Matthew Guy pledges to extend the Cranbourne train line
The Cranbourne line will be extended to fast-growing suburb Clyde within four years under a Coalition state government, Opposition Leader Matthew Guy promised.
The Liberal leader made his biggest metropolitan public transport announcement to date ahead of November's state election at Cranbourne train station, in the Labor-held seat that sits on a tight margin of 2.34 per cent.
Mr Guy said the project would cost $487 million and would be delivered within the first term of a future Coalition government by 2022.
"This is fully costed, fully budgeted and will commence in the first term of a government I lead,” said Mr Guy on Wednesday morning, alongside Liberal candidate for the seat of Cranbourne, Ann-Marie Hermans.
Mr Guy says he is trying to change the travel habits of people living in the fast-growing south-east by duplicating the track before extending the line in a bid to broaden public transport access to residents.
"Usually, it would be the duplication and then the extension, but we must get people out of cars. We must provide an alternative to car-based transport earlier than we are doing now," he said.
The line is a single section of track that branches off the Pakenham line at Dandenong. Services from Cranbourne to the city are infrequent, running roughly every 20 minutes in the morning peak. The trip takes more than one hour.
The first stage of the upgrade would involve extending the track five kilometres along the old South Gippsland line to Cranbourne East and Clyde, and duplicating the track between Cranbourne and Clyde. Cranbourne Station would also be rebuilt.
Under the second stage, which would start after 2022 and finish up to three years later, the remaining single section of track between Dandenong and Cranbourne would be duplicated.
Future works would also include an extension to Koo Wee Rup, south of Clyde, along the line.
The new rail line would avoid level crossings by building underneath intersecting roads such as South Gippsland Highway, Mr Guy said.
Opposition public transport spokesman David Davis said the party does not “envisage sky rail” in building the new track and that property acquisitions were unlikely because it would run along an existing rail corridor.
Local bus services to connect commuters to new stations in Cranbourne East and Clyde would also be ramped under the Coalition, the party said.
The promise to extend the rail line, first made by Labor nearly 20 years ago and again in 2006 by then Liberal leader Ted Ballieu, will not address chronic bottlenecks that hold up Cranbourne train services because the single section of track will not be duplicated between Dandenong and Cranbourne for up to seven more years.
The Casey area added about 45,000 cars to the road network between 1996 and 2006 – almost the same as the entire number of cars in the Glen Eira local government area.
Acting Premier James Merlino said the Opposition has a poor track record in delivering public transport projects.
"When last in government the Liberals promised to build Doncaster Rail and then did nothing; they also promised a rail line to Avalon airport and that never happened either," he said.
"The Liberals didn’t build one major public transport project when last in government, they cut services and have closed country rail lines."