I attended the State Budget stakeholder lock-up on Tuesday.
In the lock-up they take away your phone, and sit you in a big room. After speeches from the Deputy Premier, Premier and Finance Minister, they let you pore over the Budget Papers for a couple of hours and provide a lunch.
A few hundred stakeholders from various community and industry groups attended, including myself and PTUA President Tony Morton. Here’s us in the aftermath, after they gave our phones back.
Apart from getting early (but embargoed) access to the budget papers, it’s also a good opportunity to quiz government advisers on things, to tease out more detail – and advocate for future investment.
The government runs a separate lock-up for journalists – no doubt they don’t want us talking too much to them! But to be fair, they also facilitate the journos meeting up with us afterwards – an annual tradition of stakeholder talking heads lining up to do their quotes to camera and take a few questions.
Usually there’s so many grabs for the media to choose from that only the ones related to the most newsworthy budget initiatives make it to air, though some media will run a bunch of reaction quotes.
There was a bunch of stuff for public transport, much of which has not got broader attention (which is why some was pre-announced).
Buses – a package of $162.5m (part recurrent, part capital) which includes:
- more routes to new estates such as Riverwalk, Kings Leigh, Mount Atkinson, Thornhill Park and Mystique, and serving the new West Tarneit station and Wyndham Law Courts precinct
- more 20 min frequency routes, and more running until midnight (Mon-Sat) around Werribee, Tarneit, Craigieburn
- other minor upgrades for various bus routes
- bus network reviews for Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo
- Flexi-Bus routes in Melton South, Woodend and Yarrawonga continued funding
- continued funding for regional bus routes and the Westgate Punt
Trains
- extra services on Metro and V/Line as already announced – $98.7m over 4 years
- Comeng fleet disposal to free up space for the X’Trapolis 2 fleet – $26m – does anybody want a cheap train?
- compensation for lost fare revenue post-COVID – $489.6m over 4 years. This is due to the current Metro contract including revenue sharing (whereas the Yarra Trams contract has rolled over to one that does not). It also mentions addressing impact of high inflation on PT service provision. Another reminder that we might have private operators, but the costs are on taxpayers.
- Metro tunnel opening – $584.8m over 4 years plus $128.6m in 2024-25 plus $14.1m in capital spending (a total of $727m)
- regional train maintenance – $270.4m in recurrent and capital spending
- upgrades to and around Sunshine station $4.14b
Trams
- Footscray/Maribyrnong tram platform stops along Droop and Gordon Streets, including for Footscray hospital. I’m told construction will probably be in 2026. Plus other upgrades to accompany the G class fleet rollout. $98.1m (But no funding for the also-planned route 86 stops.)
Other
- “critical public and active transport upgrades”, which includes cycling and shared path infrastructure in outer suburbs and railway station tactiles and CCTV – $19.8m
- free PT on weekends statewide for seniors – $2.2m over 4 years – because it already applied in two zones, so really it’s just adding long distance trips, which makes sense in the context of the V/Line fare cap – but they’ll need to watch out for worsening crowding issues
- free PT for under 18s – $318.2m over 4 years – I’m told this includes some funding for bus service upgrades where they identify probable overcrowding problems
- there’s also some funding for rail freight (maintenance on freight lines) $103.1m
- and continued planning and development for the eventual Western Intermodal Freight Terminal – $12m
Also buried in the papers was a delay and extra costs for the Myki upgrade.
Overall it does look like there is a slowdown in major infrastructure works – no bad thing given it’s been going gangbusters for a decade and has arguably overheated the construction market. The focus on PT services instead is very welcome.
Bus and train service uplifts will be very beneficial, but a bunch of smaller, non-headline-grabbing worthwhile upgrades are also included.
Still plenty to do of course. Still no funding for Caulfield station upgrades (there are some minor changes coming, I’ve heard), and while the G class trams and a few tram platform stops will happen, tram accessibility is so far behind the DDA deadlines it’s not funny.
- Read more about the State Budget on the official site, including this summary of transport funding
- PTUA Budget and train service pre-Budget announcement responses
- Sustainable Cities campaign (Friends Of the Earth) response
Update: I recorded this video for PTUA:
7 replies on “State Budget 2025”
more 20 min frequency routes for buses, any idea which routes? As most new routes are often only 40 minutes
Very disappointing to see absolutely no attention paid to the very poor disability access on trams, and no commitment at all to meeting the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport, which was due to happen by 31 Dec 2022.
I’m currently wearing a ‘moon boot’ and it’s been so difficult to use my tram line, the 57. I’ve only got a little bit longer in the moon boot, but this lack of accessibility affects many people every day. It’s very frustrating to see it completely ignored by the government.
@Jason, sorry, I didn’t get a chance to get a list, but it sounded like some of the busiest routes in the Wyndham Vale/Tarneit area.
Thanks for the information. The transport underprivileged in the west are getting something, which is good to note.
The model of giving huge contractors a large amount of money to complete certain works is not a good model. A better model would be, as funds are available, so a project can be sped up or slowed down, depending on funds.
As I age I find the step up from the roadway to a low floor tram harder than using the steps on older trams. The construction of level tram stops needs to be sped up and ongoing, as has been the train level crossing removal.
@Andrew C, I agree that it is good that people from the transport underprivileged areas in Melbourne’s west (such as Yours Truly) are finally getting something. But I am wondering if those in Brimbank are getting something (such as more services, especially with the new ZEFs starting in just over a month’s time).
Politically, I think Labor is beginning to learn the lessons from the Werribee by-election in which they nearly lost Werribee and that lesson is not to take the western suburbs of Melbourne for granted and is beginning to focus on Melbourne’s western suburbs at long last. But with an election next year, I think Labor needs to show the western suburbs that they care, and it needs to be all of the western suburbs and not just the Werribee area (I am in the Sydenham electorate for those of you playing at home).
Look at those smiles! You must have been happy getting your phones back.
@indigohex3: Hopefully the east gets some love soon. The Burnley and Clifton Hill groups are desperate for something better than a half-hourly train, hourly buses and non-accessible tram routes running low-floor trams for over twenty years (or in the case of route 75 beyond Warrigal Rd, accessible stops built twenty years ago yet only served by old high-floor trams).
Ventura, Dysons and Kinetic (former National) bus frequencies are often somewhere between mediocre and trash tier (especially those which don’t run on Sundays, or even Saturdays in some cases), with the odd diamond in the rough here and there. Even the SmartBuses need modernisation, some of the timetables are inferior to regular buses (most notably the orbitals and the long-forgotten 703).