Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) will give regional Victorians better access to job opportunities, education and health services and bring metro Melbourne and regional Victoria closer than ever.
With SRL, regional Victorians will be able to travel to and from key destinations across Melbourne’s suburbs without having to go through the CBD – cutting 80 minutes on average from return public transport trips and opening up previously inaccessible jobs in high growth employment areas.
Transport superhubs will open up Melbourne’s middle suburbs to regional travellers, with the Clayton transport superhub set to be delivered first as part of SRL East from Cheltenham to Box Hill. Broadmeadows will be built as part of SRL North from Box Hill to Melbourne Airport and SRL West will tap into the Sunshine superhub.
More than 11% of Melbourne’s jobs will be located in the broader areas around SRL stations by 2056 and around 13% will be in the central city – giving regional Victorians much better access to a broad range of increased employment options in the decades ahead.
The new rail line will also create direct connections to major educational institutions such as Monash, Deakin and La Trobe universities and Box Hill Institute. Access to Deakin University from Wallan will be around 45 minutes faster with SRL East and North – making it within an easily commutable travel time.
Travelling to world-class healthcare will be more convenient with Monash Medical Centre, Monash Children’s Hospital, Monash Heart Hospital, Box Hill Hospital and Austin Health all located near SRL stations. A one-way trip from Traralgon to Box Hill Hospital will be around 26 minutes faster – taking around two and a half hours instead of three and making train travel times comparable to driving.
Significantly improved travel times between the regions and Melbourne’s middle suburbs will make regional centres and towns more attractive for investors, visitors and tourists. For example, a resident of Heidelberg could save an hour on a return public transport trip to East Gippsland by transferring at Clayton. These improvements to connectivity and accessibility will also enable regional businesses to reach larger pools of skilled workers and new customers, suppliers and markets.
SRL will provide a direct link to Melbourne Airport to many regional Victorians for the first time, not only making it easier to get to Tullamarine, but also encouraging more interstate and international visitors to tourism and hospitality destinations in the regions.
As more people choose to leave their cars at home, regional patronage will also increase. By 2056, regional passenger movements will increase to around 8500 a day at Broadmeadows, with more than half of all passengers on regional services approaching Melbourne from the Hume corridor interchanging at the Broadmeadows transport superhub. At Clayton, regional passenger movements will triple to around 7000 a day. More than 40% of regional passengers approaching Melbourne from the Gippsland corridor will interchange at the Clayton transport superhub.
Regional Victorians in the state’s west will also enjoy enormous travel time savings and better accessibility from being connected to the rail line at Sunshine, where a superhub is already being delivered as part of Melbourne Airport Rail and precinct planning is underway. SRL West is in early planning stages and all major rail infrastructure being delivered in the west will make provision for SRL West to be delivered as quickly as possible.