Morning peak-hour patronage on some of Victoria’s busiest train lines is projected to increase by more than 80% within the next 10 years, a Public Transport Victoria report released on Wednesday has found.
About 225m passengers used the city’s metropolitan railway in 2013-2014, the report found, with the system at risk of being overwhelmed if concerns including capacity constraints, obsolete signalling systems, and poor coordination of the train network with buses and trams are not addressed.
By 2025, passenger numbers will have increased by 90% along the Newport Corridor, 82% along the Sunbury line, 58% along the Dandenong corridor and 79% along the Upfield line, the report found.
A Public Transport Victoria spokesman said the figures highlighted the need for the government’s $11bn Melbourne Metro rail project, which will boost capacity and see five new underground stations constructed at Arden, Parkville, CBD North, CBD South and Domain.
But the project is not scheduled for completion until 2026, and so will do little to ease the demand for services projected by the Public Transport Victoria report.
Public Transport Victoria said it hoped a $38m upgrade to the signalling and communication systems occurring over the next year would help ease congestion, he said.
The Victorian government has renewed its appeals to the federal government to help fund the Melbourne Metro by allowing it to use $1.5bn of federal money that had been allocated to the now-scrapped East West Link toll road.
While the former prime minister Tony Abbott staunchly refused to allow the Victorian government to reallocate the federal East West link money towards public transport infrastructure, the Victorian Labor premier, Daniel Andrews, and the transport minister, Jacinta Allan, have both said they are hopeful the new prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, will prove more receptive to funding public transport projects.
Despite the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel requiring significant funding from private investors and the federal government to be viable, the state government is forging ahead in the hope that the federal government will eventually hand over the funds.
On Tuesday afternoon, Allan announced 21,000 letters had been sent to homes and businesses that will be affected by the construction of the twin tunnels, including “hundreds” of homeowners who will have their property compulsorily acquired to make way for the project.
“At this stage, there is an expectation that the numbers of properties that will need to be acquired will be in the hundreds and the final number will be settled and of course made public, once the final scope of the project is locked in,” Allan said.
Allan said she would not provide further details about where those homes were located until homeowners affected had been given the opportunity to consult with the authority.
“When it comes to having a conversation with people about their properties that may be acquired, that’s going to be an intensive separate consultation phase,” she said.
“That will happen when the final scope of the project is settled.”
The opposition leader, Matthew Guy, has urged the government to be more transparent about the number of people affected and the acquisition process.
The state’s public transport network has also been strained by industrial action in recent weeks as the rail, tram and bus union negotiates for better pay conditions with the government.
