Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A little over a week ago a significant announcement was made in my electorate by the Victorian transport minister—that is, that the Rowville rail feasibility study would soon be underway. The Rowville rail project has been talked about for decades, but we have never got traction on it and now we finally will. With a rapidly growing population and rapidly increasing congestion, this project is critically important. It would link up Monash University and allow local residents to travel into the CBD within 30 minutes. It would take the equivalent of a lane of traffic off the Monash Freeway.

This feasibility study is the critical next step to making this rail project happen. It was promised by the Bracks government in 1999 but it was not delivered. Now this study will be delivered. I was campaigning for the Rowville rail link prior to being elected and I am continuing to do so now. If the feasibility study finds that the project stacks up, I will be doing everything I can to ensure that it gets funding.

The rationale the Gillard government has given for investing in urban rail projects in Brisbane and Sydney is equally applicable to the Rowville rail link. This is a very important project that would benefit thousands of people in the outer east. With the feasibility study underway, we are one step closer to seeing this project being realised.