Greens prioritise eastern rail link (August 11, 2013) Farrah Tomazin, The Sunday Age’s state political editor.

The Greens have declared that a rail line to Doncaster is ”the best thing we can do to fix congestion”, and will head to the election with a multibillion-dollar transport wish list to rival the east-west link.

Federal deputy leader of the Greens Adam Bandt also wants the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel to be a key priority for any future government, and has promised to fight for better cross-city transport links to encourage people to drive less.

The party is yet to provide costings for its transport priorities, which are being finalised by the parliamentary budget office, prompting Labor’s condemnation as the battle for Mr Bandt’s seat of Melbourne heats up.

”Voters in Melbourne should be concerned by the slapdash way the Green party commit to delivering on transport infrastructure with no costings, no timeline and very little detail,” Labor candidate Cath Bowtell said.

But Mr Bandt insisted the policies would be fully detailed in coming weeks, and would cost less than the Coalition’s $8 billion east-west link. Continue Reading…