Tuesday, 18 November 2025

 Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (23:48): (2141) My adjournment is to the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, and the action I seek is to electrify the Melton line without delay. While Melbourne suburbs from Sandringham to Sunbury are served by electric Metro trains, suburban stations on the Melton line are currently served by V/Line regional trains, and it has been acknowledged for a long time that this is not good enough. It means that trains run less frequently than they should, it means both suburban and regional passengers trying to squeeze onto trains that were never designed for this many people and it means slower journeys for regional trains that have to stop at all those suburban stations. In 2018 this government announced funding for the Western Rail Plan to plan for the electrification of the Melton line and how that would fit in with airport rail and Wyndham Vale. But in 2025 the people of the west still do not have their electric Metro trains, and they do not even have a firm commitment from the government to the project. The government have recently announced that they will build the Sunshine station superhub. That will lay out the provision for the future Melton electrification, but still there is no commitment to moving forward with the project. The Department of Transport and Planning secretary Jeroen Weimar has been quoted in the media saying that Melton line works would not start until the Sunshine project was finished in 2030, but Infrastructure Victoria have recently called for the two projects to be built at the same time. Infrastructure Victoria have highlighted how urgent the Melton electrification project is, and they have said that there is no engineering reason why the two projects cannot start at the same time. In fact, as they point out, this would be much less disruptive for passengers. Rather than years of replacement buses for the Sunshine project and then years more for electrification, the government could take advantage of line shutdowns for one project to complete works on the other. Minister, the people in Melbourne’s west and the regional passengers who share these trains have waited long enough. I urge you: bring forward the electrification of the Melton line and give passengers the services they deserve.