Victorian Government commits to Sunshine-Albion corridor for Melbourne Airport Rail Link
A rail service to Melbourne's Tullamarine airport is a step closer with the State Government announcing it will join the Commonwealth in proceeding with a rail link that will run via the National Employment and Innovation Cluster (NEIC) in Sunshine.
Premier Daniel Andrews and Minister for Public Transport Jacinta Allan announced a route options assessment undertaken by Transport for Victoria has resulted in the Sunshine route - also known as the Albion (East) route - has come out on top. The strategic appraisal has now been published on the government's Big Build website.
In the route selection process, the Victorian Government has reaffirmed what previous studies have resulted in - from a connectivity and constructability point of view, the Sunshine (Albion) corridor has the greatest merit.
The other three routes, via Flemington, Maribyrnong and Craigieburn have all rated lower than the Sunshine corridor. Constructability and cost penalise the Maribyrnong and Flemington routes with the strategic appraisal estimating 8-10 years and $15-$20 billion via Flemington and a whopping 10-12 years and $20-$25 billion via the Maribyrnong defence site.
The Craigieburn route scored the best on lowest cost ($5-$10 billion) and had a similar constructability and delivery time (7-9 years) as the preferred Sunshine route ($8-$13billion). Sunshine won out over Craigieburn in connectivity and reducing travel time to key economic centres.
A new super-hub station will be created at Sunshine for facilitating greater interconnection with the Ballarat and Geelong regional lines.
Reflecting the position we're in with regards to the electoral cycle - Spring Street goes to an election on the last Saturday in November - the language from the Premier and Minister for Public Transport is starting to sharpen up.
"Only Labor has removed the level crossings and is building the Metro Tunnel – and only a re-elected Labor Government will deliver the Melbourne Airport Rail Link," the Premier said. "The Andrews Labor Government will build the airport link via Sunshine, so that all Victorians can access the airport by rail, no matter where you live," the Minister for Public Transport said.
BREAKING NEWS: airport rail is finally happening. We've spent the last few years removing level crossings, and building the Metro Tunnel. Now we'll get this done. Watch how. pic.twitter.com/JxxXCBmQ8l
— Daniel Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) July 21, 2018
Analysis & Comment
All (rail) roads certainly do lead to Sunshine.
There's still a long way to go before shovels hit the ground. The Strategic appraisal sets out a timeline over the next four years and now that the route has been selected, a detailed business case on that route will be conducted and finalised by '2019/2020'.
"This strategic assessment will now inform the development of a full Business Case," the documents published today say - and hopefully when the business case is finished we'll know why the line is expected to cost $8-$13 billion.
Noting that maps released today state city access options are to be explored, I'd expect the full business case to now focus on different levels of quality.
Quality in the sense the Airtrain concept from the Rail Futures Institute would be at the upper echelon because it's as strategic as the 1960s-era act of locating Tullamarine where it now stands and by comparison simply building a branch line to the airport from the metro tunnel track pair would be significantly lower in quality.
The Government's language is headed in the right direction - even though the new infrastructure is located entirely within metropolitan Melbourne, there are just as many benefits for regions outside the capital as well.
Another hope for the full business case would be that the powers-that-be take a more holistic approach to public transport planning for the airport.
Beyond the headline heavy rail link this would including looking at the benefits/costs of extending the #59 tram to the airport from its current terminus at Airport West - therefore servicing the jobs located on airport land to the south of the terminals and connecting passengers (and employees!) who live in the inner-middle north-west with the airport.
We also have a robust freeway network that is going to see a lot of changes in the north-east very soon - taking a detailed look at a strategy to get faster/express bus services into the areas to the east of the airport on dedicated lanes on the Western/Northern Ring Road should also be studied.