The first stage of the Allan Labor Government’s Suburban Rail Loop project is powering ahead with the appointment of the preferred bidder for the second tunnelling contract for SRL East.
Consortium Terra Verde is the preferred bidder for the second SRL East tunnelling contract to build the 10km of twin tunnels between Glen Waverley and Box Hill.
Long before contracts were inked to kickstart a new $35bn rail line in Melbourne’s southeast, Jacinta Allan was briefed about how many people would actually be hopping aboard its trains.
Modelling that was provided to Premier Jacinta Allan years’ ago — but kept secret — compared the likely patronage of the $200bn Suburban Rail Loop to existing lines, where passenger numbers are many times higher.
The team building the southern section of Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop East project will use fewer tunnel boring machines than planned to reduce disruption around work sites.
The mediator between the owners of Melbourne Airport and the Victorian government in a long-running dispute over a proposed railway station at Tullamarine has also been doing consulting work for the state-run Suburban Rail Loop Authority.