Melbourne Airport Rail is an under-construction heavy rail airport mass transit link project connecting the Melbourne central business district to Melbourne Airport in Tullamarine. The rail link will run through the existing Sunbury line and Metro Tunnel, running from the airport to Town Hall station in the Melbourne city centre with of new track between the airport and Sunshine station. The project is being delivered by the Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority through the Level Crossing Removal Project.
A rail link to Melbourne Airport has been proposed since the airport opened in 1970. In 2018, the Victorian state government under then Premier Daniel Andrews announced its intention to proceed with a link running via Sunshine station, in partnership with the Australian federal government. A preliminary business case was completed later that year, and in early 2019, the federal government partially agreed to fund the project. In 2020 it was announced that the link would run through the city via the Metro Tunnel.
Early construction initially began in 2022, but the project was paused and construction delayed until 2025. In April 2023, then Deputy Premier of Victoria Jacinta Allan said that due to a lack of agreement in negotiations with the airport operator, Australia Pacific Airports Corporation (APAC), over the design of the Airport station, the opening of the rail link would be delayed. In May 2023 construction contracts were paused while a federal review took place. An independent mediator was appointed in April 2024 by the federal government to resolve the ongoing dispute between the state government and the airport. In July 2024, Melbourne Airport agreed to an elevated airport station rather than an underground one.
In 2025 the federal and state governments recommitted to the project and it resumed. Works are expected to begin in 2026 on a first stage to rebuild tracks around Sunshine station, with this stage planned to be complete by 2030.
Background
Melbourne Airport is located north-west of the Melbourne City Centre adjacent to the industrial suburb of Tullamarine. In the 2016–17 financial year, 34.8 million passengers and 237,000 aircraft movements were recorded, making it the second-busiest airport in Australia by passenger numbers.
The airport is served by the Tullamarine Freeway, which connects to the Melbourne city centre via the CityLink tollway. An express bus service, SkyBus, connects the airport to Southern Cross railway station, a main railway terminus, with a 20–40 minute travel time and various private bus services also serve the airport precinct. SmartBus route 901 connects to Broadmeadows railway station with a one-hour journey time to the CBD at regular public transport fares.
History 20th century With the appointment of a panel to examine the aviation needs of the growing city of Melbourne in 1958, and its recommendation of a site at Tullamarine on the city's north-western outskirts in 1959, the earliest suggestions for a railway line were made by stakeholders in the new facility's success. The City Development Association proposed connecting any new airport to the public transport as early as 1958, and Trans Australia Airlines proposed tunnelling directly between the CBD and the airport when the site was announced. Reg Ansett, however, another direct beneficiary of the new airport, envisioned helicopters and freeways becoming the primary modes of transport for passengers and staff.
The first legislative attempt at a rail link to the new airport was made in 1965, while it was still under construction. Under the Liberal state government led by Henry Bolte, Minister for Transport Edward Meagher introduced the Glenroy Tullamarine Rail Construction Bill 1965 to the state parliament, proposing the construction of a link between the Broadmeadows line at Glenroy and the new "jetport". During the bill's reading in the Lower House, Meagher estimated the new line's cost at £1.5 million, and suggested that it ought to be constructed in conjunction with a third track into the city along the existing line, works which formed part of the Victorian Railways 10-year strategic plan at the time.
The bill was focused on acquiring land and protecting the reservation for a future railway line in the interests of cost savings, and Meagher acknowledged that construction could not be justified at least until the airport had opened. However, opposing parties voted against the bill on the basis that such a railway would never be economically viable, instead suggesting a branch from the Albion–Jacana freight line in order to extend public transport option to the growing north-western suburbs. Nevertheless, the plan did reach the Upper House, where it was referred to a committee for further evaluation, but the parliamentary session lapsed before any further action was taken, and subsequent rounds of railway funding did not include any related works.
In the decades following the opening of Melbourne Airport, a number of proposals for mass transit links to the CBD emerged, many of which came from private investors and utilised emergent or unconventional technologies. One such proposal, Aérotrain, was presented by a consortium which had received the backing of the French government in the early 1970s to construct a hovertrain from Paris to Pontoise. The company proposed a similar system for Melbourne, and a feasibility study was conducted, which found the technology had a significant cost advantage over traditional heavy rail. The company's efforts were stymied by the French government's withdrawal of support in 1974 and the death of its leader in 1975, and no further progress eventuated.
