Melbourne Airport rail link

[#Metro]

"There's just limited resources. In the end there's limited money, there's limited labour, there's limited materials."

This is the major problem with 'infrastructure first' approaches. Slow and expensive.

[Gazza]

Melbourne wasn't "infrastructure first" though, Skybus has been going for decades, the frequency is high.
They've done your cheap option....

[ozbob]

The Age --> Airport prepares fight after mediator backs skyrail for Tullamarine $

Melbourne Airport's owners are preparing to fight for an underground rail station on the site after a federal government report found it should not be built below ground unless the operators could show it made commercial sense.

The mediator appointed by the Commonwealth to intervene in the dispute between the airport and the Victorian government, Neil Scales, handed a report with three key recommendations to federal Transport Minister Catherine King this month.

Both sides are at odds over how a railway station at Tullamarine should be built, with the airport asking that it go underground while the state pushes for a more cost-effective elevated option. ...

[ozbob]

The Guardian --> Melbourne's airport rail link hits more turbulence after mediation falters

The long-promised train to Melbourne airport appears to have hit yet another snag, after the prolonged and bitter standoff between Victoria and the airport that has delayed the line for years intensified, despite government-imposed mediation.

The train project – which would be funded by the federal and state governments – has stalled over the state's insistence it would only finance a cheaper above-ground train station instead of the costlier underground option demanded by the airport.

In an attempt to settle the argument between the Victorian government and Melbourne airport's owner and operator, Australia Pacific Airports Melbourne, the federal government appointed a mediator to determine a path forward on the project. ...

[ozbob]

Herald Sun --> Avalon Airport boss David Fox's solution to end Melbourne Airport Rail Link stand-off $

A new railway line from Avalon Airport to Melbourne costing only a fraction of the contentious Rail Link project is being touted by David Fox as the perfect solution to the ongoing dispute.

Like everyone, David Fox is sick of the Days of Our Lives saga of a railway line to Tullamarine airport. Fox has a better idea.

The Fox family will help fork out for a railway line from their Avalon airport to Melbourne.

Speaking after the announcement of Jetstar's Melbourne to Brisbane service out of Avalon, Fox said it would cost the government a fraction of the cost of a line to Tullamarine. ...

[timh]

I note in the full article that Fox says he will build a train station "two and a half kilometres away". Sounds to me like his vision would be to just build an infill station on the Geelong line, rather than a spur to the station. A far worse outcome imo

[#Metro]

I note in the full article that Fox says he will build a train station "two and a half kilometres away". Sounds to me like his vision would be to just build an infill station on the Geelong line, rather than a spur to the station. A far worse outcome imo

I can see how members might thing this, though running a shuttle bus to and from the Avalon Airport is going to be a tiny fraction of what it would cost to build a ~ 2 km rail spur (say 160 million?) and get all sorts of approvals for.

Running a shuttle also retains the future possibility for rail to Avalon Airport when patronage numbers are enough to justify it. A good place to start is to protect a surface land corridor now to preserve this future option.

[Gazza]

Lara station is close enough that an infill station probably wont do much.

If you are imposing the inconvenience of a bus transfer with luggage, probably doesn't matter too much if the station is 2.5km or 5km away.

[Jonno]

I note in the full article that Fox says he will build a train station "two and a half kilometres away". Sounds to me like his vision would be to just build an infill station on the Geelong line, rather than a spur to the station. A far worse outcome imo

I can see how members might thing this, though running a shuttle bus to and from the Avalon Airport is going to be a tiny fraction of what it would cost to build a ~ 2 km rail spur (say 160 million?) and get all sorts of approvals for.

Running a shuttle also retains the future possibility for rail to Avalon Airport when patronage numbers are enough to justify it. A good place to start is to protect a surface land corridor now to preserve this future option.

We are back to the String and Tin Can planning rather than doing it properly!  The freeway does not require you to change cars so why should rail!

[ozbob]

ABC News --> Melbourne Airport agrees to clear the hurdle to long-awaited rail link

Melburnians could be able to catch a train to the airport within six years, after a major obstacle to the construction of a rail line to the airport has been cleared.

The airport has agreed to back down on its insistence that the terminal station be built underground, and will instead adopt the state government's preferred above-ground station.

The stand-off over the station had been a major stumbling block to beginning construction on the long-awaited $10 billion rail link from the airport in Melbourne's north-west to the CBD. ...

[ozbob]

https://x.com/ozbob13/status/1810368067538661574

[ozbob]

https://x.com/ozbob13/status/1841934864326533302