Slow tram to nowhere: Fishermans Bend transport plan still has no completion date

A new plan to connect a tram line to the beleaguered Fishermans Bend precinct still has no completion date, leading to fears even more developers will abandon the planned suburb.

Fishermans Bend is the largest urban renewal project in Australia and is envisaged to be home to 80,000 residents and 80,000 jobs by 2050, but the lack of public transport has throttled development on the 480-hectare peninsula south-west of the CBD.

The lack of transport is slowing developments in Fishermans Bend.Credit: Joe Armao

Earlier this month, the University of Melbourne suspended plans to build a $2 billion campus there, which had been predicated on the state government building a tram line by 2025.

On Friday, a public holiday, the Department of Transport and Planning quietly released an Integrated Transport Plan for Fishermans Bend, revealing three phases of development to gradually deliver transport to the area.

The plan plots the extension of tram lines through the northern employment precinct and southern residential district via Ingles Street, branching off from the existing route 109 tram corridor in South Melbourne.

This new route avoids the expensive and complicated task of building a tram bridge over the Yarra River from the end of Collins Street, Docklands, as previously planned.

But unlike the 2018 Fishermans Bend Framework plan, which said trams would be delivered by 2025, the new transport plan does not set a time frame for delivering the infrastructure. Instead, the tram lines are allocated to the second of three “horizons”.

City of Port Phillip councillor Alex Makin, whose Montague Ward covers Fishermans Bend’s eastern end, said residential and commercial developments would not progress until the state government committed to a timeline for building the tram line and other transport infrastructure.

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“The lack of definitive time frames is a concern particularly because the community has been burnt before on this,” Makin said.

“When you look at successful urban renewal projects, transport is provided to catalyse the development.

“If the state government is serious about resolving housing affordability and serious about creating jobs near where people live, it will commit to the tram lines and commit to when they will be delivered.”

In the short term, the plan says tram services will be improved to the Montague precinct bordering Port Melbourne by redirecting route 86’s larger E-Class trams to Port Melbourne rather than Docklands.

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New bus routes from the Fishermans Bend employment precinct to the new Anzac Station and western suburbs via the West Gate Bridge and increased services to Southern Cross Station are listed as immediate priorities.

Other short-term initiatives include increasing West Gate Punt services from Spotswood, building a safe cycling route from the CBD, and several other walking and cycling improvements, including two new active transport bridges over the West Gate Freeway, which divides the peninsula.

Rail Futures Institute president John Hearsch said the previous tram bridge plan would have been difficult to progress because of the cost and opposition from nearby landowners.

“So avoiding that Yarra crossing probably does make sense, particularly if it’s going to expedite getting trams into the area,” he said. “It gives a bit more choice as to where those trams would come from and where they would go, too.”

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The medium-term outlook includes an active transport bridge to Docklands, and a potential freight rail line from Webb Dock – which sits at the end of the Fishermans Bend peninsula – and Swanson Dock, on the Yarra’s northern bank.

The third development “horizon” envisages that the Melbourne Metro 2 underground train line will be delivered by some point in the 2050s, with two stops in Fishermans Bend.

In June, a damning Victorian Auditor-General’s Office audit uncovered major delays in delivering key projects to Fishermans Bend, including schools, parks, bike paths and the tram connections.

A Victorian government spokesperson said on Friday: “We’re delivering a well-connected and carefully planned precinct at Fishermans Bend, with connections to roads and new public spaces.”

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