Railways in Melbourne
In February 2015, the State Government established the Melbourne Metro Rail Authority to oversee planning for new twin 9-kilometre rail tunnels through the central city between South Kensington station and South Yarra. The new Metro Tunnel will have five new underground stations and connect the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines with the Sunbury line, creating a new route through the CBD as an alternative to the City Loop. New underground stations will be created at Arden, Parkville, Domain and two new CBD stations, State Library and Town Hall. Enabling works were underway by 2016 and major construction work on the tunnel and stations began in 2017.The project has an estimated cost of $11 billion and is scheduled to be complete by 2025.
Robert Risson
Risson was a defender of trams at a time when they were falling out of favour across Australia. He is often regarded as a major factor in the retention of Melbourne's tram network, which now has a route length of , making it the largest tram network in the world. Academic Graeme Turnbull argues that "the view has been frequently expressed that the retention of the Melbourne tramway system during this period, is due almost solely to Sir Robert's strong management." While academic John Legge wrote in 2006 that "Melbourne's tram network in the years after the war found that Risson still knew how to fight. Premiers as tough as Henry Bolte backed away from such a contest." Further, Victorian Transport Minister Alan Brown called Risson "the man who deserves full credit for saving out city's trams" in 1994, and columnist Bruce Guthrie described Risson as "the man who saved our trams."