It's often the smallest line items in the budget that are the most revealing about a government's aspirations for projects it likes but which are still a bit too underdone to merit commitment.
This year's budget contains $4 million for "stage 2" of the widening of Melbourne's busiest road, the Monash Freeway, which is already being widened between EastLink and Clyde Road in Berwick as part of a $5.5 billion public-private partnership with Transurban.
![The budget contains $2 million planning money for further widening of the Monash Freeway.](/web/20170508192246im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/9/4/u/t/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvx5tf.png/1493735630588.jpg)
The upgrade of the Monash has been a source of bickering between the Andrews and Turnbull governments as they have sought to strike a deal over how to spend the $3 billion committed to the cancelled East West Link.
More than half of the $4 million is federal money, and will be used to "develop a business case" for the use of some of that East West Link money to further widen the Monash Freeway, perhaps to the new housing estates of Pakenham on Melbourne's south-eastern fringe.
![Illustration: Matt Golding.](/web/20170508192246im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/x/k/6/t/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gvx5tf.png/1493735630588.jpg)
As Victoria's freeways are upgraded in years ahead, motorists can also expect to see more advertising billboards on them to help pay for the works. VicRoads will make $2 million a year over the next four years through "new opportunities for outdoor billboard advertising along freeway corridor road reserves".
There are also early plans to expand the capacity of three of Melbourne's busiest railway stations, with $8.7 million committed over the next two years to improve passenger flow and amenity at Flinders Street Station, Southern Cross Station and Richmond station.
There is $5 million to assess the best way to duplicate single-track sections of the busy Hurstbridge line towards Eltham, a continuation of the line's current upgrade between Heidelberg and Rosanna.
And there is the tiny sum of $2.6 million to begin planning for a bypass of Shepparton in north central Victoria, which has long lobbied for a bypass to remove hundreds of trucks a day from its main street.
There is no money in the budget to begin major construction of the Kilmore-Wallan bypass, which has been planned for the better part of 10 years and was pledged by both sides of politics at the 2014 election.
Elsewhere, the budget contains few surprises for users of Victoria's roads and public transport, with most funding going to the continuation and completion of previously confirmed projects.
The North East Link, often called the "missing link" in Melbourne's ring road, gets $100 million for initial planning. The M80 ring road, between Laverton and Greensborough will be widened from end to end by 2021, at a cost of $673 million. The federal government will cover half of the cost.
Malcolm Turnbull will also have to compromise if the budget's public transport centrepiece, a $1.45 billion regional rail revival that targets most of the V/Line system, goes ahead.
To pay for it, the Andrews government is banking on money it says it is owed from the federal asset recycling fund for privatising the Port of Melbourne.
A further $193 million has been invested in making permanent the Night Network, 24-hour public transport on Fridays and Saturdays.
There is $311 million for 39 new V/Line carriages and $218 million for 10 new E-Class trams, both of which are needed to handle huge passenger growth.