Meanwhile, at a joint media appearance by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Premier Jacinta Allan, the government revealed the Metro Tunnel major rail project will open on November 30 \u2014 a week earlier than previously announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Albanese also revealed next year’s budget would supply more cash for the mammoth Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr Albanese defended the SRL \u2014 the first stage of which has been costed at more than $34 billion \u2014 saying it would “benefit the entire network and the entire city of Melbourne”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We can confirm that there will be additional money in the budget of May of 2026,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When pressed, the prime minister did not provide further detail about how much would be allocated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “You’ll have to wait and see for the budget”, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “We have budgets for a reason.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr Albanese said the extra money coming from the federal government would be on top of more than $9 billion already pledged towards the project, including $5 billion for the Melbourne Airport Rail section, $2 billion for the Sunshine Station section and $2.2 billion for the early works on Suburban Rail Loop East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n State opposition MP James Newbury criticised the government for being in a “very, very dire financial state” and said Victoria did not have enough money to pay for the SRL project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We can’t afford it, so a premier and a prime minister saying one day they might have some money to pay for something, I mean, frankly, that’s worth nothing,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mr Albanese also revealed next year’s budget would supply more cash for the mammoth Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":325088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1168,47,8160],"tags":[993,8],"class_list":["post-338584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metro-tunnel","category-rail-news","category-suburban-rail-loop","tag-melbourne","tag-victoria"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/image_2025-12-28_123617791.png\")