The State Government’s much hyped ‘massive’ upgrade of the Hurstbridge railway line has delivered just one new platform and only three kilometres of new track for an astonishing price of $530 million, according to the Department of Transport’s annual report released today.
In August 2018 then Premier Daniel Andrews boasted that Labor’s coming ‘massive upgrade’ of the line would see disjointed duplication to Wattle Glen and a ‘more comfortable commute’ as a result of the double line being extended from Greensborough (23 kms from Southern Cross) to Wattle Glen (35 kms from Southern Cross).
Five years and more than half a billion dollars later, Montmorency – the very next station past Greensborough – has one more platform and the duplication has progressed just three kilometres, before work ceased with the government citing ‘project completion’.
Shadow Minister for Public Transport, Matthew Guy, said: “Yet again Labor has boasted about a transport project that it hasn’t completed and probably never will.
“$530 million could build the entire Melbourne Heart hospital, it could build 35 new schools, and in this case, it was meant to build almost ten kilometres of new tracks and three new railway stations at Montmorency, Diamond Creek and Wattle Glen.
“Hurstbridge line commuters have been duped. They have a half-built rail extension and no likelihood of the whole project ever being done.”
In 2018 the Coalition committed to a continual rail extension from Greensborough to Eltham to allow for continuous rail duplication that would match sensible duplication on every other rail network.
“What Victorian Labor have delivered is vastly different to what they promised. Labor boasted about duplication to Wattle Glen, 12 kilometres away. What we’ve got is a quarter of that before the money has all been spent,” Mr Guy said.
“For proper commuter services and train running to be achieved, full duplication has to occur, not promises of half-baked duplication that are only a quarter built.”
