THE government of the Australian state of Victoria says it will provide $A 50m ($US 37.8m) in its upcoming 2018-19 budget for investigations into options for a high-speed rail link between Melbourne and Geelong, with detailed planning work and technical investigations set to begin.

PUBLIC Transport Authority of Western Australia (PTA) has issued a request for prequalification for a $A 1.6bn ($US 1.4bn) tender to supply a fleet of 17 six-car EMUs for its Metronet project plus 24 six-car trains to replace ageing A-Series trains on its Perth commuter rail network.

THE government of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) has announced that track laying on Sydney Metro Northwest has been completed, and the project is on course to be delivered at least $A 500m ($US 379m) under budget.

METRO Trains Melbourne (MTM) has awarded Bombardier a 10-year $A 77m ($US 60m) contract to maintain signalling infrastructure in the city’s 9km Metro Tunnel.

THE government of the Australian state of Victoria announced on April 10 that it will allocate $A 3m ($US 2.3m) from its state budget to fund design and planning work on an 18km extension of the Melbourne tram network to Monash University and Rowville in the city’s southeastern suburbs.

THE Australian government will provide $A 20m ($US 15.6) in funding to conduct studies for three proposals to improve rail connections in the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane areas.

THE New South Wales (NSW) government has announced that work on upgrading Sydney’s iconic Central station and landmark Central Walk will begin immediately following the award of a $A 955m ($US 745m) contract to Laing O'Rourke to transform Sydney’s busiest station.

THE Australian government and the state of New South Wales have committed to construct a heavy rail link to the planned second Sydney airport at Badgery’s Creek.

THE government of the Australian state of Queensland has shortlisted companies for the two contracts to build and equip Queensland’s highest priority infrastructure project, the $A 5.4bn ($US 4.26bn) Cross River Rail project in Brisbane.