Melbourne has so many big transport projects in the pipeline right now, it can be hard to keep track of which new tunnel is going where. But despite all these exciting new additions to our city’s public transport, a new survey has shown that the project Melburnians want to be completed the most is the same one that the government has been pushing back constantly for years – yikes.
The Committee for Melbourne, an independent not-for-profit that advocates for bettering our city, published its Living in Melbourne 2024 report, which shone a light on what really matters to Melburnians. Public transport is always a hot topic for Melbourne, but discussions have become particularly heated as our city’s outer suburbs continue to boom in population, with poor accessibility becoming a serious issue.
One part of the report surveyed residents on which major transport project they supported the most. No, it’s not the much-hyped Metro Tunnel, the opening date of which has ambitiously been brought forward to 2025. It’s not the Suburban Rail Loop either, the next huge rail project planned, which isn’t slated to be fully completed until as late as 2053. Hopefully, we’ll have the technology to teleport by then and won’t need to bother with public transport.
These two projects only garnered 59 and 58 per cent support ratings respectively, which sounds all right, but a reformation of our bus system actually received more support, at 66 per cent.
Unsurprisingly, the people just want a bloody train direct to the airport – an overwhelming 72 per cent of survey participants said they support the Melbourne Airport Rail.
The subject has been drawing more ire than usual lately, when this year’s state budget revealed the project had been delayed, once again. Mainly because the government and the airport operators couldn’t quit squabbling over the plans. Then, after they kicked up such a fuss, they backflipped. It's been chaotic, to say the least.
It couldn’t be more clear what Melburnians really want, but who knows whether the powers that be will actually fast-track the airport train to make it happen ASAP.
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