Victoria will get a new deal on urban infrastructure if Labor wins the next federal election, with the opposition pledging to make Melbourne’s “critical” congestion problems a national priority.

With the city’s population rapidly approaching 5 million and transport links struggling to keep up, Labor’s infrastructure spokesman Anthony Albanese says public transport is the key to tackling Melbourne’s congestion problem.

Melbourne's transport infrastructure sometimes struggles. Credit:Chris Hopkins

The high-profile frontbencher told The Age that the state was being “ripped off” by the Commonwealth and that the city’s outer-urban growth corridors, which are seeing the most dramatic population growth, “need fixing".

Labor has high hopes of taking two Liberal-held marginal seats on Melbourne’s outskirts at the next federal election, with both Corangamite in the west and Dunkley in the far south-east considered winnable in the light of proposed re-distributions.