Premier Confirms Chinese Firms Investing in Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop

‘Chinese companies are investing in the Suburban Rail Loop—and Victorian workers are building it,’ Jacinta Allan said.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan during a tour of the West Gate Tunnel construction at Footscray, in Melbourne, Australia, on July 7, 2025. AAP Image/Con Chronis

Victorian Labor Premier Jacinta Allan has confirmed Chinese backers will be involved in the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) amid her diplomatic offensive to win over the Chinese market.

The multi-billion-dollar infrastructure project is a 90-kilometre orbital rail line that will connect existing suburban rail lines in Melbourne to the airport.

The announcement was made during Allan’s five-day trip to China, where she travelled to multiple cities and met with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ministers and other officials.

Her trip came just a week after former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was spotted in a photo with CCP leader Xi Jinping and other global leaders from Russia and North Korea.

“The Allan Labor government has ordered four more tunnel boring machines (TBMs) to carve the Suburban Rail Loop twin tunnels between Glen Waverley and Box Hill—and they’re coming from China,” the Labor government said on Sept. 19.

Allan announced the four massive machines would be supplied by the China Railway Engineering Equipment Group, to be built in Zhengzhou.

“They will soon be sent to Melbourne and launched from Burwood next year. Two will tunnel south from Burwood to Glen Waverley and two will head north towards Box Hill,” the government said.

The Victorian government said four similar machines by the company were currently tunnelling the Chengdu-Deyang Intercity Railway Project in Deyang.

The Victorian government claimed these boring machines were driving major projects, including Beijing’s new Qinglonghu Metro station, Copenhagen’s Sydhavn Metro, Italy’s Naples–Bari High-Speed Rail and Victoria’s West Gate Tunnel.

“Now they’re coming to Victoria to complete the Suburban Rail Loop to take thousands of cars off local roads and slash travel times for commuters and road users alike,” the government said.

Allan admitted, “Chinese companies are investing in the SRL—and Victorian workers are building it.”

“These machines are being put together in Zhengzhou, put to the test in Chengdu—and they’ll be put to good use in Burwood,” she said.

Questions Raised

Shadow Minister for Defence Angus Taylor recently raised questions about Allan’s trip on radio, warning the government risked repeating past controversies.

When asked on 3AW whether Allan’s trip could be asking for money to fund the Suburban Rail Loop, Taylor said he didn’t know.

“But what I do know is that when Labor sends Victoria broke with more debt than New South Wales, Queensland, and Tasmania combined, then she’s got to go out with a begging bowl and look for money,” he said.

Taylor pointed out it would be “inappropriate” to see a repeat of the Belt and Road fiasco.

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, (front row L-R) CCP's leader Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, and former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews in the top-right corner, pose for a photograph before a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the end of World War II, in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Sept. 3, 2025. Sergey Bobylev/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

We’ve seen Dan Andrews being part of a photo with dictators from across the world at this Chinese Communist Party parade just a few weeks ago,” he said.

“There are real questions to be answered here, and I think Jacinta Allan should be answering them.”

In 2018 and 2019, the Victorian government signed deals with Beijing to cooperate on the Belt and Road infrastructure. In 2021, the federal government cancelled these agreements due to concerns they undermined Australia’s national foreign policy.

While in China, Allan signed off on $10,000 scholarships for regional students to study in China.

She also launched a $43 million tourism campaign and said in five years, Victoria wants one in five international visitors to Victoria to come from China.

Suburban Rail Loop

Then-Minister for Transport Infrastructure and Minister for Suburban Rail Loop Jacinta Allan (L) and former Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews (C) with workers pose for a photo underground from the site of the currently being built, State Library station, as part of the Metro Tunnel metropolitan rail infrastructure project in Melbourne, Australia, on Nov. 6, 2020. Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

Victoria is building the Suburban Rail Loop connecting Cheltenham, Box Hill, Werribee and Melbourne Airport, to link suburbs without going through the Central Business District.

The first stage between Cheltenham and Box Hill will cost between $30 to $34.5 billion alone.

Tunnelling is expected to start next year, while trains will be accepting passengers in 2035.

Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop Harriet Shing said, “The Suburban Rail Loop will take thousands of cars off local roads and slash your travel times.”