Railways in Melbourne - Future Expansion

Future Expansion

See also: Proposed Melbourne rail extensions

In December 2008, the Brumby Government announced a $14.1 billion Victorian Transport Plan to augment Melbourne’s rail network. The plan includes:

  • Regional Rail Link, a new railway line at a cost of more than $4 billion, providing new tracks to separate regional trains from Metro trains, which will deliver "extra capacity on the network"
  • A metro rail tunnel, costing more than $4.5 billion, from Dynon to Domain, to "relieve overcrowding on the busy suburban lines from Melbourne’s west"
  • Rolling stock, $2.65 billion for up to 70 new trains, including 32 "new generation" trains which will carry 30 per cent more passengers
  • Rail extensions to Cranbourne East, South Morang and electrification to Sunbury and Melton, more than $2.4 billion
  • Improvements to train operations, at a cost of $200 million
  • Upgrades to metro stations, costing $50 million, and new stations in growth areas at a cost of $220 million
  • A Park & Ride expansion package costing $60 million.

On 1 May 2009 the State Government announced that they had committed $562.3 million in the 2009 State Budget for the extension of the Epping line 3.5 kilometres north to South Morang. Construction started in 2010 and was completed in 2012.

Read more about this topic:  Railways In Melbourne

Famous quotes containing the words future and/or expansion:

    “The future of humanity is uncertain, even in the most prosperous countries, and the quality of life deteriorates; and yet I believe that what is being discovered about the infinitely large and infinitely small is sufficient to absolve this end of the century and millennium. What a very few are acquiring in knowledge of the physical world will perhaps cause this period not to be judged as a pure return of barbarism.”
    —Primo Levi (1919–1987)

    “The fundamental steps of expansion that will open a person, over time, to the full flowering of his or her individuality are the same for both genders. But men and women are rarely in the same place struggling with the same questions at the same age.”
    —Gail Sheehy (20th century)