Level crossings on hold as Labor vows to fix Melbourne’s most unreliable train line

Labor has promised to duplicate Melbourne’s least reliable rail line and save taxpayers more than $600 million in major infrastructure works, while further delaying a signature policy of former premier Daniel Andrews.

Premier Ben Carroll will on Monday announce a funding commitment of $80 million over two years to kickstart work on building a second track on the Upfield line, which will slash wait times for commuters in suburbs including Broadmeadows, Dallas, Campbellfield and Fawkner.

Currently, the four-kilometre stretch of track between Gowrie and Upfield stations is a single line, creating bottlenecks, preventing more trains from being run and leaving passengers experiencing substantial delays during peak periods. Labor estimates duplicating the track will increase capacity by 50 per cent.

The promise will attempt to shore up support for Labor in its heartland northern suburbs seats, including Pascoe Vale, where the Greens believe they can win in November for the first time.

The initial $80 million election pledge will be used to undertake site investigations, finalise project design and acquire relevant planning and environmental approvals.

The government has not committed to a completion date for the project and said it would become clear after the initial development work was finished in 2028.

Treasurer Colin Brooks will also announce on Monday the delay of eight level crossing removals along the Upfield line to coincide with the track duplication and minimise costs and disruption.

Brooks said the decision to delay the removals was about “common sense and timing” that would ultimately spare the state budget bottom line $686 million.

The delay is another blow for residents in Melbourne’s north, who have been waiting for the level crossing removals since 2022 when Andrews promised the works would be completed by 2027.

Though the government later issued a new deadline of 2030, Labor now predicts the completion date to be in 2033 to coincide with the train line duplication works.

“We are making commonsense decisions to save money and minimise disruption along the Upfield line,” Brooks said.

“Labor will remove every one of the 110 level crossings we promised.”

Carroll said: “Doing it in one go reduces costs and minimises disruption for passengers. It’s common sense.”

The premier will also say that increasing frequency by duplicating the train line would have a substantial impact for commuters.

“50 per cent more capacity on the line for turn-up-and-go services – that’s a huge change for the northern suburbs,” Carroll said.

Although the $80 million will only be used for planning development, Carroll said “duplication has been spoken about for decades” and a re-elected Labor government would mean the project was built.

“As a premier that spends taxpayer money wisely, I want to get the certainty on what duplication will cost. So we will delay several level crossings, then give Victorians certainty … and then we’ll get on, remove level crossings and duplicate the railway line at the same time,” he told reporters on Monday morning.

While passengers on other metropolitan lines such as the Mernda, Sandringham, Glen Waverley, Cranbourne, Pakenham and Sunbury lines wait less than 10 minutes in peak hour, commuters on the Upfield line still face waits of 15 to 20 minutes during morning and afternoon peak periods.

A train “turn-back” at Gowrie station, which would have made 10-minute frequencies possible, was planned as part of the Metro Tunnel project so Upfield trains could utilise new capacity in the City Loop, but it was cut from the $15 billion project to reduce costs. The Parliamentary Budget Office has costed the turn-back facility at $54.4 million.

Geordie Barker, from the residents group Elevating Brunswick, said it was disappointing that the level crossing removals had been delayed.

However, he said the delay would allow time to improve designs of the new skyrail through the rapidly densifying section of Brunswick.

Barker’s group has been pushing for one of two new elevated stations to be built next to a vacant block of land, south of Hope Street, rather than north of Hope Street, where the platforms would be metres away from existing apartments.

“Duplication is the key to an increase in frequency along the line. Tying them together is great, however, this is our third delay. Daniel Andrews said this would be built by 2027,” he said.

“We’ve had announcements like this before and really they need to commit to doing it properly.”

Improvements on the Upfield line have been considered long overdue by some public transport experts.

Infrastructure Victoria last year called on the government to duplicate the line, and Merri-bek Council has long campaigned for the government to commit to the upgrades.

Duplicating the line would cost about $245 million, according to Parliamentary Budget Office costings commissioned by the Greens in 2025, and provided to The Age at the time. That does not include about $50 million over a decade in operating and maintenance expenses.

Infrastructure Victoria estimated duplicating the track and upgrading power and signalling along the entire line would cost $650 million to $1.4 billion, Carroll said on Monday.

Labor’s promise to upgrade the line may also shore up support in heartland northern-suburb seats. The Greens believe they can unseat Labor in Pascoe Vale, which the government holds on a slim 2 per cent margin.

The duplicated train line will also benefit commuters closer to the city in the seat of Brunswick, which Labor hopes to win back from the Greens.

The Greens’ candidate for Pascoe Vale, Angelica Panopoulos, said it was time the northern suburbs were given the same quality of public transport as commuters in other parts of the city.

“It shouldn’t take decades of advocacy from the community and Labor staring down the barrel of losing marginal seats to the Greens to finally move on this,” she said.

Panopoulos said the timing of the announcement was “really interesting” and that Pascoe Vale voters wanted change.

“We’ve had an announcement ... before a state election when Labor are incredibly on the nose, and we’ve been out door knocking and speaking to people at train stations for months now, and they are saying that they are really fed up and just want something different.”

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