Metro Tunnel
The Metro Tunnel (sometimes also known as the Melbourne Metro Rail Project or the Metro Rail Capacity Project) is a metropolitan rail infrastructure project currently under construction in Melbourne, Australia. It includes the construction of twin 9-kilometre rail tunnels between South Kensington station (north west of the Melbourne City Centre) and South Yarra (in the south east) with five new underground stations. The southern portal for the tunnel is to be located to the south of South Yarra station. As a result, the tunnel will connect the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines with the Sunbury line, and allow these lines to bypass Flinders Street station and the City Loop while still stopping in the Melbourne central business district.
East West Link (Melbourne)
Yarra Council claimed the tunnel would exacerbate congestion on Hoddle Street, Flemington Road and surrounding streets. Mayor Jackie Fristacky said more than 80 percent of all inbound vehicles on the Eastern Freeway would still seek to exit at Hoddle Street and other inner roads to reach their inner-city destinations. "The East West Link will not help them. It will actually make congestion on Hoddle Street worse because it will get more cars on that road faster. It will ultimately cause major social, health and environmental damage," she said. A Victorian Department of Transport briefing prepared for Mulder said only a small proportion of vehicles now using Hoddle Street were likely to use the tunnel as an alternative if there were no off-ramps to the city, while a report for the government by consulting firm Veitch Lister in July 2013 found that while traffic on parts of Hoddle Street closer to the city would drop by up to 9 percent, the project could cause congestion on Hoddle Street closer to the Eastern Freeway to rise by up to 35 percent by 2021. Melbourne Airport chief executive Chris Woodruff warned that congestion between the city and airport could worsen once the East West Link was built unless the Tullamarine Freeway was widened. In its submission to the state government panel on the project, the City of Boroondara also raised concerns that traffic on some streets, including Princess and Asquith Streets and Burke Road, could rise by up to 30 percent.