Metro Tunnel blowout costing Victorians

Metro Tunnel blowout costing Victorians

Initially estimated at costing $11 billion, the Metro Tunnel project has now blown out to $15.5 billion, in yet another clear case of Labor’s financial mismanagement.

Slated for completion by 2025 recent reports have revealed that the project faces up to a 12-month delay in the construction of the final stations, with Labor desperate to meet its promise to have trains operational by the end of 2025. 

Like other major projects under this Labor government, the Metro Tunnel has not been immune from an array of controversies. In 2023, it was revealed that taxpayers were being rorted for unfilled “ghost shifts” on major project sites including on the Metro Tunnel.

Then last year the Metro Tunnel was the centre of controversy again as former CFMEU boss John Setka illegally accessed Metro Tunnel worksites to rally against the government after his rightful resignation from the union. 

These came at a time where further allegations of thuggery, bullying and intimidation came out against the CFMEU across multiple “Big Build” sites which the Federal Court ultimately characterised as having fostered a culture of “thuggish assertion of control”. 

As the Member for the Northern Metropolitan Region, I have witnessed how my own community has been let down by the Allan Labor Government thanks to its fiscal mismanagement and cost blowouts on the Metro Tunnel. 

Patrons of the Upfield and Craigieburn lines were left disappointed as Labor quietly dropped budget cuts for planned frequency upgrades that were meant to be delivered as part of the project. 

A train turn-back on the Upfield line at Gowrie needed to solve a single-track bottleneck that limits peak hour trains to one every 15 minutes and a turn-back and platform extension at Essendon needed to run more trains on the Craigieburn line have been axed as the government struggles to reign in the ballooning cost of this project. 

Commuters who rely on these lines are left without the promised improvements, facing continued overcrowding and unreliable services. 

It was also recently confirmed that five out of six Melbourne trains will be unable to use the new Metro Tunnel. Only this Labor Government could spend up to $15 billion on a new rail tunnel which can’t be used by 85 per cent of Melbourne’s trains.

In contrast, the recent opening of Sydney’s new metro system was met with widespread acclaim, attributed to effective planning, budget adherence, and timely delivery. 

Melbourne’s experience starkly differs, with cost overruns and delays robbing communities of much needed investments and infrastructure upgrades. And who was the Minister responsible? Premier Jacinta Allan who has displayed the same level of competence as when she was Minister responsible for the Commonwealth Games.

Ultimately Labor’s inability to manage money has robbed commuters of the benefits the Metro Tunnel was meant to deliver. If Jacinta Allan was hoping for the same euphoric reaction to the Sydney Metro, I doubt voters in the northern suburbs will be as forgiving.

Evan Mulholland is the Liberal MP for the Northern Metropolitan Region and new Shadow Minister for Major Projects.


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