17 September 2025
More transport, more homes, more jobs
Melbourne is growing. We’re building the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) now to make moving across Melbourne easier, quicker and more affordable for generations to come.
SRL will reduce travel times, ease congestion, and connect our suburbs, ensuring our city grows in the right places. It will enable construction of more homes and housing choice close to public transport, services, jobs, schools, parks and cafes.
Connecting to all major train lines from Cheltenham to the west via Melbourne Airport, SRL will transform our public transport network - connecting more Victorians to employment, hospitals, universities and each other.
Construction of SRL East from Cheltenham to Box Hill is underway, creating up to 8,000 direct local jobs. Tunnel boring machines are building the twin tunnels and the underground stations are taking shape. Trains will be taking passengers in 2035.
SRL will deliver
Better and more direct connections
to major education and health facilities and Southland Shopping Centre.
More jobs closer to home
employment in Cheltenham will double to 36,500 jobs as a result of the SRL.
New and enhanced
open space, including at Sir William Fry Reserve.
Improved walking and cycling paths
to connect people to key local destinations.
SRL East at Cheltenham
The SRL station at Cheltenham will be the southern gateway to the SRL network and make it easier for people to access education, retail, entertainment, recreation and employment areas nearby.
The new underground station will service around 8,000 passengers daily when trains are running in 2035, with around 2,700 people interchanging with Frankston line services.
The station will provide a convenient connection to Southland Station and will include a bus interchange for fast and easy access - connecting more people to jobs, health care, education and shopping.
Fast facts
Cheltenham to Box Hill
‘Turn up and go’
train services.
Station construction
Construction of the SRL East station at Cheltenham will be completed in stages.
8,000 passengers
expected to use the station every day.
70,000 passengers
expected to use the SRL East every day - nearly half shifting from their cars.
Station construction
Construction of the SRL station at Cheltenham is being completed in stages. Disruption at surface level is expected to be shorter than the overall construction time.
Part of Sir William Fry Reserve will be required to build the new station. Public open space will be replaced nearby before major construction starts.
Construction stages and activities include:
- Early works to move underground services
- Main works, including demolition of existing structures, earthworks to prepare the site for construction, and excavation of the station box to create an open trench, construction to build the underground station
- Excavated soil from tunnelling underneath Cheltenham brought to the surface in Heatherton
- Station completion including any road and path upgrades, incorporation of public open space and planting and landscaping.
A new station at Cheltenham
The underground station at Cheltenham will be on Bay Road, across from Southland Shopping Centre and will be fully accessible for all passengers.
The platform will sit around 17 metres below ground, with a single station entrance facing Bay Road. New and improved public open space, walking and cycling paths and signalised road crossings of Bay Road and Nepean Highway will make it easier and safer to move around the area.
The new station will be close to the existing Southland Station, making it fast and easy for passengers to change trains.
The station will include a new bus interchange, accessible pick up and drop off areas, taxi bays and undercover bicycle parking.
It will also include space for shops, cafes or restaurants, and buildings to accommodate operational equipment and rail systems, and essential emergency and safety infrastructure.
Planning around the new SRL East station at Cheltenham
Planning rules for neighbourhoods around the SRL East stations – including Cheltenham – have been finalised, streamlining approvals for thousands more homes around the SRL East stations over the next 15 years.
We’ve been speaking to the community for several years about how the SRL East can bring more jobs, homes and services within walking distance of world-class public transport.
Community feedback played a vital role in finalising the plans, with more than 10,000 responses and submissions received throughout the planning process, including public hearings.
A structure plan guides the development of an area over time – helping to achieve sustainable growth and positive social, economic and environmental outcomes.
The new rules will ensure the areas around the stations remain vibrant, thriving neighbourhoods for generations to come – giving developers and the community certainty about the scale and type of future development expected in local areas.
