- Published:
- Thursday 6 October 2016
Treasurer Tim Pallas was today given rare access into London's Crossrail project, inspecting the newly constructed 21 kilometre twin tunnels under the heart of London.
The underground tour was a unique opportunity for the Treasurer to learn from the experiences of tunnelling under London as works continue on the biggest public transport project in Victoria’s history, the Metro Tunnel.
London's Crossrail started construction in 2009 and recently announced the milestone of 75 per cent completion.
Work is currently underway on fitting out the Crossrail tunnels with 15,000 kilometres of electrical cable and over four kilometres of full height platform screen doors.
When the first train services run through the new Crossrail tunnels in late 2018, London commuters will benefit from reduced journey times, new business opportunities and a better connected transport network.
These are just some of the benefits that the Metro Tunnel will bring to Melbourne commuters.
Key personnel from the Melbourne Metro Rail Authority (MMRA) have also visited Crossrail earlier in the year to learn how their engineers were able to overcome the challenges of tunnelling under busy inner city environments, including some of the oldest public gardens in the world.
MMRA last week released a Request for Proposal to the three world-class shortlisted consortia for the project’s largest works’ package, the $6 billion Tunnel and Stations Public Private Partnership.
Up to six Tunnel Boring Machines will be used to construct the Metro Tunnel and have been used around the world including London, New York, Malaysia and Singapore.
The Labor Government fully funded the $10.9 billion Metro Tunnel in the Victorian Budget 2016/17, a project that will take our busiest train lines through new 9km tunnels, relieve congestion in the City Loop and allow more trains to run in and out of the city every day.
The Treasurer is in London as part of a two-week international tour of several of the world’s leading business hubs to promote Victoria’s economic strength with global investors.
Quotes attributable to Treasurer Tim Pallas
“Victoria will learn from the challenges of Crossrail as we deliver the Metro Tunnel, a city-shaping project which will create the very best public transport system for Melbourne.”
“Massive infrastructure projects deliver thousands of jobs and we’re making sure that the world’s most liveable city has a truly world-class public transport system.”