Jobs locked in as Alstom gets order for 25 new trains

Twenty-five new X’Trapolis 2.0 trains will be built in Ballarat, further securing 150 jobs at the Alstom manufacturing works in Creswick Road.

Member for Wendouree Julianna Addison announced at the plant this morning that $673.6 million would be included in the government’s 2026–27 budget to pay for the trains.

Addison made the announcement to about 100 Alstom workers, who greeted the news with applause and cheers.

Premier Jacinta Allan made a similar announcement in Melbourne at the same time.

Addison said there had been “a lot of nervousness” about future work for Alstom.

“We’re coming through with this so you can make decisions about your life and also take a deep breath,” Addison told the workers.

“There’s a lot of challenges on people at the moment with cost of living pressures and everything that’s going on.

“So to be able to make this announcement today, with you right here, right now, I really hope that that is something that allows you to say ‘my future is looking secure’.

“This is about securing jobs in regional Victoria; it is about making Ballarat the best place in the world to manufacture trains.”

The new X’Trapolis 2.0 trains will be used on the Frankston, Upfield and Craigieburn metropolitan Melbourne lines. The government has now funded 50 of the trains, the first of which will be rolled out in the coming months.

The government also announced this morning that the cost of public transport will be half-price from 1 June until the end of the year.

Alstom Ballarat site managing director Jean-Marie Mengelle described the announcement as “fantastic news for us”.

“I think you can all be very, very proud of what you have done,” he told the workers.

Committee for Ballarat chief executive Michael Poulton was also at the announcement and thanked Addison and her government for their continued support of the local workforce.

He described the employees as “a wonderful workforce” in “a wonderful sector”.

“It’s great to know that’s going to continue on,” Poulton said, “for the families, for the people who work for Alstom, for those who are sitting in school right now thinking about perhaps … electrical engineering as a skill, the opportunity to do that continuing in Ballarat.”

Addison said the order for new trains would support up to 750 jobs across the supply chain, including at Alstom’s Dandenong operation.

“This would not happen if you were not such a great workforce; that you weren’t delivering product that the Victorian government recognises,” she said.

“And I just want to say, if I have anything to do with it we’ll be making trains here for decades and decades.”