Suburban Rail Loop on track for mammoth cost blowout

The parliament budget watchdog has warned the first two stages of the Suburban Rail Loop are now on track to cost $125 billion.

When the project was first announced in 2018 it was budgeted to cost $50 billion.

New costings released by the Parliamentary Budget Office predict two of the three sections — in the east and north — will cost more than double the initial estimate for the entire project.

And transport and cities program director at the Grattan Institute, Marion Terrill, says there may be further cost blowouts.

“Some experts are suggesting it could still be higher,” she told 3AW Breakfast.

“If you’ve got 90 kilometres of tunnel, and a kilometre of tunnel costs over $1 billion, not to mention the stations, it wouldn’t be hard to get to that sort of sum.”

The state coalition has vowed to shelve the project if it wins the November election.

Press PLAY below to hear why there may be more cost blowouts

Image: Victorian Government