PREMIER Daniel Andrews has ruled out all extra fees and taxes to help pay for the $11 billion Melbourne Metro Rail but still cannot explain where the money will come from.

The Herald Sun today revealed the 2011 business case for the project, which the Government has a copy of, listed public transport fare increases, car registration levies and property rates hikes as options to fund the 9km tunnel.

Today Mr Andrews said the Government had “no plans to be doing any of that”.

“We are completely revising the business case and we’ll release it later on this year and when we do everyone will be able to look at it.”

Mr Andrews has so far promised $4.5 billion of taxpayer money and borrowings would be spent on the tunnel, with more to come, despite claiming the only existing business case is “hopelessly out of date”.

The Government had previously said it would only fund one third of the project and would seek investment from the Federal Government and the private sector for the rest.

When asked why his commitments so far were more than one third of the cost Mr Andrews blamed the Federal Government.

“Maybe you should go and have a chat to Tony Abbott, he’s indicated that he’s not interested in paying any of the cost.”

Earlier, Mr Andrews and Treasurer Tim Pallas contradicted each other over whether Victorians will be hit with taxes and fees to pay for it, while doing two interviews at the same time this morning.

Mr Pallas said a revised business case for the tunnel, which will run from North Melbourne to South Yarra, would propose a variety of possible methods for funding — even as the Premier was ruling out extra fees and taxes.

When Mr Pallas was asked about it on 3AW, he admitted the revised business case “could” come up with the same recommendations to slug Victorian drivers, homeowners and public transport users to pay for the tunnel.

Asked if he would rule out any of the extra taxes and fees, Mr Pallas said: “No, I don’t think I’m in the business of ruling out something I haven’t yet received.”

But he said there were no existing plans for any of those fees.

“Once the business case is produced we’ll have a genuine discussion with the Victorian people about how these vital pieces of infrastructure are delivered,” he said.

READ THE FULL REPORT

CHAOS AMID THE CITY’S RAIL REVOLUTION

EDITORIAL: CRASH THROUGH OR CRASH OUT

JAMES CAMPBELL ANALYSIS: DELAYS TO PROJECTS PROVE COSTLY

$21M PROJECT: THE STATION WITH NO NAME

media_camera The preferred Melbourne Metro Rail tunnel as per the business case.

He admitted the same people who wrote the 2011 business case would write the new one and the Government would not ask the authors, including the Transport Department, to rule out extra fees when it does the financing plan.

“We’ll simply ask them to identify what the cost of this project is and how it might be financed.”

Mr Pallas said the Government would be getting ahead of itself if it started thinking about all “the obstacles and the costs involved” in the project.

Mr Andrews has so far promised $4.5 billion of taxpayer money and borrowings would be spent on the tunnel, with more to come, despite claiming the only existing business case is “hopelessly out of date”.

The Government had previously said it would fund only one-third of the project and would seek investment from the Federal Government and the private sector for the rest.

When asked why his commitments so far were more than one-third of the cost, Mr Andrews blamed the Federal Government.

“Maybe you should go and have a chat to Tony Abbott. He’s indicated that he’s not interested in paying any of the cost.”

Tomorrow’s state Budget will include $1.5 billion for planning for the project and Mr Andrews will use $3 billion the previous government borrowed for the East West Link to help pay for the Metro Rail.

“So there’s four-and-a-half and this is our first budget. There will be four budgets in this term and we will continue to make progressive announcements about making sure we are under construction for Metro before the end of 2018,” he said.

Mr Andrews said there would definitely be property acquisitions but would not confirm if they would be any more or less than the hundreds described in the 2011 business case.

The never-before-seen business case also outlines how hundreds of properties and swathes of parkland will be ­acquired to build the tunnel.

And it proposes buying Swanston St buildings to develop them into multistorey towers.

The Herald Sun has confirmed up to $1 billion in federal money could go to the Andrews Government to help pay for the tunnel, if the Port of Melbourne sells for the expected $6 billion price.

But it still leaves a massive funding hole, with the Government under pressure to explain in tomorrow’s Budget how it will fund the $11 billion rail project linking Footscray, under the CBD, to Caulfield.

The 321-page Cabinet in Confidence document prepared for the previous administration in 2011, which underpins the ambitious rail link, recommends a host of punitive slugs.

The report reveals:

CITY streets overrun with trucks carrying “spoil” and dust could be a big issue;

56 HOUSES, 291 apartments and townhouses and 15,000sq m of parkland could be bulldozed for the project;

174 BUSINESSES in high-rises will be forced out, with 44 commercial buildings razed;

FEDERATION Square, Flinders St station and the hospitals precinct will be severely affected as digging works bring massive CBD disruption;

SOUTH Melbourne station was ditched as too costly; and

NINE-CARRIAGE trains, at 220m long, will serve the line, with platform extensions needed on current stations.

While the document was presented in December 2011, its proposed route is the one adopted by Premier Daniel Andrews and announced just three months ago.

media_camera The concept for CBD North station.

It flags a range of options to help fund the tunnel.

“This includes over-station development, proceeds from uplift in state-owned land, Tax Incremental Financing, rates levies, uplift in future public transport far (sic) receipts, reallocation of the CBD parking charge, public transport ticket levy, further charges to landowners based on uplift in property values and vehicle registration levies,” it said.

Land would also be needed for “construction set-down and site amenities at each new station, entry/exit points for tunnel boring machines, a ­licensed site for dealing with contaminated spoil and a site for a concrete batching plant to provide concrete for the project,” it said.

A large portion of Fawkner Park would also be temporarily torn up for construction.

Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan said: “Melbourne Metro Rail will cause disruption but we look forward to working closely with all affected parties.’’

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said: “We don’t want another Labor disaster like myki or the desalination plant.”

media_camera Our trains are going to get much more crowded in the next six years.

RAIL MESS TO GET WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER

DEMAND for morning peak-hour train services will outstrip supply by 40 trainloads of passengers every day by 2021.

The shocking state of Melbourne’s public transport network is revealed in the business case for the Melbourne Metro Rail Link.

It predicted by 2021, demand for trains in the morning peak on the Sunbury line would fill 25 trains but the network could handle only 13.

Across the network, demand would fill 175 trains in the morning peak but the system could handle only 139.

Passengers on the Cranbourne, Pakenham, Hurstbridge, Epping, Craigieburn, Sydenham and Sunbury, Williamstown and Werribee lines would all be squeezed into trains carrying 150 per cent of their capacity.

GREATER CAPACITY FOR PEAK HOURS

LONGER trains carrying more people into new, world-class stations through a sophisticated underground network is the public transport system of the future for Melbourne.

With its five new underground stations, Melbourne Metro Rail will improve the way we access the CBD, the 2011 business case says.

The link, to be completed in 2031, is expected to put more Victorians within 60 minutes’ travel time of the CBD in peak hour. An extra 5 per cent of jobs will be accessible within an hour during peak times and a trip to Domain will drop by 25 minutes and Parkville by 15.

It will allow an extra 14 peak-hour services running at up to 80km/h across Melbourne’s northwest and three more on the Frankston and Sandringham lines.

Passengers from Sunbury to Dandenong would also benefit from the longer trains and 220m-long platforms.

Premier Daniel Andrews has said he wants to build a network that does not need timetables, where commuters can arrive at a station and know a train will be there.

Beyond the existing network, the business case said the link would also allow for “future connections to the Port of Hastings and the proposed future rail line to Rowville”.

READ THE FULL REPORT

michelle.ainsworth@news.com.au