By Sahar Foladi
The Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) project has stirred mixed feelings among voters and it could be the golden ticket serving victory for either Labor or the Liberal party this election.
The SRL is a 90km train line project stretched from Cheltenham to Melbourne Airport and Werribee, connecting the south-east to the west.
“The Suburban Rail Loop – one of the biggest infrastructure projects in Australia’s history has not been signed off by Infrastructure Australia,” Independent Clarinda candidate, Caroline White said.
The project was first announced in 2018 before Daniel Andrew was re-elected and consists of six new underground stations from Cheltenham to Box Hill. This will affect thousands of houses and businesses across four municipalities.
It’s the most expensive project in the State’s history and while Andrews Labor government announced the cost to be at $50 billion, the cost is to be more than $200 billion by the end of the project according to Victoria’s Parliamentary Budget Office.
“This is not a choice between transport and health. This is a massive $35 billion spend on part of a loop when the State Debt is already heading towards $170B – more than NSW, QLD and SA combined,” Liberal candidate for Clarinda, Anthony Richardson said.
While polls suggest Andrews to be re-elected, if Matthew Guy becomes Premier, the project will stop and investments in healthcare will be made instead.
“The Liberal Nationals are proposing to redirect part of this spend towards fixing our broken health system (more than 20 new and upgraded hospitals) and expanding our rail network and delivering cost of living relief through $2 fares,” Mr Richardson said.
Although Nine News has recorded mixed feeling about the SRL from Victorians, those who support the project are also concerned about the cost factor and yet it’s not only the cost, but also community factor that has divided Victorians in controversy.
Communities affected by the train line have raised their concerns, outrage and disapproval of the project.
“This is part of an urban over development plan that our community is not consenting to. As a Cheltenham resident we have a third train station looming in our area taking away our children’s last bit of space,” Ms White said.
Special control overlays (SCO) have been applied to the 26km tunnel stretch, SCO14 giving the government power to use and develop land for the project and SCO15 which means business and landowners in and around the tunnel will need planning permits for building which they didn’t require prior to this project.
At a time where living costs and housing prices are soaring, landowners are placed under pressure from both sides.
“The Suburban Rail Loop as proposed is not a loop. It is a section of track that runs from Cheltenham to Box Hill with insufficient stations, detrimental impacts to the local community in Heatherton (building a Train Yard on 54 hectares of protected Green Wedge land) and most importantly, the Auditor General has concluded that the investment does not pay back,” Mr Richardson said.
Councils from the four affected municipalities provided statistics to the Financial Review article, the City of Whitehorse estimated the SCO15 affects 1435 addresses in the municipality.
In Monash, about 1000 properties are affected by SCO14 and 2000 are affected by SCO15. Kingston’s council does not have an estimate, although the maps show hundreds and possibly more properties are affected according to the article and in Bayside, where the tunnel begins a handful of properties is caught in the SCO.
The community in Heatherton suffers the worse blow as it’s located for the open-air train stabling facility, which also happens to be a Green Wedge land.
“We are in a climate crisis and ambitious projects like SRL are what we need to see to get out of cars and onto public transport. However, the site for the stabling yard is clearly in an inappropriate position and more suitable locations like the Moorabbin industrial area should be investigated instead of developing on precious Green Wedge land,” Greens candidate, Jessamine Moffett said.
The stabling yard will facilitate 34 trains maintenance and operations centre. A website named, “Move the Train Yard,” has also been established where it mentions the land was promised to become a parkland by the Kingston Council 25 years ago.
The site also mentions that it is estimated, 500,000 trucks worth of dirt will be extracted from the site, 150 metres away from hundreds of homes and more than 3000 homes within 1.5km.
“Living within the 1.6km radius means that under the SRL Bill they can do whatever they deem fit for the project to my property,” Ms White said.
Further, Heatherton residents are the only suburb with station above the ground train line with no station who will be subjected to train horns, tooting as they enter and exit the tunnel every time.
“When I was working at the pre polls in Clayton South on Monday November 14 an elderly lady had a fall and it took an ambulance 2.5 hours to arrive. Our money needs to be prioritised on the health and safety of our community and not unnecessary and unscrutinised infrastructure projects,” Ms White said.
In January 2021 during Kingston Council meeting, councillors unanimously voted to support the motion, “Council absolutely rejects and expresses its disappointment with the government’s proposed location of the stabling yard,” which was also unanimously voted by the Glen Eira Council in support of Kingston Council.
Labor candidate Meng Heang Tak was also contacted for comments.
