User:Triptothecottage/Melbourne Airport rail link

A rail link to Melbourne Airport has been proposed in multiple forms at various times in the history of the airport. Most such proposals have been for a heavy rail line between Melbourne Airport at Tullamarine and the Melbourne CBD, often as an integrated component of the Melbourne rail network. Some plans, however, have utilised alternative forms of mass transit or suggested a segregated and dedicated public transport link to the airport. Relieving traffic congestion and creating better access to the airport are frequently cited as reasons for the development of the link. As of 2018, however, no such link is in the planning phase or under construction.

Background
Melbourne Airport is located 23 km north-west of the Melbourne City Centre adjacent to the industrial suburb of Tullamarine. In the 2016–17 financial year, 34,877,506 passengers and 236,864 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. Furthermore, public buses connect to Broadmeadows railway station with a 1 hour journey time to the CBD at regular public transport fares.

Early proposals
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. 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 goods 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.

Late 20th century
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, Aerotrain, was presented by a consortium which had received the backing of the French government in the early 1970s to construct a monorail 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.

21st century
From the mid-2010s, following the construction of the Regional Rail Link, consensus shifted toward integrating an airport rail link into the regional rail network instead of the stand-alone metropolitan line affirmed by the NDPMR. A much-publicised 2016 report by advocacy group the Rail Futures Institute, which primarily focused on improving capacity and journey times to regional centres, 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. Then, in 2017, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced that such a line was in the active planning stages, in part to address the additional pressure caused by enormous patronage on the Regional Rail Link. The airport line was excluded from the Metro Tunnel's eventual 2016 business case, with PTV recognising the tunnel's entire capacity would be needed to serve the Sunbury and newly-electrified Melton lines; planners recommended that any airport link would have to use further new capacity into the city.

In April 2018, with the Victorian state election approaching, prime minister Malcolm Turnbull made an offer of $5 billion in federal funding for an airport rail link on the basis that it would be matched by the state government. The federal government's preferred route for the line was based primarily on the prospect of it returning a profit, and travelled via Highpoint Shopping Centre and the former Maribyrnong defence site.