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Election coming up? Let the pork barrelling commence! The federal government has announced $5bn for a rail line to Melbourne Airport, just in time for campaigning to begin for the state election in November. Even better, the Liberal (conservative) Federal government released the plans to the media the night before informing the Labor (left-wing) State government.
Funnily enough, the 4 potential routes are exactly the same as those identified in the last study for an airport rail link back in 2013. Incidentally, now the federal government is pushing for the most direct option - a tunnel most of the way from the city to the airport (Direct Tunnel route) - to link in with their planned sale of a former defence force property for housing. The state government is instead pushing for a longer route via Sunshine (Albion East route) along the predominantly freight Albion-Jacana rail line to connect with country and regional trains.
A rail line to the airport has been planned and postponed since 1963, so it's up in the air if anything will actually get done. Projections based on current passenger numbers indicate that the extra capacity rail would provide would only be needed from the 2030s onwards - but this could be a catalyst for jobs and growth, development blah blah blah and all that. Melbourne is the only one of Australia's major international airports (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth) without a connecting rail line, either existing or under construction. I'm hoping that this actually gets built, because I would love to be able to catch a train rather than a bus all the way to the airport.
