Ticket to Ride: Melbourne Airport Rail Link Takes Off after Decades of Debate By Danny Elia In recent months RailwayNews has published numerous features and commentaries on major infrastructure projects in the rail industry around the world. Governments and contractors are not only developing new solutions, but also frequently returning to longstanding ideas that were proposed, admired and rejected several times because of costs, disruption and disinterest. The current enthusiasm for rail reflects the escalating necessity for interconnected, intermodal public transport networks that respond to the problem of increasing congestion in rising populations. Travel to an airport, for example, can be a very tricky and stressful stage of a journey. The common sense solution for this challenge is the construction of airport links that connect terminals to suburban and regional rail networks, allowing many passengers to leave their car at home and start sitting
back even earlier in their journey. In this article Danny Elia, Executive Director, Global Asset Management, IFM Infrastructure, tells Railway-News how a link constructed by AirRail Melbourne will improve the state of Victoria’s connections with other destinations in Australia, and around the world. Danny Elia: When the site for Melbourne’s international airport was selected in 1959, a passenger rail service was immediately proposed for the planned new facility. It was debated, discussed and
almost legislated by the Victorian State Government but never built – a pattern that was repeated for almost the next 60 years. But with Melbourne now Australia’s fastest-growing city and airport passenger numbers expected to exceed 67 million by 2038, governments and a major private sector consortium have taken decisive action to deliver the long-overdue link. The Victorian and Australian governments last year committed a combined 10 billion Australian dollars to the project and a consortium underwritten by Australia’s major superannuation funds offered a further 5 billion dollars and a detailed blueprint for the link. After decades of talk, Melbourne is finally set to secure a rail link that was first proposed before The Beatles were formed. The 15 billion dollar link proposed by the AirRail Melbourne consortium will connect the entire Victorian rail network with Melbourne Airport while also complementing major new suburban train developments in the city.
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