The Melbourne suburb of Airport West is prime territory for the city’s airport rail link. It’s just 8 kilometres from the airport and locals have been promised a new station that could carry them there in just 10 minutes.
But they’ve been waiting so long, few were surprised by the latest delay announced in Victoria’s budget last month.
“My father has been dead 25 years, and he was told before that the rail was coming. And he’s not around to see it. And I’m hoping I’ll be around to see it,” said Filomena Magris.
“We’re long overdue, and it’s about time they did something.”
Near the suburb’s planned Airport Rail Link station, the signs of early works have already been there for a year-and-a-half. Fences with ‘we’re building a train line to the airport’ printed on them surround sites where worked stopped months ago.
“We just want this done, we’ve been waiting for 60 years,” said Pierce Tyson, the mayor of Moonee Valley, where Airport West is located.
“I think the frustrating thing is that we are 99 per cent there.
“The state government has allocated $5 billion. The federal government’s allocated $5 billion. We’re completely on board with this project, and the airport is holding this up at the very last hurdle.”
The hurdle is significant: The location of the proposed airport rail station.
The state government insists the station should be located above ground. Melbourne Airport is equally determined that it should be underground. The two sides haven’t been able to agree for a year, and a mediator has been called in.
‘Conflict of interest’
Mayor Tyson believes the airport is stalling, in large part to protect its annual earnings from parking.
“I believe that there is a conflict of interest here,” he told 7.30.
“The airport benefits if this project doesn’t go ahead. The airport makes $160 million a year in parking revenue.”
At times, it seems like the airport is under full-fledged rhetorical assault from the Victorian government.
“Melbourne Airport need to work out who they’re serving: business travellers or the wider community. Are they an airport or a carpark?” Deputy Premier Ben Carroll said last week.
“We can’t let them hold the state to ransom protecting … their revenue from car parking.”
And there was more. Victoria’s Minister for Transport Infrastructure Danny Pearson joined the pile on.
“We are dealing with a rapacious private operator that has shown no interest in doing a deal,” he said.
Airport denies charge
Melbourne Airport is a private company owned by five investment funds. In a statement to 7.30, it denied allegations it’s responsible for the airport station deadlock.
“An underground station provides better future proofing,” it said.
“It was the state government that ordered a stop work on the project … it was the state government that removed funding from its budget.
“It is Melbourne Airport and the federal government seeking to move this project forward.”
A rail link was first proposed when Melbourne’s new Tullamarine airport was being built in the 1960s but under the delay announced last month in the Victorian budget, construction now won’t start until at least 2028.
It could be well into the 2030s until a rail link is up and running. By then, Sydney will have two airports with rail links before Melbourne has one.
State debt to blame?
Infrastructure policy analyst Marion Tirrell said the delay isn’t a surprise, considering the perilous state of Victoria’s finances.
“By the government’s own admission, it’s in a pretty challenging state,” Ms Tirrell told 7.30.
“We’ve got net debt set to reach $188 billion by ’27-’28. So that is the most challenging debt position of any state in Australia.
“There’s just limited resources. In the end there’s limited money, there’s limited labour, there’s limited materials.”
Victoria is struggling under its infrastructure load. The state projects a budget of more than $30 billion to build the first leg of Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop in the city’s east.
Ms Tirrell believes stalling the airport rail link in Melbourne’s west might actually benefit the government – because despite appearances, that project is still a work in progress.
“It seems like it’s not ready to go ahead. Infrastructure Australia’s job is to assess these projects that are seeking money from the federal government. And when they did it, they said, look, it’s an early-stage proposal,” she said.
“It does need a lot more work on the cost estimates, the cost escalation risks and the stakeholder engagement.”
So for now, the trusty Skybus will continue to be the sole CBD-airport connection in Melbourne. Joining Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth in the airport rail link club will just have to wait.
Back in Airport West, locals such as Dennis Morton aren’t sure they’ll ever be able to take a train to the airport.
“Consecutive governments … they all just keep putting it on the backburner,” he said.
“They promise but they don’t deliver. I don’t even know if I’ll see it in my lifetime.”
ABC News
