In short:
Victorian commuters have been paying an additional public transport fare levy since January 2025, with 60 per cent allocated to Suburban Rail Loop East. The revelation comes as Premier Ben Carroll moves to cut billions from the project ahead of the 2026 Victorian election.
Damning Report Reveals Hidden Charges
Premier Ben Carroll is moving to cut billions from the Suburban Rail Loop as a damning Auditor-General’s report exposes an unannounced public transport levy helping fund the project and raises fresh questions over how Labor has managed its signature infrastructure program.
Despite accepting what could be described as a poisoned chalice, Carroll is making some of the right moves, with the State Government identifying around $1 billion in immediate savings from SRL East and commissioning an independent technical review tasked with finding another $1 billion.
No further contracts will be awarded until the review is complete, with the government now putting the estimated investment at $33.3 billion.
However, Carroll is not removed from the project’s history. He was Public Transport Minister when the government first agreed in August 2021 to introduce an additional “rail improvement charge” on metropolitan heavy rail fares after other proposed revenue measures fell billions short of its funding target.
(Tunnel boring on the SRL East).
Stealth Charge Added Along With Typical Indexing
The charge was later expanded under a funding package approved in December 2023 to an additional one per cent annual increase on public transport fares, on top of normal CPI increases.
It began on 1 January 2025 and applies to concession fares and metropolitan and regional services, excluding regional buses. The levy is estimated to raise $4.8 billion, with 60 per cent allocated to SRL East.
The Victorian Auditor-General found the government approved excluding any reference to the charge from public communications about its value capture package in November 2024.
When the government announced five value capture mechanisms for SRL East in December 2025, the levy was not disclosed. It was also absent from government and Transport Victoria communications about fare increases in 2025 and 2026 and remained unannounced as of June 2026.
For Wyndham commuters, it means part of their public transport fares is helping fund SRL East despite the first stage being built across Melbourne’s eastern and south-eastern suburbs.
Government advice cited by the Auditor-General found public transport users across Victoria would provide the majority of value capture revenue, while warning the compounding charge could create affordability problems and encourage some passengers to switch to private vehicles.
(Tarneit commuters have been funding SRL East spending while waiting for electrification).
Difficult Track Record To Defend
The levy has also fallen well short of early revenue forecasts, collecting $6.2 million between January 2025 and February 2026.
Carroll has also moved to cut 140 senior executive and executive-equivalent positions across government departments, the Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority and Suburban Rail Loop Authority as part of broader efforts to reduce spending.
The changes come months out from the state election and represent an attempt to reduce the cost and bureaucracy surrounding one of Labor’s biggest infrastructure commitments.
While Carroll is changing course on parts of the project, he was a senior member of the governments responsible for its development and was Public Transport Minister when the fare charge was first approved.
The task now is to contain the cost of a project Labor has spent years building and defending.
