[Lamont Cranston]

(con't)
Liberal Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder says that while grade separations are expensive, the cost per kilometre for South Morang is still too high. "Taxpayers have a right to expect that they are getting good value for money spent. If Perth can build a 72-kilometre double-track railway with 11 stations including two underground stations for $1.2 billion, you'd have to say that for effectively 8½ kilometres of new railway in Melbourne to cost $562 million then Victorian taxpayers are being dudded.
"Transport Minister Lynne Kosky should explain why she just doesn't fly in some people from the West to show us how to build these projects and get more (rail extensions) under way," Mulder says.
Daniel Bowen, of the Public Transport Users Association, fears that bundling road and overdue maintenance costs into new rail projects will make future rail extensions such as Doncaster and Rowville seem prohibitively expensive. He fears that the roads lobby in Victoria will then claim it can solve transport issues by building more roads far more cheaply and easily than extending railways.
In the end, says John Kirk, the former head of the Australasian Railway Association, it comes down in part to attitude. He argues that Victoria lacks a great rail culture and is therefore constantly outmanoeuvred by the roads lobby.
"Whenever something's costed it seems to be extravagantly costed so it always looks overpriced, but when the thing is built it's the cheapest that works. There is this mentality I have found that they could do it better for less, but they don't. It's very, very frustrating. I don't know what it is, this kind of apologist attitude," he says.
"The road guys have things well-costed and ready to go and they lobby for them, but for rail they seem to dodder along a bit."