The Victorian opposition leader, Daniel Andrews, has promised his government would buy 30 new trains for the metropolitan network and 20 new VLocity V/Line carriages as part of an $800-900 million transport investment.
The plan costed at $350 million will be provided in its first budget with additional funding slated for future years.
In a statement, Mr. Andrews said that the party also pledges to have at least 50 per cent “local content” in the trains to inject confidence into the local industry, compared to 30 per cent under the Coalition.
Labor’s trains promise is an attempt to win votes in the key battlegrounds of public transport and jobs. It says it will favour manufacturers Alstom, Bombardier and UGL, who employ a combined 600 staff in Victoria, and has told each to begin preparing bids.
The Napthine government has ordered 15 new Metro trains from Alstom since it took office. But the French company, which has a plant in Ballarat, was recently cut from the shortlist of a new order of 25 trains in favour of two bidders from China and Korea and will run out of work in the middle of next year.
The government says the two overseas bidders would still have to meet the 30 per cent local content law in building the “next-generation” trains.
Labor said it would commit $350 million in its first budget for the order of new trains, with $310 million going towards the new Metro trains.