The $125 Billion White Elephant That Will Cost Victoria Taxpayers for Decades

Commentary Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop (SRL), a 90-kilometre (56-mile) rail line beginning at Cheltenham in the city’s southeast and looping through the eastern, northern, and western middle suburbs to Werribee in the southwest, is already estimated to cost billions more than first proposed. Initially estimated to cost $50 billion (US$34 billion) for the entire project, recent reports indicate that the first two stages alone will cost some $125 billion. The new costings were made by the Parliament’s Budget Office in August 2022. The SRL has been criticised recently by the State’s Ombudsman Deborah Glass. Created by a former ministerial staffer at Development Victoria, its working-up was kept secret from department officials and infrastructure experts....