Trains swing on dueling promises
The current Victoria Premier has laid some large promises on the table, if the state in which he is not polling well returns him to power.
Premier Denis Napthine launched his party’s tilt at re-election over the weekend, pledging to spend around $4 billion on new trains and trams.
He said the purchase, including some upgrades to infrastructure, would create 3,500 jobs in the rail manufacturing, supply and construction industries, as the Government buys “one train a month, each month for the next 10 years,” Dr Napthine said.
The state’s Labor Party has a plan to buy far fewer trains, and spend money instead on fixing the level-crossings that plague traffic across Melbourne.
Labor’s basic plan is to dump the multi-billion dollar East West Link and sell the Port of Melbourne.
This will free up the $5-6 billion required to remove the 50 ‘worst’ level-crossings.
Labor says this will create thousands of jobs too, though it will also deny many jobs from the scrapped construction of the East West Link.
Napthine also promised a $100 million regional cities infrastructure fund would be established to benefit the state’s 10 largest regional cities.