Article: Rail link is a must for Tullamarine

[ozbob]

From the Herald Sun click here!

Rail link is a must for Tullamarine

Rail link is a must for Tullamarine

    * Steve Price
    * From: Herald Sun
    * March 30, 2010 12:00AM

MELBOURNE likes to sell itself as one of the world's most livable cities, and it is.

A pity Melbourne's airport is such a Third World let-down and an embarrassment.

What other major arrival point in any other world-class city has two blokes permanently armed with stop signs, standing at pedestrian crossings in the middle of the airport?

Cars, taxis, buses and mini-buses are held up while a gaggle of departing passengers crosses the road, adding to the kerbside confusion.

Inside, it doesn't get much better as too few security staff process thousands of travellers. It's a zoo. Melbourne airport quite simply has outgrown itself and the city it pretends to service. It's our front door and it needs a good redesign and a decent rethink.

Which other major international city in the world doesn't have a fast-rail link from its CBD to its airport? State government after state government has simply let this issue drift. Heavy rail or, if need be, light rail is the best and most efficient way to move large numbers of people quickly. Tullamarine should have a rail link and it should be a priority.

Arriving there a week ago, I got caught up in a transport scam operating under the very noses of authorities. I accepted a whispered offer of a car into the city as opposed to a taxi. The intended driver turned out to be a banned person and was intercepted by plainclothes Australian Federal Police officers.

They told him he had been warned off and shouldn't be operating there. He then drove me 100m down the road and waited while a blonde woman with a Russian accent turned up behind us in a Mercedes. He asked me to switch to her car, which I did.

I then asked the blonde Russian to take me to Swan St, Richmond, through the Burnley tunnel using the Burnley exit. She got lost, exited on Kings Way and drove me to the back loading dock of the Arts Centre.

I don't pretend to know what this little operation was all about but blonde Russians and a crook warned off by the AFP aren't a great welcoming mat for Melbourne.

To add to a less-than-great impression for any visitor arriving to experience our fantastic list of major events is the drive in from the airport. Aside from the broken giant ferris wheel at Docklands, you pass a parade of ordinary-looking factories and the DFO outlet at Essendon airport.

Stuck in traffic, you end up dumped at the end of a toll road trying for example to get from the Tullamarine Freeway across to the Eastern Freeway through a car-jammed Carlton. Or you might end up turning off to Kings Way and sit stranded in Queens Rd.

A rail link would solve all that.

If you do actually end up taking your own car to the airport, you will then of course pay one of the highest parking rates in the developed world. Heading out to pick up friends or family becomes a costly and time-consuming pain in the backside.

Don't even get me started on the airport bathrooms. The men's toilets stink, they have paper tissues all over the place and the floors are always wet, meaning there is nowhere to put your luggage down. Your first impression of any city is always its airport, and the arrival experience. We have one of the world's most livable cities, but this neglected and ageing arrival hall doesn't match the promise.

How does Melbourne airport sell Melbourne? Badly. Melbourne has the room to expand the airport. It could separate the international terminal from the domestic area and it seems there is vacant land to build a rail link.

I just don't think we put on a good enough welcome. In fact, it's an embarrassment that we need to fix - and fix fast- as other cities around Australia try to steal our proud boast of being the most livable city in the world.

Steve Price is launching Melbourne Talk Radio