Everywhere is "still growing" in Melbourne. Given the intrinsic logic of planning centres for uplift around SRL it arguably makes no difference whether it started at the other end. It's a political decision, nothing more or less. Can argue much cheaper to build the west portion.

@OperationalInc1 It has a problem as it is selling providing opportunities & dealing with some existing traffic a decade or so down the line whilst we have crippling traffic in areas now that will not receive an iota of serious service help. Nobody on Westgate cares about more rail for east.

@disco___cat Anyone that watches the debacle that is Westgate, Ring Road daily knows that some uplift on existing rail lines & a line from Werribee-Sunshine then North does nothing, literally nothing, to address needs that are there today, let alone in 25+ years.

@disco___cat Agree 100%. It doesn't solve anything even if in the long term it has potentially big benefits. Ignores the vacuum of good PT in the inner & middle west (& North). Cross city required, light rail required, more dedicated rail corridors required. Uplift in services needed all over

Until the states deal with the system they have created this will continue.

@MelbOnTransit Meanwhile the Westgate and all those who have no or poor alternatives grinds daily with their EWL wedge master plan simply to add more traffic, congestion & a couple of lanes via the WGTP. People in the west outside MM1 inner areas have been largely abandoned.

@MelbOnTransit SRL is a noose around the neck in the west & to an extent north. It is long term for these areas with close to zero genuine benefit in the foreseeable term. At best a trip for some between Werribee / Sunshine / Airport - hardly transformative. Its east focused roots show.

They should be reinstating the emergency lane on Westgate and allowing it to also be a priority lane for PT buses like this.

@Blue_Pie_Ninja @railmaps We could be funding priority lanes, bus freq / hour improvements, tram priority / segregation, additional cross city rail, links between mid ring suburbs (particularly mid / inner west & north where there are poor connections & not on SRL's radar). Missed opportunity everywhere.

@Blue_Pie_Ninja @railmaps We can apparently afford to dump $26B (and it will inevitably rise) on NELink, one road project. I'm pretty comfortable with the position that it is not financial considerations that prevent PT improvements in Victoria receiving greater investment.

@OperationalInc1 I doubt that, good service will sell itself. Unfortunately, whilst it has the ability to transform the rail network significantly it will never be able to deliver what the most recent Sydney line did without more work. Not sure what MM1 has to do with Werribee anyway...

@Shadowstar582 If it makes you feel any better, at that time on a Sunday I'd be waiting until around 6am the next day to get home on my bus.

Upzoning 25km+ from the cbd but not <10km - it simply is not sustainable. Like NY upzoning Jersey but not next to Central Park.

This is not reasonable taxpayer expense to fund lines with quarantined housing. The same upzoning that justifies SRL or adjacent to MM1 should apply on all heavily serviced lines.

@edglaeser3075 With 4 very accessible stations all to themselves.

Being busy is one of the worst ways to decide to upgrade - awful services don't generate users on the whole, nor indeed non existent services demand longer hours.

@Blue_Pie_Ninja @expedtadam @MelbOnTransit Yeah. Caught the 903 once to Coburg and pretty sure Halley's Comet made a return trip by the time I got there. Was on a Sunday arvo too (about as quiet as it could get). Nothing smart about it. Being slightly better than awful bus services doesn't make smart in my book.

@strangerous10 Nice shot by Chalmers, although to be fair, the Labor party also didn't want these tax cuts until dragged into doing amending Stage 3 (I feel dirty now).