Governments: Show some vision and build Frankston rail extension
This article was first published in the January 2022 Mornington Peninsula Magazine, page 15.
It is nearly four years since we first covered the proposed Frankston train line extension – “Century-old rail dream on horizon”. Mid-2018, the federal Coalition government allocated money for the project but no action has been taken since. Mike Hast reports on the state of play.
Here’s some stats for the ages – the Frankston train line from Melbourne was opened in 1882 and electrified 40 years later in 1922, when Frankston and Mornington Peninsula had just 4500 people.
In 1929, a parliamentary committee recommended the line be electrified beyond Frankston. In the 92 years since, nothing has been done. Nothing.
The Victorian Labor government and the federal Liberal-National Coalition government have squabbled since 2018 about building the extension just 5km from Frankston station to Langwarrin.
But who promised what?
There was light at the end of the tunnel in 2018. The federal government allocated an initial $225 million towards the project and promised to build an extension to Baxter. This was twice confirmed by then-federal Treasurer Scott Morrison when he visited Frankston in May 2018 and in September as the new Prime Minister. Soon after, now federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese also committed to the rail extension in a rare show of unity.
But no extra money has been added in almost four years since, and work has not started. Why?
Because the Victorian government has not yet backed the project, although it wasted $1.5 million on a preliminary cost-benefit study that omitted the project’s economic benefits! This blatant politicking was so it could say: “We don’t want to build it – and, see, the federal government hasn’t allocated enough money anyway.” It’s childish finger-pointing. It’s called wedge politics.
Meanwhile, Frankston MP Paul Edbrooke hides behind the claim: “No one is asking me for an extension to Frankston’s metro line.” His claim is false as residents and groups have been vocal for years about the rail extension and its many benefits. And the project is listed as a national infrastructure priority.
Mr Edbrooke’s claim begs the question: what happens when governments don’t have the vision and foresight to invest in public infrastructure before it is desperately needed? Answer: we end up with a far less functional society.
Wise governments invest in public infrastructure. In the 1960s, Frankston Council took on dawdling state government agencies by going direct to Canberra to raise funds to build a much-needed sewerage system. Without this tenacity, our city would still be pumping out toxic septic tanks.
Why do we have politicians if they can’t get things done?
The best civic leaders plan ahead, show vision and make things happen, rather than polling for votes and spouting empty promises.
Speaking of vision – or lack of it: if you wanted to design a public transport rail system that did not serve the Frankston and Mornington Peninsula communities, you would build what we currently have:
- A truncated metro train line connecting less than one-third of its intended catchment of over 300,000 people.
- A ‘transit station and bus interchange’ accessible by narrow, parking-congested streets that restrict how many buses can use it.
- A metro train line ending 1.2km short of the region’s only university, medical precinct and public hospital – leaving travellers high and dry.
- A rail line that ‘dead ends’ in the middle of Frankston’s CBD with inadequate car parking for the many users.
To get to Frankston we must rely on cars but expect workers to pay 10 per cent of their wage to a private parking operator, and shoppers and clients to accept hyper-inflation of parking costs eight to 13 times CPI. This is why one-third of Frankston’s offices and a quarter of shops remain vacant. Good businesses have fled to more practical locales.
During the 2019 election campaign, the federal government promised to build the Frankston rail extension.
Now, at the start of 2022, we are on the cusp of a massive stuff-up with both governments to blame.
If they don’t soon agree on how to start this project, the $225 million in budgeted federal funding risks being taken away. The community can clearly see this multi-million dollar opportunity is being botched.
Even if it’s being mucked around by the state government, that Commonwealth promise to extend the line remains. To break the stalemate, Canberra must fully fund a 5km extension to Langwarrin – with the cheapest design option costing about $400-500 million – and start building it.
Committee for Greater Frankston CEO Ginevra Hosking gets the last word: “This is the call to action from our community – Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, local federal MPs Greg Hunt and Peta Murphy, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, Frankston MP Paul Edbrooke – please cease the petty political warfare. Time to act – extend the Frankston track.”
Mike Hast is a freelance journalist and former editor of Mornington Peninsula newspapers.
