We're still months out from the election. I agree though that Metro 2 should be being planned in the next government term so that the TBMs finishing their work in 2022 can go straight onto that.
I heard Daniel Andrews speak this morning on Triple M about this announcement and a few things he said:
1. He was adamant that aside from some sections of the line near the Airport (where their is an easement set aside for a future railway) everything else will be underground.
2. That he was hoping to include Public Private Partnerships into the equation to help fund this project, and was also open to getting some help from the federal government.
3. Construction will begin on the first 2 sections by 2022 (the next state election), those sections being the Sunshine to Melbourne Airport section, and the Cheltenham to Box Hill section. He said they will take 10 years to be complete.
Now it stands to reason that the Sunshine to Melbourne Airport section will be the first section ready for the Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs). It is the shorter section, not all of it will be tunnelled and funding for it has already been secured, meaning work for it can begin sooner. So from that I gather that as soon as the TBMs are finished with Metro 1 they will be moved to Sunshine to begin work there, then when finished there, they will move to Box Hill and Cheltenham and begin there.
It really does seem to me that Daniel Andrews and his team are attempting to start a long term phase of rail construction in Victoria, and this can only be a good thing for our state and our city.