Government delays Upfield line upgrades until 2033 with duplication promise

Government promises $80m study into duplicating Upfield Line, delaying level crossing removal In short: The Carroll government will delay level crossing removals and begin preliminary work on duplicating the Upfield line if re-elected. The line through Melbourne's northern suburbs still has a section of single-line track, limiting the amount of services. The government has pledged to spend $80 million on a study into the cost of duplicating the rail line. The Carroll government will duplicate Melbourne's Upfield line if re-elected, but will delay scheduled works to remove level crossings for seven years. The railway line travels through the northern suburbs and still has a section of single-line track between Gowrie and Upfield stations, limiting the amount of services that can be run on the line at any one time. Premier Ben Carroll said the duplication would be crucial for Melbourne's north and improve reliability of rail services to the area. "I'm from Melbourne's north-western suburbs; this has been spoken about for generations," Mr Carroll said. The premier estimated the duplication would cost between $650 million and $1.4 billion, but stopped short of guaranteeing funding for the project. Instead, the government is financially committing tens of millions of dollars to a study of the potential duplication, if it's re-elected in November's state election. "$80 million to do a detailed study on what the duplication will require, those four kilometres of track," Mr Carroll said. "We will expect the planning and duplication study to be completed by 2028." When asked about the decision to spend $80 million on a study conducted by government departments and agencies, Minister for Public Transport Vicki Ward said it was a financially prudent investment in the future of Melbourne's north. "The government is giving the money to the Victorian people and the people who live on this line," Ms Ward said. The announcement is the latest in a protracted series of promised business cases and plans to duplicate the Upfield line. In February 2025, the Albanese government announced $7.05 million towards delivery of a business case to develop and prioritise options for upgrades to Melbourne’s northern metropolitan railway lines. In this year's 2026/27 Victorian state budget, the government allocated $3.6 million to "complete a final program business case" on improvements including duplicating the Upfield line. Now, the Carroll government's announcement has increased the spending on planning the duplication by nearly twenty-fold. As part of the announcement, the government said it would also delay the removal of eight level crossings on the Upfield line. Mr Carroll said the delays would align the work with the duplication of the line in 2033, saving $686 million. The delays will further stretch out the timeline of the level crossing removal project, with the Labor government promising after its 2022 election victory that 110 removals would be completed by 2030. Delays on Upfield line upgrades criticised by Coaliton, Greens Shadow Minister for Transport Infrastructure Evan Mulholland lashed the government over the announcement, saying the government had now delayed the level crossing removal for two more elections. "Not into the next term of parliament, but into the following term of parliament," Mr Mulholland said. "Whenever this government needs somewhere to cut, it picks the Upfield line, and it picks the northern suburbs." Mr Mulholland accused the government of delaying the level crossing removals repeatedly as a political strategy. "Why have they been delayed? Because this government needs to get them outside of the forward estimates, to not account for them," he said. The Victorian Greens also criticised the announcement, saying the government had not committed to actually building the project and was delaying much-needed works on the line. "Labor promised these level crossings would be gone by 2027. Then it was 2030. Now it's 2033 — while communities across the north continue to grow and wait for the infrastructure they were promised," Greens MP Anasina Gray-Barberio said. "Communities in the north deserve so much better than empty pre-election announcements that just disappear over the horizon." The Greens are calling on the government to commit $246 million to duplicate the Upfield line. [Image text:] pfield via City 640M