Melbourne Airport Rail will better connect Victorians to the city, the suburbs and the world – and it will include a brand-new station in the city’s booming west.
In a major win for Melbourne’s growing western suburbs, a new station in Keilor East will also be built as part of the project. The station will link more than 150,000 residents in the City of Moonee Valley area to Victoria’s rail network for the first time.
Not only will it take passengers from the CBD to the airport in around 30 minutes, it will also run through Sunshine Station and the Metro Tunnel, maximising connections to Melbourne’s booming west and south-east, and Victoria’s major regional centres of Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong and Gippsland.
Trains on the new airport rail line will provide a ‘turn up and go’ service, with trains every 10 minutes. More than 30 stations across Melbourne – from as far away as Cranbourne and Pakenham – will have a direct connection to the airport via the Metro Tunnel. Passengers from most other stations in Victoria will only need to change trains once.
The project’s Business Case shows that Melbourne Airport Rail will deliver wide-ranging economic and connectivity benefits for decades to come and the project will return up to $2.10 for every dollar spent. Melbourne Airport Rail is expected to cost between $8-13 billion and increase Victoria’s Gross State Product by up to $17.9 billion.
The Business Case also recommends a new elevated station at Melbourne Airport. An elevated station will be quicker and more cost effective to deliver and reduce disruption to airport users during construction.
The project also includes an elevated rail bridge over the busy Western Ring Road (M80 Freeway), and major upgrades to Sunshine Station – including a new concourse, improvements to existing facilities, and car parking.
The Victorian and Australian governments have considered and endorsed the Business Case and have each committed $5 billion in funding for the project.
Melbourne Airport Rail will create up to 8000 jobs during construction and opportunities for hundreds of apprentices, trainees and cadets through the Victorian Government’s Major Project Skills Guarantee.
For more information, visit the Melbourne Airport Rail website.