Voters in south-east Melbourne will choose between two contrasting plans for the Cranbourne Line, after the Andrews Government made a $750 million commitment on Sunday.
Both Labor and the Coalition agree the Cranbourne Line should be duplicated between Dandenong and Cranbourne.
Both also agree the line should be extended to Clyde.
They disagree on the order in which those projects should take place, however.
The Andrews Labor Government announced on August 26 it will spend $750 million duplicating eight kilometres of railway between Dandenong and Cranbourne.
It will also spend $7 million planning a future extension of the line to Clyde.
The Government’s announcement follows an Opposition vow to spend $487 million making improvements to the existing line and then extending it to Clyde, with a Dandenong-Cranbourne duplication pushed back to a later date.
Labor’s public transport minister Jacinta Allan says the Opposition’s plan is “undercooked”. Opposition leader Matthew Guy has responded by calling Labor’s ideas “half-baked”.
Voters will have to choose which plan is more appetising on November 24.
Labor’s plan would double capacity to Cranbourne
Premier Daniel Andrews says duplicating the line between Dandenong and Cranbourne will allow the number of services to be doubled during peak times, delivering trains every ten minutes along the length of the Cranbourne Line.
Labor’s plan includes upgrades to track around Caulfield station, where the Frankston Line splits off from the Cranbourne-Pakenham corridor.
It also includes upgrades around Dandenong station, where the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines split.
Labor thinks these upgrades, especially duplication of the eight kilometre stretch between Dandenong and Cranbourne, “must” take place before the railway is extended to Clyde.
“It’s just common sense,” Labor’s member for Cranbourne Jude Perera said on Sunday, August 26.
“You can’t add even more trains to an already crowded track. Only duplicating the Cranbourne Line will pave the way for a new rail link to Clyde.”
Labor says it wants to begin planning and procurement in 2019, so construction can start in 2021, and finish by 2023.
Transport minister Jacinta Allan told the ABC the Opposition’s plan for the rail line was “underfunded and undercooked”.
“You’ve got to get the sequencing right on these rail projects and duplicating the line means you can get those extra services and … plan for a future rail extension to Clyde and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
Guy sells Opposition plan as cheaper, quicker way to get trains to Clyde
Liberal leader Matthew Guy says the Coalition’s plan to spend less than half a billion dollars getting train services to Clyde is the obvious choice for voters.
“There’s a choice between upgrading the Cranbourne Line under Labor, or upgrading the Cranbourne Line and extending it to Clyde under the Liberals,” Guy was quoted by the ABC.
“It’s up to the public for their decision.”
The Coalition’s plan would build dual track between Cranbourne and Clyde.
Duplicating the track from Cranbourne and Dandenong would be ‘stage two’ of the Coalition’s program, and is so far unbudgeted.
“We must get people out of cars,” Guy said in July, “we must provide an alternative to car-based transport earlier than we’re doing now.”
The suburb of Clyde sits across three state electoral districts: Cranbourne, a Labor seat since 2002, and Bass and Hastings, both Liberal seats for over a decade.