It was first suggested by the owners of Highpoint Shopping Centre in a submission to Sir Rod Eddington's East West Link Needs Assessment Report last July.

Since then, the state and federal governments have announced that up to 6000 extra residents will be housed on a large tract of Defence land in Maribyrnong.

Former Melbourne lord mayor Kevin Chamberlin said extending the line to the planned suburb could take thousands of cars off the streets.

The new railway stations could be situated at Victoria University's Footscray Park campus, Highpoint and the new suburb. The line would also service nearby Maribyrnong Secondary College and Maribyrnong Aquatic Centre.

Maribyrnong Mayor Michael Clarke backed the call. "In principle, I think it's an excellent idea, but clearly it needs to be tested in a feasibility study and I would implore the State Government to explore this."

Earlier this year, the council requested $30,000 from the Transport Department to partly fund a transport study of the Highpoint principal activity area. Once the decision is made, the project can begin, with the council and Highpoint administrators, GPT Management Fund, already committing funding to the project. A department spokeswoman said last week it hoped to respond to the funding request by the end of this month.

Transport planning expert Paul Mees said Highpoint was a good example of how little successive state governments had spent on public transport over the past 30 years. He said the issue was no longer funding but the organisation and administration of funds. "[The Federal Government has] announced that it will spend $4billion on rail, but they want to build it out in the paddocks of Werribee where noone lives. There's no shortage of good ideas in Melbourne for improving public transport, but they've chosen to fund a project no community ever asked for."

Dr Mees said ideas like extending the Flemington racecourse rail line should be independently evaluated to determine whether they merited funding.