Wednesday, 4 March 2026

 Annabelle CLEELAND (Euroa) (19:13): (1567) My adjournment tonight is for the Minister for Public and Active Transport, and the action I seek is that the Sunshine regional link crossovers are retained as part of the Sunshine station redevelopment. Right now, the design of this project is a perfect example of how big-city infrastructure decisions keep failing regional Victorians. Billions of dollars are being spent on redeveloping Sunshine as a major transport hub and yet somehow the design manages to make the network less practical for many regional passengers and freight operators. So let us start with passengers: trains on the Albury and Shepparton line already run straight through Sunshine, but under the current design there is no platform for those trains to stop, so passengers from north-east Victoria will be forced to travel all the way into Southern Cross station and then turn around and come back out again just to reach Sunshine. Think about that for a moment: they are literally travelling straight past the station that they need to get off at and having to back-pedal. It is bad design, we can all agree. So for many regional people this is not just about airport travel either; it is about regional communities being forced to travel to Melbourne for specialist medical appointments, treatment, education and government services. Under this design, patients, carers and families will be forced into longer, more complicated journeys for no good reason other than it was a bad plan in the first place. Instead of building a transport network that connects the state, this project risks building another barrier for regional Victorians.

It does not stop there. The proposal to remove the Sunshine regional link crossovers raises serious concerns for rail freight as well. Those crossovers are a critical connection for freight moving between regional Victoria and the Port of Melbourne. If they are removed, freight operators will be pushed onto the already congested Geelong and Werribee corridor, where passenger trains have priority, so rail freight operators will be forced to travel an additional 47 kilometres, adding time, fuel and crewing costs. When rail becomes more expensive and slower, the freight does not disappear; it goes onto trucks. That means more heavy vehicles on our roads, more pressure on road maintenance and more safety risks as well as more emissions. At a time when we should be strengthening rail freight, this design risks pushing the system backwards.

What is most frustrating is that these are not complicated problems. The trains already pass through Sunshine. The infrastructure is being built, yet somehow the design manages to lock regional Victorians out of the very hub they already travel through. It is the kind of planning that makes people in regional communities shake their heads in despair and say, ‘Did anyone in Melbourne actually think this would work for the rest of the state?’ Right now it feels like regional passengers are expected to just be grateful for infrastructure they are forced to travel straight past. It is not good enough. I seek a simple solution: that the Sunshine regional link crossovers be part of the redevelopment and ensure this project does not lock regional Victorians out.