The Victorian Liberals have put a number on their pitch to Melbourne's west: $1.7 billion for 25 new hybrid diesel-electric trains on the Melton and Wyndham Vale lines, built in Victoria and aimed for delivery by 2030 — if the Coalition wins in November.
The lines are currently run with smaller diesel V/Line trains, while the communities along them wait for an electrification that was promised by Daniel Andrews in 2018 — decades, the ABC notes, after the idea was first floated. Labor's current position: bigger nine-car V/Line trains on the Melton line from next year, while it finishes investigating electrification.
"Suburban trains for suburban people"
Shadow Minister for Public Transport Matthew Guy's argument is that the electrification Labor promised was "never going to happen", and that hybrids can run on the line as it exists. "It's an actual way to solve the problems of suburban trains to Melton and Wyndham Vale in a realistic timeframe," he said. "We can't wait, we need a solution that is soon, that is quick, that is affordable." Of Labor's bigger V/Line trains: "They're country trains going into Australia's fastest growing growth corridor. We believe there should be suburban trains for suburban people." He says the hybrids could also run through the City Loop, and that the promise doesn't abandon electrification — it's a "quicker solution" in the interim.
Public Transport Minister Vicki Ward's reply named the genre: a "bizarre side-quest". The opposition is "investing in trains that will become redundant when electrification comes through," she said. "We're about ensuring the electrification of this rail line; we're not about delaying it by investing in trains that won't be able to go into the Loop." The two claims about the City Loop — his that hybrids can use it, hers that they can't — sit in direct contradiction — a dispute the day's coverage left unresolved.
The station that opened while they argued
The backdrop to the duelling announcements opened its doors the same day: the newly upgraded, elevated Melton station, with longer platforms built for the bigger V/Line trains coming next year. The government says the longer platforms lift peak capacity by 50 per cent, with more commuter car parking to follow — and that the station works are themselves a precondition for any electrification. What Ms Ward could not say is when that electrification will happen.
The audience for all of it keeps arriving regardless. Melton is the fastest-growing area in Australia — an average of 38 new residents a day across 2024-25, according to the local council — and residents told the ABC the area's booming population needs more than the station upgrade.
The trains pledge fills out the election's third policy lane in as many days, after Labor's roads package and One Nation's energy launch. Melbourne's west now has both major parties bidding on the same commute — one with bigger diesels next year, one with hybrids by 2030, and both still pointing at an electrification date that nobody will name.
