Article: City to airport rail tunnel option

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

City to airport rail tunnel option

City to airport rail tunnel option
December 9, 2012
Farrah Tomazin

A NEW train tunnel from the CBD to Tullamarine is being considered as part of a long-awaited rail link to Melbourne Airport.

A state government study into the feasibility of an airport connection has examined about 80 route options designed to ease traffic congestion and cope with the airport's future growth.

One of the options is a direct tunnel from the CBD that would cut through the north-west suburbs. Another is a rail link between Albion North and the airport, connected to the city via the Sunbury train line.

Transport officials say both proposals are largely reliant on the Melbourne Metro rail project, a proposed tunnel between South Kensington and South Yarra that would involve building five underground stations: Arden, Parkville, CBD North, CBD South and Domain. The nine-kilometre tunnel would link the Sunbury rail line, in Melbourne's north-west, to the Dandenong rail corridor in the outer south-east, allowing an extra 24,000 passengers an hour to travel through the network.

But as The Sunday Age revealed last week, unless work begins on the project within two years, trains will become so overcrowded passengers increasingly will be left behind - sometimes for hours - during the morning peak.

Fresh department documents obtained under Freedom of Information have also revealed the project would provide an economic benefit of $856 million by 2046, largely by providing disadvantaged people - particularly those in Melbourne's west - greater access to employment and education in the city.

''As well as improving service coverage and quality for public transport users, this investment is likely to lead to a significant redistribution of future employment growth,'' says a report by SGS Economics and Planning, which forms part of the business case for the project.

A rail link to Melbourne Airport has been mooted by successive governments for years, but the cost and complexity of the project has prevented it from getting off the ground.

However, Public Transport Victoria chief executive Ian Dobbs said the Melbourne Metro - which is awaiting state and federal funds before works can begin - would accelerate the airport connection becoming a reality.

''Getting Melbourne Metro started means we can get on with focusing on projects like a rail link to Melbourne Airport and to Rowville,'' he said.

''With the continuing rise in passengers and workers travelling to and from Melbourne Airport, and now plans for a third runway, the delivery of Melbourne Metro will allow these other key rail projects to really take off.''

The state government provided $6.5 million for a feasibility study into the Melbourne Airport rail link, but Premier Ted Baillieu has made it clear that it is a long-term proposal that would not be developed before a rail connection was built for Avalon Airport.

However, Melbourne Airport chief executive Chris Woodruff has said Tullamarine should be the priority, given projections showed about 40 million people a year are expected to use the airport by the end of the decade.

The airport last month announced plans for a third runway to handle more aircraft movements and challenge Sydney to the title of Australia's gateway. The new runway would cost about $500 million and be located south of the existing east-west runway. It would be three kilometres long, 60 metres wide and take between two and four years to build.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/city-to-airport-rail-tunnel-option-20121208-2b2hn.html

[#Metro]

Rapid tram would be so much easier to implement, and so much cheaper. And it would have plenty of capacity.

[SurfRail]

Rapid tram would be so much easier to implement, and so much cheaper. And it would have plenty of capacity.

Where would it go?

[#Metro]

The freeway median already has transit lanes in sections plus space. Tunneling is going to cost a lot more, the extra capacity of a train isn't really needed IMHO, the engineering is less stringent and it can connect to the city tram network and do a loop around the CBD when it gets there.

Cut and paste tracks into the lanes or median, add wires and perhaps a barrier (not sure if a barrier is really needed though, trucks don't have barriers. http://www.trampower.co.uk/track.html

To keep citylink happy, put a transponder on each LRV and when it goes under a toll point, toll it, like you would toll any other vehicle.

Nice big median in the middle. Do it a la Perth style, down the freeway median. http://goo.gl/maps/EZvcl

If citylink doesn't agree, there is a drain that parallels it, pylons can go into the bank and an elevated option for this section may be feasable thus.

[#Metro]

Seattle runs LRT with buses in a tunnel in the CBD, LRT heads off the airport.

[#Metro]

LRT in freeway medians, seattle.

[Gazza]

If they go for a tunnel option it should be done such that it is compatible as a HSR route out of the city.

[somebody]

If they go for a tunnel option it should be done such that it is compatible as a HSR route out of the city.

Because it makes so much sense to get on a HSR at Sydney and go to Melbourne airport?

[Gazza]

Because it makes so much sense to get on a HSR at Sydney and go to Melbourne airport?

No, if you were coming from Sydney you would stay on the train and get off at SXS.
Notice i said a HSR route out of the city.

Point I'm trying to make is basically:

-A train to the airport will cost X Billion Dollars.

-If they ever decide to build HSR in Aus, getting a train out of the CBD without using existing tracks, and onto the plains north of Melbourne will cost Y Billion dollars.

-Rather than spending X+Y Billion, have a common CBD terminus and tunnel, with the tunnel built for speeds reasonable for the start/end of a HSR line, and good enough for quick speeds to he airport (160-200 km/h?)
That way you just build the one tunnel, standard gauge, 25 kv. Airport trains would be something like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_395
Long distance trains would be whatever HSR trains are chosen.

Both trains have their own platforms and barriers at SXS.

-The airport station would have through tracks, so Sydney/Brisbane bound trains wont stop there.

-IMO swinging out via the west is probably the cheapest way into the CBD for HSR.

So yeah, do some future proofing and have the infrastructure serving both purposes.

[SurfRail]

To keep citylink happy, put a transponder on each LRV and when it goes under a toll point, toll it, like you would toll any other vehicle.

Not suggesting it is impossible, but I suspect they would have preemption rights against anything with rails.  More to the point, even if they let it go, I can guarantee that the toll certainly wouldn't be cheap...

[ozbob]

For interest --> http://www.ptua.org.au/myths/citylink.shtml

[SurfRail]

For interest --> http://www.ptua.org.au/myths/citylink.shtml

Lucky them!

[SurfRail]

My view is that if we ever do get an east coast VFT from Brisbane to Sydney to Melbourne, the only stations likely to be situated at major airports would be the Gold Coast and Canberra.  Gold Coast because there is no CBD it needs to serve and is likely to be headed past there anyway, and Canberra because Civic is off the route and not that special.

Doubt it would be going anywhere near Williamtown, and having multiple stops in Sydney and Melbourne would slow it down too much.

[Gazza]

Problem in mixing non HSR projects with HSR compatiable alignments etc is that it adds so much more money to the cost of the non-HSR system that without HSR coming in near future, you will kill the non-HSR part of the project.

If you don't build it to the correct alignment and high speed tunnels upfront, you then hit the HSR with a life long penalty, which on a very very marginal HSR route like Syd-Mel, would probably be final nail in coffin.

My counter argument is that the MEL airport rail link is marginal too....Its gonna be hard to beat the speed of the Skybus.

I mean, how much more is it really to ensure the Airport line is rated for 200km/h? At least that means a quick airport connection, and a future proofed CBD access for HSR.