By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
LABOR has pledged to roll out 30 new metro trains and 20 V/Line carriages as part of an $800 million state election pitch.
During a tour of Bombardier’s Dandenong train factory on Wednesday, Opposition leader Daniel Andrews said that if elected his government would devote $350 million in its first budget to the program.
He said without such a commitment soon, Victorian-based train manufacturers such as Bombardier faced an uncertain future.
For each of the 250 workers employed at Bombardier there was another four flow-on jobs locally, Mr Andrews said.
“These are jobs worth fighting for.”
In a statement last week, the ALP encouraged companies to “start preparing their bids” for the rolling stock building tenders, which should include at least 50 per cent local content.
“In making orders for new rolling stock, Labor will preference bids that will employ the most Victorian workers,” the statement said.
Mr Andrews said the program, staged over four years, would be a balance between a “steady flow of work” and “what Victoria can pay for”.
“The industry has been crying out for a long-term rolling stock strategy to give the industry scale and certainty, and that’s what Labor will deliver.”
Stuart Inglis, operations and projects manager at Bombardier, said the company was looking for more projects after it finished building 22 three-car Adelaide trains in the middle of next year.
He said the company had yet to hear if a Chinese-led consortium – which will partner with Bombardier – had won a bid to supply 25 new trains for the Dandenong rail corridor.
It also wants the State Government to exercise an option for a further 100 Dandenong-built trams.
The project – so far comprising 50 Bombardier-built trams – has a supply-chain of 350 Australian and New Zealand businesses.
