{"id":74590,"date":"2026-08-18T07:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T07:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/74590\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T07:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T07:05:10","slug":"councils-push-for-buses-ahead-of-melbournes-srl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/74590\/","title":{"rendered":"Councils Push for Buses Ahead of Melbourne\u2019s SRL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author:
\n
\n Batrak Oleksandr
\n <\/a>
\n \u2014 Editor-in-Chief at Railway Supply<\/p>\n

18.08.2026 <\/p>\n

AUSTRALIA: Nine outer-Melbourne councils have a blunt pitch for the Victorian government on its multi-billion-dollar Suburban Rail Loop: run high-frequency buses along the corridor now, and worry about laying the actual rail tracks later.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>SRL East construction at Box Hill, Melbourne. Illustrative photo. Photo: Totallynotarandomalt69, CC BY 4.0<\/p>\n

The Outer Melbourne Councils group, which includes Casey, Cardinia and Wyndham, has urged the government to introduce \u201cturn-up-and-go\u201d bus services along the Cheltenham\u2013Box Hill SRL corridor well before trains begin running, according to the Star Journal group<\/a>. \u201cWe can bus the loop now, and lay the rail later \u2014 if the government of the day still wants to,\u201d OMC Chair and Nillumbik Mayor Naomi Joiner said.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss\u2026Cancelling SRL East Could Save $21 Billion<\/a><\/p>\n

One council staying conspicuously quiet<\/p>\n

The proposal lands against a backdrop of political uncertainty: newly installed Premier Ben Carroll has vowed not to break existing SRL contracts while separately naming the Melbourne Airport Rail Link his top transport priority, and removing SRL from a standalone ministerial portfolio. Amid the debate, Greater Dandenong Council \u2014 whose area the proposed corridor would pass through \u2014 has notably declined to take a position either way, unlike neighbouring councils that have actively lobbied on the issue.<\/p>\n

What the councils say buses could do now<\/p>\n

OMC argues frequent buses on existing roads could deliver meaningful improvements \u201cat a fraction of the cost\u201d of the rail project, building ridership habits before any tunnels are complete. Legalise Cannabis MP Rachel Payne backed the idea, noting each bus can take roughly 50 cars off the road. The announcement does not specify a cost estimate for the proposed bus network, or whether the government has responded directly to the OMC proposal.<\/p>\n

News on railway transport, industry, and railway technologies from Railway Supply<\/a> that you might have missed:<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss\u2026SRL East Ground Freezing for Cross Passages<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Author: Batrak Oleksandr \u2014 Editor-in-Chief at Railway Supply 18.08.2026 AUSTRALIA: Nine outer-Melbourne councils have a blunt pitch for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5001,260,36012,6324,108376],"class_list":["post-74590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-australia-railway-transport","tag-melbourne","tag-railway-construction","tag-railway-infrastructure","tag-suburban-rail-loop-srl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}