the same pair of tracks between Sunshine and the CBD.
McIntyre said separating the tracks was essential because her area was projected to swell from 313,300 residents to 500,000 by 2040.
“Demand for public transport continues to outstrip supply in Wyndham and adds to on-road congestion and increased costs for the community,” she said.
Committee for Wyndham chief executive Barbara McLure said the western suburbs were “being neglected once again” by axing the new lines.
“People don’t have an alternative to trains – it’s just very disappointing,” she said.
Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen said larger trains would be beneficial, but that frequency was also needed to move greater numbers of commuters and make trains a viable alternative to driving.
“Longer term, they are going to look at additional tracks,” he said. “The danger is they will run out of capacity and they’ll also have V/Line services coming in from Geelong and Ballarat that get stuck in track congestion coming into the city.”
Public Transport Minister Ben Carroll says that commitments are “always evolving over time”.Credit: Darrian Traynor
Opposition transport spokesman David Southwick said that the Andrews government had broken an election promise to the western suburbs because of cost blow-outs in its other infrastructure projects.
“The cancellation of these much-needed rail upgrades is a betrayal of Melbourne’s growing western communities,” he said.
While not addressing the issue of duplicating the existing tracks, Allan said the Metro network could not be extended to the outer west until other work was completed. That work includes the expansion of a section of the line between Deer Park and Melton from a single track to two and the removal of four level crossings as part of a $650 million pledge made before the 2022 election.
The Wyndham and Melton local government areas have grown 70 per cent over the decade to 2022 to a combined population of just over half a million people, and is forecast to grow another 50 per cent to 791,000 by 2036.
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