By Brendan Rees
A $750 million upgrade of the Cranbourne line will be duplicated from Dandenong to Cranbourne if the State Government is re-elected in November.
Premier Daniel Andrews made the announcement at Cranbourne Railway Station on Sunday 26 August to duplicate eight kilometres of single track from Dandenong to Cranbourne – with construction to start in 2021 and finished by 2023.
Mr Andrews said the number of train services would be doubled and delivered every 10 minutes during peak times along the Cranbourne line which would remove the bottlenecks that cause delays.
Minister for Public Transport Jacinta Allan said duplicating the Cranbourne line also paved the way for it to be extended to Clyde with a re-elected Labor Government committing $7 million to complete planning for the new rail link.
Ms Allan said the Cranbourne line had be duplicated to run more train services before a new rail link could be built.
“You can’t extend without duplicating because all you’re doing is extending the problem and the problem is the bottleneck of the single track,” she said.
Cranbourne MP Jude Perera said: “It’s just common sense – you can’t add even more trains to an already crowded track.”
In July, the Opposition announced an elected Liberal Nationals Government would build five kilometres of electrified double line from Cranbourne to Cranbourne East and terminating at Clyde at a cost of $487 million.
As part of this transport infrastructure project, new stations will be built at Cranbourne East and Clyde along with 350 additional parking spaces.
Opposition leader Matthew Guy said: “The City of Casey is experiencing substantial population growing pains and needs immediate government action.”
Shadow Minister for Public Transport David Davis said when Daniel Andrews tore up the East West Link contract and cost taxpayers $1.3 billion in compensation, “that money could have been better spent on building this rail extension three years ago as well as more local schools and health services.”
Member for Bass, Brian Paynter said: “Clyde is experiencing massive population growth and we need to make sure that when it comes to infrastructure we aren’t playing catch up but rather getting ahead.”
Ms Allan said the Liberals’ promise to build a Clyde rail link was underfunded and without duplicating the Cranbourne line it meant “more congestion, delays and cancellations for passengers” because the bottlenecks would still exist and no extra services could be added.
Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen said “With overcrowding very common on the Cranbourne and Pakenam lines, the more that can be done to run more trains, and improve reliability, the better.”
The Cranbourne Line Duplication Project is expected to create more than 1000 jobs.
