Scope and Aims of The Project
The project was announced in 2006 as part of a major public transport policy statement called Meeting Our Transport Challenges and was estimated to cost as much as $1 billion. It was described as "the biggest investment in the rail network since the construction of the City Loop, deliver a substantial boost in the capacity of Melbourne’s rail network".
The network had been plagued with problems of overcrowding after a surge in passenger numbers, as well as increasing train delays and cancellations, much of which was attributed to bottlenecks in the network, chiefly on the Pakenham line.
The 2007-08 State Budget allocated $37 million of its $362 million train package for the first stage of the project, which funded construction work at Cranbourne station of stabling, a station upgrade and additional parking.
The second stage, due to begin in 2009, would have included additional train stabling at Westall station and a 2.7 km section of third track between Centre Rd and Springvale Rd. The 2008-09 State Budget allocated $153 million for the Westall project, claiming it would allow "short starter trains" to start and finish their journeys at Westall, running behind express trains from Cranbourne or Pakenham, and helping to even out passenger numbers across services on the line.
Later stages were to include the construction of a third track between Caulfield station and Springvale station (commencing by 2011), station upgrades and construction of a third track between Springvale and Dandenong (commencing between 2011 and 2016).
Bob Annells, chairman of Connex Melbourne, which was at that time franchised by the State Government to operate suburban passenger rail services in Melbourne, warned that there would be "considerable disruption" to rail services during the infrastructure works. A report on the ABC current affairs television program Stateline claimed the capital works project intended to reduce overcrowding and improve reliability "will mean things get worse before they get better".
The allocation of funding in the May 2007 Budget for works only at Cranbourne, 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) from the nearest section of the proposed third track, prompted speculation that the project was in doubt. The Age newspaper quoted "a source close to the Government" saying the Government had "gone quiet" on the triplication project in the Budget and that Treasurer John Brumby had commissioned a review because he was not convinced it was value for money.
The triplication was mooted in the 2001 State Budget and the 2005-2006 Budget allocated an initial $25 million for "consultation, planning and development work on public transport options for the Dandenong growth corridor". In a statement to the Victorian Parliament’s Public Accounts and Estimates Committee in May 2007, then Transport Minister Lynne Kosky described the triplication as "a huge project; 15 per cent of the travelling metropolitan population actually use that line, so it services an area of more than half a million people."
Read more about this topic: Dandenong Railway Line Triplication
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