Overview
- Premier Ben Carroll announced on Tuesday that the government will find $2 billion in savings for SRL East by making $1 billion of immediate scope cuts and commissioning an independent technical review to seek a further $1 billion.
- The immediate savings include scrapping underground interchanges at Box Hill and Glen Waverley, removing a second entrance at Clayton, and dropping planned pedestrian bridges at Burwood and Cheltenham.
- The government will pause awarding new SRL contracts while allowing existing works and scheduled tunnelling to continue and will fold the Suburban Rail Loop Authority into the Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority to cut duplication.
- The Victorian Auditor‑General’s Office, reporting Wednesday, found a 1% annual rail improvement charge was added to fares from January 2025 without public disclosure, with about 60% of its projected revenue earmarked for SRL East, and concluded the eastern leg is more likely than not to exceed disclosed costs and miss the 2035 start target.
- The decisions intensify fiscal and political pressure ahead of the November state election because major contracts worth about $13–14.5 billion are already signed, commuters have been quietly paying the levy, and the review’s findings will shape whether the project’s scope, funding and timetable change further.