No Funding for Frankston Rail Extension in Victorian State Budget
Senator Van has hit out at the lack of funding for the Frankston rail extension in last week’s state budget.
“It was disappointing to see yet again no funding for the Frankston rail extension in the Victorian State Budget,” Senator Van said. “In what is supposedly the largest infrastructure spending budget in the state’s history, it’s hard to fathom why the Frankston rail extension has yet again been rejected by the Andrews Government.”
The Morrison Government has listed the Frankston rail extension as a national infrastructure priority earlier this year and maintained its $228 million to the project since 2018.
The Committee for Greater Frankston’s Public Transport Connectivity Working Group, which includes local Labor Members of Parliament, Peta Murphy and Paul Edbrooke, have supported the project. During the 2019 federal election the Australian Labor Party, including the current Member for Dunkley, also committed funds to the project if they were elected.
“Despite the strong bipartisan support for this project, the only person who isn’t supportive of the Frankston rail extension is Dan Andrews,” Senator Van said. “The only reason he is not supportive of the project is because the costings that his Government undertook was for a gold-plated electrification project, which included heavily inflated figures due to the inclusion of unnecessary level crossing removals.”
Despite acknowledging that the majority may not be required, the preliminary business case incorporates five level crossing removals between Frankston and Baxter.
Senator Van said, “The Andrews Government are using the cost of the unnecessary level crossings as a reason to dodge responsibility for delivering this important public transport upgrade for the community.”
Senator Van has started a petition calling on the State Government to fund this project and Members of the community are encouraged to sign the e-petition online here: www.davidvan.com.au/deliverfrankstonrailextension
