Should Shorten fund Melbourne’s suburban rail loop?

The annual interest the two governments will pay on the $50 billion needed to build the loop would be enough to increase all off-peak train and tram frequencies to every ten minutes. If analysis showed it were a sensible idea, there'd also be enough to make all metropolitan public transport free.

It's not just that there are other, higher priorities; the suburban loop is a limited way of improving orbital travel relative to its extraordinary cost. A single line with an average spacing of 6 km between stations can't compete effectively with car travel in Melbourne's low-density suburbs.

As I've noted before (Suburban rail loop – how can this mistake be prevented?), what's really needed in Melbourne is a metropolitan-wide 'grid' of multiple radial and orbital lines that maximises the number of travellers who can access high-frequency public transport by foot.

A mammoth sum like $50 billion could fund a 'spider's web' of fast light rail and BRT routes every 2 km (say) with dedicated rights-of-way and priority at intersections, coordinated with services on the existing rail and tram networks (see Isn't there a much, much better way to do cross-city public transport?).

It would be a more effective way of providing orbital routes across all of Melbourne than a single suburban rail line. It would cost less, deliver greater benefits sooner, and provide many more public transport users with improved accessibility.

But even a dense network of high-quality public transport services won't deliver substantial mode shift in the suburbs unless it's allied with measures to make driving less competitive. It seems unlikely though that such measures will be forthcoming, because Messrs Shorten and Andrews aren't interested in implementing road pricing or reducing road capacity; their priorities are shamelessly political.

Mr Shorten wasn't the only one to put politics ahead of good sense yesterday. Prime Minister Scott Morrison promised $4 billion to build the controversial East West Link, notwithstanding that the Andrews government steadfastly rejects this particular motorway.

Mr Morrison's laughing response was "so just let us get on and do it", conveniently ignoring the fact that even if he were to win Saturday's election, he wouldn't be able to do anything about the East West Link in his next term. The $4 million is an empty promise because he'd face another election in 2022 before the Andrews' government goes to the polls in November 2022.