New authority to oversee Regional Rail Link

The authority’s first task would be to finalise the current EES referral process and award major construction contracts for the $4.3bn project that are expected to be announced this later this year, transport minister Martin Pakula said.

The authority is to have a new advisory board chaired by Transfield Services former chief executive Peter Watson.

Pakula said the establishment of the authority with a board would give the project team clear lines of accountability for key decisions and would help to ensure the project progresses as efficiently as possible.

Regional Rail Link was the big winner in Infrastructure Australia’s first priority list of priority infrastructure projects in 2009 and received $3.2bn in federal funding.

Jointly funded by the Victorian and Federal Governments, Regional Rail Link will see up to 50 kilometres of new rail track built. Once complete, it will mean  extra train services for up to 9,000 passengers across the network in the peak hour, allowing hundreds of new train services to travel more reliably in and out of Melbourne each week.