THE opening of Melbourne\u2019s planned $A 13bn ($US 8.6bn) rail link is likely to be delayed by at least four years to 2033 due to state funding cuts. The budget presented by the Victorian government on May 7 slashed infrastructure spending, with the airport link one of the main casualties.<\/p>\n
As the Victorian government struggles to rein in spending and soaring debt, the latest budget reduces infrastructure spending from $A 24bn in the 2023-24 financial year to $A 15.6bn by 2027-28.<\/p>\n
Last autumn the airport rail link project survived an independent review commissioned by the federal government, when a number of major schemes across Australia were axed, but had already been delayed as a result of a dispute between the airport operators and the Victorian government over the siting of the airport station.<\/p>\n
The state government wanted a surface station because it would be less expensive, while the airport operators wanted an underground station. Earlier this year mediators were appointed to adjudicate.<\/p>\n
State treasurer Mr Tim Pallas blamed the row over the airport station for the four-year delay in completing the project. He described it as a \u201cstandoff\u201d that was unlikely to be resolved soon.<\/p>\n
Melbourne\u2019s Suburban Rail Loop project will also be affected by the budget cuts, with the completion date for early works on the eastern section pushed back from mid-2025 to early 2026.<\/p>\n
Other rail spending in the Victorian government\u2019s latest budget includes:<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $A 233m on driver recruitment, final testing and timetabling for the Melbourne Metro Tunnel<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $A 752m on rail and other public transport improvements and<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $A 113m for the regional rail network.<\/p>\n
The post Melbourne airport rail link delayed<\/a> appeared first on International Railway Journal<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE opening of Melbourne\u2019s planned $A 13bn ($US 8.6bn) rail link is likely to be delayed by at least four years to 2033 due to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":38632,"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":[47,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rail-news","category-transport"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}