The Suburban Rail Loop will play a major role in the 2026 Victorian election. Why is it so controversial?

One of the key legacies of the nearly 12-year-old Labor government in Victoria has been a massive investment in infrastructure. The Suburban Rail Loop has been a prominent project in this debate. So why is it so controversial? The rail loop is an example of a long-term problem in Victoria: prioritising ad-hoc infrastructure projects over coordinated planning. When it was first elected in 2014, the Andrews Labor government promised to create 10,000 construction jobs by building the Melbourne…