New government documents reveal Metro Tunnel 2025 handover pushed back from April to December
The opening of Melbourne's Metro Tunnel has already been delayed several times. (Supplied: Infrastructure Victoria)
In short:
The opening of Melbourne's Metro Tunnel has been pushed back again, with documents revealing it could now open as late as December 31 next year.
The project has been beset by delays and cost blowouts throughout its construction, now nearly $4 billion over budget.
What's next?
The government says it is confident that Victorians will be able to ride in the Metro Tunnel next year.
Melbourne's long-awaited Metro Tunnel Project is under significant pressure to meet the government's deadline to run passenger services in 2025, after new documents revealed more delays on the nearly $15 billion project.
Earlier this year taxpayers forked out another $745 million to the over-budget project to cover delays — the 9 kilometre twin train tunnel project now costs nearly $15 billion, up from an initial estimate of $11 billion.
"Unpredictable events have significantly impacted the schedule of large-scale infrastructure projects across Australia, including the Tunnel and Stations PPP (public private partnership),'' the document says.
"The project has suffered from the impacts of the shortage of construction workers, supply chain constraints, and disruptions caused by COVID-19, causing delays to the works and planned testing and commissioning activities."
Five new underground stations in Melbourne are set to open next year. (ABC News: Richard Willingham)
The document says the date for the "Final Acceptance of Tunnel and PPP" to the operators has been extended from March 17, 2025 to New Year's Eve.
The date for the "Provisional Acceptance of Tunnel and Stations PPP" is delayed from April 2024 to April 2025.
Government remains confident of 2025 rollout
Infrastructure Minister Danny Pearson would not guarantee passengers could ride the new train in 2025, but said he was "confident" commuters would be able to catch the train next year.
"There's been events that we couldn't have foreseen, and there were obviously challenges across the board,'' Mr Pearson said.
"We've got a cracking team that are getting on and delivering this project, and I'm confident that we'll have people riding on the Metro Tunnel in 2025."
Danny Pearson says the project was affected by external factors out of the government's control. (AAP: Joel Carrett)
Three out of five stations have been completed, with work still underway at Town Hall and State Library stations.
Testing of trains has been ongoing, Mr Pearson said more than 30,000kms worth of testing trips had been completed.
Opposition Leader John Pesutto said the opening date was unbelievable.
"The only way the Metro Tunnel, which is already well over time and well over budget, is going to be opened on New Year's Eve 2025 is if the Allan Labor government cuts safety corners. That's the truth of it,'' Mr Pesutto said.
The project runs underneath major Melbourne hospitals, one of the issues delaying the project is trains interfering with sensitive medical equipment.