The state government has announced $2 billion in budget cuts on the Suburban Rail Loop project, including scrapping station interchanges in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

However, a RMIT urban policy professor says if the rail loop is less accessible, fewer drivers will switch from cars to public transport.

Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) East is the first stage of the planned 90-kilometre underground orbital rail line, looping around the CBD to connect Melbourne’s outer northeast and northwest suburbs.

Due for completion by 2035, the project will deliver six underground stations from Cheltenham to Box Hill via 26 kilometres of twin tunnels.

The SRL project was budgeted up to $34.5 billion, but on Tuesday August 25, Premier Ben Carroll announced the state government would bring the cost down to $32.3 billion by making project cuts such as scrapping station interchanges.

The initial $1 billion in savings included scrapping the planned construction of station interchanges at Box Hill and Glen Waverley, ditching the scheduled multi-level car park in Glen Waverley and abandoning a second station entrance at Clayton and a pedestrian bridge at Burwood.

The state government has also announced it would wrap up the SRL Community Projects Fund after all round two recipients have received funding.

The government also promised to commission an independent review to determine where else it could create a further $1 billion in savings.

Speaking to 3AW’s Tom Elliott, Opposition leader Jess Wilson said she would pause and review the project if the Coalition wins in November.

“The Suburban Rail Loop is putting all of the eggs in one basket,” she said. “We have no visibility … of what this government has signed us up to for decades into the future.”

According to the SRL East’s Environmental Effects Statement, the initial plans estimated emissions savings of 14,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide for the first year of operations, attributed to fewer private vehicle trips and reduced car production and maintenance.

This will result in a drop in greater Melbourne’s emissions of 0.1 percent.

According to the Suburban Rail Loop Authority, about 70,000 people are expected to use the SRL East arm every day, with close to half shifting from driving.

The plans estimate that by 2050, SRL East and SRL North will take about 600,000 cars off the road every day.

RMIT urban policy professor Jago Dodson said the change in plans had the potential to drive people away from considering shifting their daily commute, as people would have to travel further to change services or park further away from the station.

“By reducing the attractiveness to travellers, it's actually bringing the SRL towards a no net greenhouse gas emissions benefit,” he told the Eastern Melburnian.

The project aims to reduce embodied carbon emissions from materials and the supply chain by at least 20 percent, including using low-carbon steel and recycled concrete.

Embodied carbon is the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions released during the extraction, manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal of building and infrastructure materials

Tunnel boring machines and trains will be fully powered by renewable energy, while segments of the tunnel will use more sustainable concrete mixes and more than 4,000 trees will be planted to offset emissions.

The government also plans to double the tree canopy in and around each station.

Dodson said any construction project involving the pouring of concrete with structural steel creates “very high carbon emissions”.

“Unless you’re either offsetting those or finding compensating savings overall, you’re effectively adding to the net carbon intensity of the city,” he said.

Dodson said the 0.1 percent emissions reduction was a “miniscule” offset of the emissions.

“It’s never really going to pay itself back in terms of carbon emissions,” he said.

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Melbourne's east is about to become a testing ground for Labor's election promise to double the number of potholes fixed across Victoria this year, despite the majority of roads in the region being managed by local councils.

On Sunday August 30, Premier Ben Carroll announced an extra $352 million allocation towards the 2026/27 road maintenance budget – bringing the total figure to about $1.39 million – to lift the state's pothole repair target from 250,000 to 500,000 this year.

According to a statement, crews will target key arterials across the state, including the Princes Highway and regional roads.

The additional funding would come from delaying three level crossing removals in Melbourne’s south-east by 12 months.

The plans also involve utilising the state’s prison inmates via a collaboration with Corrections Victoria where minimum-security prisoners would perform “basic” road maintenance as part of an outdoor manual labour program.

In July, the opposition announced its plan to invest $5 billion in repairing the state’s roads over a four-year period if it wins the upcoming November election, including a target to fix one million potholes.

Early fixes: Whitehorse council has identified Burwood Highway, Station Street, Elgar Road, Springvale Road and Canterbury Road as the five key arterial roads requiring state government investment.

Whitehorse mayor Kirsten Langford said the condition of some state roads across Whitehorse was “simply not good enough” and more proactive maintenance from the state government was needed.

“Our community continues to raise concerns about potholes, failed road surfaces and roads that are deteriorating before action is taken,” she told the Eastern Melburnian.

The majority of roads across Melbourne’s east are managed by the local councils. For example, Boroondara council manages 86 percent of its roads, Whitehorse 84 percent, 80 percent in Monash and about 74.6 percent in the Yarra Ranges region.

In 2025-26, Boroondara council received 383 pothole and road defect reports, relating to both council-managed and state-managed roads – close to double the 192 reports received the year prior.

Yarra Ranges council director of built environment and infrastructure Anita Curnow said state roads within the area included the Maroondah, Melba and Warburton highways and Mount Dandenong Tourist Road.

Maroondah mayor Linda Hancock said the council is continuing to “advocate for improved maintenance and timely repairs” of arterial roads.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Knox council said the council welcomes the announcement of additional funding to repair and maintain roads managed by the state government.

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Boroondara council has voted to let some heritage homeowners install rooftop solar without a planning permit, but people with more visible systems will still need council approval.

Watch our video below:

1: Which suburb hosted Australia’s first drive-in theatre, opening in February 1954?

Answer: Burwood — The Skyline Drive-In

2: Where did Victoria’s first McDonald’s restaurant open in September 1973?

Answer: Glen Waverley

3: Which suburbs in Melbourne’s east did Australia’s first electric tramway connect?

Answer: Box Hill and Doncaster

4: Where was a platypus first successfully bred in captivity?

Answer: Healesville Sanctuary

5: Where was Victoria’s first commercial vineyard?

Answer: Yering Station — opened in 1838