And the "uncertainty and confusion" created by the Coalition and Labor proposing competing projects, such as the location of Melbourne's next port and the route of a new underground city rail line, have knocked over growing momentum for change in the state.

"We've thrown away planning and replaced it with political posturing," said William McDougall, an engineer who has worked on several of the state's big transport projects over the past decade including an early study of the East West Link, the now abandoned Melbourne Metro project, and the Rowville rail plan.

Transport Minister Terry Mulder hailed Mr McDougall as a top rail planning expert when he was appointed to lead a feasibility study of Rowville in 2011.

Mr McDougall, speaking in the wake of a new campaign to push for Rowville to be built sooner than 2026 as planned, said new rail lines like it could be built.

But he said the politicisation of the planning process in Victoria had meant that "transport projects are either dreamt up or changed at a whim without a proper planning process".

This ended up delaying progress and disguising the real issues the state faced, he said.

"Instead of demonstrable studies that show that projects are the solution to a problem, the problem is never really looked at in the first place in all seriousness," Mr McDougall said. "We've thrown away the planning system."

His comments followed a launch by the Eastern Transport Coalition seeking to make public transport improvements – including a Rowville rail line – a key election issue.

The coalition is made up of seven eastern suburbs councils and is pushing for renewed commitment for the Rowville project, which Ted Baillieu promised to consider when elected premier in 2010.

First proposed in 1969, both Labor and the Coalition have promised to consider a Rowville rail line at various stages.

In 2011, the government spent $2 million on a study that identified a likely route for the 12-kilometre rail line, with five stations: at Huntingdale, Monash University, Mulgrave, Waverley Park and Rowville.

But the project has since been shelved until a central city rail line is built – not due until at least 2026.

Rowville was among three new rail line studies promised by the Coalition in 2010.

Mr Baillieu went further on a possible Doncaster rail line in the lead-up to that year's election, promising to "plan it in conjunction with the community, find the funds, and then get on and build it". That plan has now also been shelved indefinitely.

Knox councillor Peter Lockwood said Melbourne needed many new rail lines, including Rowville and Doncaster, but there was no political will despite public support.

He said both sides of politics had offered excuses on why Rowville could not be built. "We're endlessly in review and endlessly studying it."

His group wrote to Mr Mulder last week, saying the government should at the very least preserve land the rail line might one day run on.

Labor has been lukewarm on a Rowville rail line, but its candidate for the area Tamika Hicks last week said on social media she would push for "a start to the process".