Suburban Rail Loop to deliver huge benefits to Victorians

The Victorian Government has released the SRL Business and Investment Case, setting out a clear rationale for Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) and detailing the far-reaching social, transport and economic benefits it will deliver for Melbourne and Victoria.

It shows how SRL will deliver more jobs, enhanced public transport, better services and greater access to housing as our state continues to grow.

SRL will ensure Victoria has a rail network on par with some of the world’s biggest cities. And to maintain our renowned liveability, it will also reset how Victoria grows in the decades ahead by constraining Melbourne’s urban sprawl and creating a ‘city of centres’ across our middle suburbs. Trains will be running on SRL East from Cheltenham to Box Hill by 2035, and SRL North from Box Hill to Melbourne Airport will follow. Planning work will continue on SRL West, which will fully integrate with the major transport projects being delivered in Melbourne's west – including Melbourne Airport Rail.

In a snapshot

• Up to 24,000 jobs supported during delivery.
• 165,000 additional jobs located in SRL Precincts.
• 430,000 trips every day.
• Travel times slashed by an average of 40 minutes on one-way public transport trips.
• 80% of Melburnians will experience more efficient travel during peak periods.
• 606,000 daily car trips taken off roads.
• Faster and more convenient journeys for regional passengers to Melbourne's key precincts and better access to a broader range of jobs.

Read more about the SRL Business and Investment Case

SRL East Cheltenham to Box Hill running by 2035

SRL East will deliver huge immediate benefits when it opens by 2035, with 71,000 daily trips, slashing travel times and easing pressure on the existing network in Melbourne’s east and south east.

Delivering six new underground stations and 26km twin tunnels, SRL East will offer a turn up and go service – providing fast, convenient and reliable journeys to key destinations including Monash and Deakin Universities, and Monash Medical Centre.

SRL East will immediately ease congestion on Melbourne’s roads, increasing overall public transport trips by around 54,000 per day, with 47% of passengers shifting from private vehicles. Regional Victorians will also see huge early benefits, with the transport superhub at Clayton connecting Gippsland passengers to SRL – slashing travel times and improving access to jobs and services.

As well as the rail infrastructure, SRL East will include strategic investment and land planning in precincts (1.6km zones around stations) that will attract and support clusters of new businesses and deliver better local services and additional housing.

Along with faster journeys and eased congestion, SRL East will deliver significant economic benefits – generating jobs, providing convenient access to diverse employment, and attracting investment to the areas around the new stations.

Construction will begin in 2022, creating up to 800 direct jobs during Initial and Early Works, and preparing the launch sites for tunnel boring machines ahead of major construction and tunnelling in Melbourne’s south east.

Slashing travel times

SRL will deliver shorter, faster and more reliable journeys while slashing travel times across the state – with more than 80% of Melburnians to experience time savings.

The new high-tech fleet of trains will take 3 to 4 minutes to travel between stations, offering a turn-up-and-go service and saving commuters up to two hours on return trips to key destinations.

A trip between Cheltenham and Box Hill will take just 22 minutes – less than half the time of a public transport journey today.

Regional passengers will also benefit, with an average of 80 minutes cut on return public transport journeys to Melbourne’s key precincts via transport superhubs at Clayton and Broadmeadows.

SRL will also ease traffic congestion by encouraging people to shift from their cars to public transport – benefiting all road users, including freight services, trams and buses.

• 17 minutes faster from Monash to Fishermans Bend than on existing lines.
• 40+ minutes saved on public transport journeys from Cheltenham to Monash, Glen Waverley or Burwood.
• Just 10 minutes to get from Cheltenham to Clayton.
• A Traralgon local traveling to Box Hill Hospital will save 26 minutes.
• From Box Hill to Cheltenham in 22 minutes.
• A casual worker from Reservoir will save up to 49 minutes going to Glen Waverley.
• An interstate commuter will save 51 minutes on a trip from the airport to Monash University.

Delivering more jobs closer to home

SRL will not only generate a long pipeline of jobs and training opportunities during construction, but will also attract tens of thousands of jobs to Melbourne’s middle suburbs.

By 2056, the SRL Precincts between Cheltenham and Melbourne Airport will be home to around 545,000 jobs – about the same as in the central city today. Around 165,000 jobs in these areas will be a direct result of SRL – this will enable many more people to work close to where they live and will ensure people in the outer suburbs have better access to a diverse range of employment opportunities.

These jobs will be within a 20-minute walk from a station – improving accessibility to employment for 70% of people in Melbourne’s middle suburbs, and for 72% of those in Melbourne’s outer corridor.

Jobs snapshot

• Up to 24,000 local jobs supported during construction
• 8000 direct local jobs during construction of SRL East
• 800 early direct jobs during Early and Initial Works
• Additional 5100 workers will be employed to deliver SRL North from Box Hill

Planning for the future

By 2056, more than 11% of Melbourne’s jobs will be located within SRL Precincts and around 13% will be located in the central city, meaning planning now for this connection is essential so regional Victorians can continue to access important employment opportunities in the future.

