Victorian Transport Plan

The Victorian Transport Plan is a now defunct transport planning framework for the state of Victoria, Australia announced on 9 December 2008 by then Premier of Victoria, John Brumby. The plan was submitted to the Government of Australia for funding approval.

It was prepared in response to and largely centred on solutions to urban transport problems in Victoria's capital Melbourne, particularly alleviating growing traffic congestion and passenger congestion on public transport (trains) as a result of a 100% increase in public transport patronage during the 2000s (decade).

The plan followed several previous transportation strategies including Linking Victoria, Linking Melbourne: Metropolitan Transport Plan and Meeting our Transport Challenges as well as major studies including the Eddington Transport Report.

The plan was shelved in January 2011 by the incoming Baillieu government, with the projects contained in it to be reviewed by the soon-to-be-established Victorian Public Transport Development Authority. $6 million of taxpayer funds were spent promoting the plan during the two years it was in place, including television, radio, newspaper, online and outdoor billboard promotions. These advertisements were described by one newspaper columnist as "Stalinist-style propaganda".

The Victorian Transport Plan had six main goals which it aimed to achieve through extensive expansion of the public transport network and road system, and improvements made to existing roads and rail services, as well as dealing with changes in the way people travel around Melbourne and Victoria.

These 6 main goals were:

The delivery of these goals was to occur via the implementation of projects across Victoria, in particular Melbourne, by setting short, medium and long term time frames for project delivery. Many of these projects were not fully costed and most were subject to further negotiations with the Federal government about funding, and the capacity of future state budgets to provide additional funds into the future.

The Victorian Transport Plan involved more than $38 billion in projects. Major initiatives included:

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