When will the Caroline Springs train station be built?

Ms HARTLAND (Western Metropolitan) -- I have some specific questions about two of the three new railway stations that are to be built in growth areas, in particular the one at Williams Landing near Point Cook, and the other at Caroline Springs. The Caroline Springs one will be on the existing Melton-Bacchus Marsh line.

My concern is that the money appears in the budget but does not flow until 2011-12, and the $200 000 for the three stations with $1.8 million total in the 2012-13 year, for three years -- and I am referring to page 243 of budget paper 3. I do not understand why, if the government has announced the Caroline Springs station will be built, it is some time before the money is allocated.

When can we expect to see a station in Caroline Springs, and when can we expect to see the Melton-Bacchus Marsh line electrified, because there does not seem to be much point in having a new station on a V/Line service?

Mr LENDERS (Treasurer) -- I thank Ms Hartland for her question. There are a couple of issues. We are speaking of the appropriation, so we are talking about $16 million towards the station in the first year or something in that order, which is the capital for the station coming in. That will be the funding -- what is appropriated this year and whatever phasing is required in further years.

On the question of the electrification of a railway line, as a government we have set out our plans and priorities in the Victorian transport plan. We are one year into that plan and there are 11 more to go.

The timing will be that the government will come to Parliament periodically, seeking appropriation to deliver that outcome. Ms Hartland's question is about transport -- that is, what good is a line that is not electrified? We electrify lines, as we are doing with the Sydenham-Sunbury line and a range of other lines, to boost and improve the service, but we are doing so in a sequential order.

As far as the appropriation goes, money for the Caroline Springs station is allocated in this particular budget. The other ones are policy issues of legitimate debate, but the government has put its policy forward in the Victorian transport plan and the order in which it seeks to deliver these services.

Ms HARTLAND (Western Metropolitan) -- I am afraid this situation will end up like what has occurred at South Morang, so I would like to have some sense of when the people of Caroline Springs could expect that station to be built.

Mr LENDERS (Treasurer) -- In the budget is an appropriation line for the Department of Transport. There are two separate figures in there, and the Victorian transport plan outlines what the government seeks to do in its first, second and third terms of four years, and in each year's budget we will bring forward budgets.

It is fair to say that in this budget we have brought forward a larger share than would be the proportionate share for a 12-year plan. Clearly we are being assisted post budget by the commonwealth's very strong investment in the regional rail express. We have outlined, probably more comprehensively than any Victorian government I can recall, a 12-year plan with benchmarks in it.

That is where this government stands; that is where we are delivering services.

Ms Hartland clearly has a different view on the priorities, and her view may be legitimate, but we have outlined our view, and in this budget we are starting to appropriate money for the first leg of the long-overdue overhaul of transport across metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria, particularly in Melbourne's west.

Ms HARTLAND (Western Metropolitan) -- The Treasurer did not answer the question I asked, which was: when could people in Caroline Springs expect to have a railway station? When the Treasurer delivered the budget speech I remember quite clearly he talked about the Caroline Springs station, and at that time it sounded like it was just around the corner. The residents have a right to know in which decade that will happen.

Mr LENDERS (Treasurer) -- The house is being asked to endorse $16 million towards three stations in this particular financial year -- that is the appropriation. As it is with many of these items, the government has announced it will commence work on three stations. There will be further announcements on that, but the house is being asked to support $16 million in the current financial year towards those three stations. That is as specific as I can be.