Delivering for regional Victorians

SRL will slash travel times for regional Victorians and significantly improve access to job opportunities, education, health services, and other key destinations across Melbourne – without having to go through the city.

Two new transport superhubs at Clayton and Broadmeadows will link regional passengers to the new network, with passenger movements increasing to 8500 a day at Broadmeadows and tripling at Clayton to around 7000 a day.

SRL will improve access to more diverse job opportunities in high growth employment areas and create direct connections to major educational institutions such as Monash, Deakin and La Trobe Universities, and Box Hill Institute.

It will not only provide direct access to the airport for the first time for many regional Victorians, but faster journeys to and from Melbourne’s middle suburbs will make regional towns more attractive for investors, visitors and tourists.

Victorians in the state’s west will also enjoy enormous travel time savings and better accessibility from being connected to the SRL Network at Sunshine, where SRL West will tap into a transport superhub already being delivered as part of Melbourne Airport Rail.

More than a rail line

SRL is a forward-looking investment which will reshape Melbourne. Over time, it will encourage people to live and work in areas that are well supported by good public transport, services, recreational opportunities and open space.

Melbourne’s population is expected to reach around 9 million people by 2056. The city’s current urban sprawl means people are being forced to live further away from employment opportunities and crucial social infrastructure. It’s also putting pressure on existing public transport and making congestion worse.

SRL includes investment and new initiatives in SRL Precincts that will help turn Melbourne into a city of centres, rather than relying on a single centre of major employment and activity. This will attract investment in Melbourne’s middle suburbs, as well as generate economic activity and employment, support new businesses and housing, and deliver improved local services and amenities.

SRL Precincts will help deliver new and enhanced open and public space, more walking and cycling paths, town plazas and more greening and cooling of local neighbourhoods. This delivers Plan Melbourne’s vision of ‘living locally’ through 20-minute neighbourhoods, where a person’s daily needs can be met within a 20-minute walk, ride or public transport journey – encouraging Melburnians to use active transport and increasing levels of physical activity in the process.

SRL Precincts are forecast to be home to an additional 47,500 households by 2056 – this will also curb the rate of housing growth on our urban fringe.

Delivering more sustainable travel options will help Victoria reach net zero emissions by 2050. With SRL East, an additional 2.4 million walking and cycling trips will be made each day by 2056.

SRL is expected to take around 606,000 car trips and 2.2 million vehicle kms off our roads every single day by 2056.

Community engagement update

The latest round of community information sessions has wrapped up, with more than 320 locals stopping by to find out more about the delivery of the new rail line.

Sessions were held along the SRL East alignment between Cheltenham and Box Hill, where community members could learn more about SRL, and provide important feedback and local area insights which are shaping the planning and delivery of SRL.

Since February, more than 10,000 people have visited our virtual engagement room to learn more and provide feedback on design elements and the tunnel alignment.

Since engagement began in 2019, more than 21,600 people have shared feedback in person and online. Thank you to everyone who has participated.

Sign up for our eNews to find out about upcoming opportunities to have your say on SRL.

SRL updates

Works ramping up

In just over two years of geotechnical investigations, workers have clocked up more than one million hours as works on SRL ramp up ahead of start of construction in 2022.

More than 500 sites and 9km of ground have been drilled as part of geotechnical investigations between Cheltenham and Box Hill.

Together with hundreds of other land and groundwater surveys, and around 10,000 laboratory tests, the investigations have helped plan the alignment of the 26km twin tunnel for SRL East.

Three of the largest construction companies in Australia have been shortlisted to deliver the first phase of construction, with a contract expected to be awarded later in the year.

Works will involve minor road modifications, utilities relocation and protection, site levelling and ground improvement works, and preparing sites across Melbourne’s south east to make way for massive tunnel boring machines (TBMs) that will tunnel from Cheltenham to Box Hill.

Station details

New details about the location and construction of SRL East's six new underground stations have been revealed following extensive planning, engineering assessments and geotechnical investigations.

The stations between Cheltenham and Box Hill will range from 17m to 23m below street level – as close to the surface as possible to minimise the time it takes passengers to get from street to platform. Each of the stations will be fully accessible for all passengers via lifts and escalators.

The designs of the stations are still in development and will reflect the character of each local community. They will be built using a 'bottom-up' method, which involves excavating the station box before building the permanent station structures up toward ground level.

Profile: Lissa van Camp

Swapping a diving tank for a hard hat may not be the most obvious career path, but SRLA's Director of Land, Planning and Environment Dr Lissa van Camp did just that.

From working underwater around the country to being a part of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission in South Australia, Lissa says the chance to join SRL was an unmissable opportunity.