Development of Sunshine route The Liberal state government led by Jeff Kennett reserved land for an extension of what was then the Broadmeadows line to the airport via Westmeadows. Then, in 2001, the Bracks government investigated the construction of a heavy rail link to the airport under the Linking Victoria programme. Two options were considered; the first branched off the Craigieburn line to the east, and the second branched off the Albion–Jacana freight line, which passes close to the airport's boundary to the south. The second option was preferred. Market research concluded most passengers preferred travelling to the airport by taxi or car, and poor patronage of similar links in Sydney and Brisbane cast doubt on the viability of the project. This led to the project being deferred until at least 2012. On 21 July 2008, the Premier Steve Bracks reaffirmed the government's commitment to a rail link and said that it would be considered within three to five years. To maximise future development options, the airport lobbied for the on-grounds section of the railway to be underground.
In 2010, Martin Pakula of the Labor Party, newly appointed Minister for Public Transport, announced that the rail link had been taken off the agenda with new freeway options being explored instead, however a change of government at the 2010 Victorian state election to Liberals, saw policy for the introduction of the rail link return to the agenda, with a promise by the incoming Coalition government to undertake planning for its construction. Proposals in January 2013 to improve the bus service to the airport involving turning emergency lanes into bus lanes on the freeway and the Bolte Bridge and allowing Myki to be used on SkyBus services were challenged by CityLink operator Transurban, because it would limit its toll revenue, and by Melbourne Airport, because it would reduce its car parking profits.SkyBus lane faces fight Traveller 4 January 2013 Similar objections would apply to a rail link.
On 13 March 2013, the Victorian Liberal government under then Premier, Denis Napthine, announced that the Melbourne Airport Rail Link would be constructed around 2015/16 running from the CBD via Sunshine station and the Albion–Jacana freight line. This proposal never became a reality, with the Napthine Government losing office to the Labor Party at the 2014 state election.
A 2013 study conducted by PTV assessed over 80 options in addition to the Albion East "base case" developed by previous planning work. Ultimately, four options were shortlisted and recommended for further analysis. These four options were eventually presented in 2018 by the federal government during its announcement of funds, on the understanding that a preliminary business case to be completed in September that year would recommend one of the options.
Sunshine/Albion East route: The Albion East route used existing passenger rail alignments from the city centre to Albion via Sunshine. It then followed the Albion–Jacana line alignment, used primarily for freight traffic, before following a new reservation north-west to the airport. This route was identified as the preferred option by the 2013 PTV study. Direct tunnel: This route used an entirely new alignment, constructed as a tunnel between the city centre and the above-ground reservation used by the Albion East route, from which point it continued to the airport. This route provided the fastest travel time to the airport of the four shortlisted routes. The tunnel potentially travelled via the Victoria University campus at Footscray, Highpoint Shopping Centre and the site of the former Department of Defence munitions factory at Maribyrnong. Although this option was the most expensive among the short-listed routes, and was therefore not recommended by the PTV study, it was the preferred option of the federal government because of its potential to service a new housing estate on the Defence site. Flemington: This route branched from the Flemington Racecourse line ran via Milleara Road, Highpoint Shopping Centre, Flemington. Craigieburn: This route was a branch of the Craigieburn line via Attwood, Coolaroo, Broadmeadows. This route was originally suggested in the 1960s, and was the cheapest due to being able to utilise existing land reservations to build above ground. However, it could cause longer delays on level crossings along the Craigieburn line from extra services.
Andrews government proposal From the mid-2010s, following the construction of the Regional Rail Link, some advocates suggested an airport rail link should run via the regional rail network. A 2016 report by advocacy group the Rail Futures Institute recommended using a new diversion of the Bendigo and Seymour lines to serve the airport at the same time as segregating the regional lines from metropolitan services.
In 2015 and 2016, the Andrews government decided to shelve the Airport rail link proposal and instead focus on inner city rail projects such as the Melbourne Metro Rail Project. The airport line was excluded from the Metro Tunnel's eventual 2016 business case, with Public Transport Victoria (PTV) recognising the tunnel's entire capacity would be needed to serve the Sunbury line, as well as the Melton line when that becomes electrified; planners recommended that any airport link would require new capacity into the city. But after pressure from the Coalition Federal Governments of Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull to plan for a proposal, the Andrews Government announced in May 2017 that it would spend $10 million along with the Turnbull government’s $30 million to devise a rail link planning study. On 23 November 2017, Premier Daniel Andrews told business groups that construction on a rail link between the Airport and Melbourne's Southern Cross station via Sunshine station would begin construction within the next 10 years.
On 12 April 2018, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull committed $5 billion for the rail link. He stated that the Victorian Government would also have to match Federal funding.