The great lol of Melbourne is that while it is objectively the Best City™, it is also a nightmarish box designed to trap people in and never let them escape thanks largely to the ghoulish horrors of the Tullamarine Freeway; a road designed to allow free passage to precisely 4 vehicles per day.
At present, getting to the Melbourne Airport is practically a two-day trek. And when public transport options are limited solely to the SkyBus which, would ya believe, also has to use the accursed road, things have gotta change.
Thankfully, the Federal Government appears to be on the verge of forcing the previously stubborn Victorian Government‘s hand by pouring money into a long-awaited rail link to the Airport in next month’s Federal Budget.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull stated that the lack of an airport rail link in Melbourne is a grand “omission,” particularly given that Melbourne is the only major city in the country without a dedicated mass-transit option to and from its major air hub.
“It’s always been something that’s been seen as an omission in Melbourne not to have a rail line out to the airport.”
“There is no doubt as our cities become bigger and more densely settled, you need to have more mass transit.”
NewsCorp publications are reporting that the Government is willing to make a multi-year commitment to the project, which is tipped to cost somewhere in the vicinity of $5billion.
The Andrews Government in Victoria, however, asserts that any Federal infrastructure funding coming into Victoria is far better suited to projects that are already ready to go. Transport Minister Jacinta Allen asserted that any airport rail project would not be able to be built until after the Melbourne Metro Tunnel project is completed.
“We already have a public transport system that has significant challenges because there’s not the space to run extra trains.”
“The Metro tunnel unlocks that capacity and that’s why we’re working very hard to deliver that right now.”
“The Infrastructure Victoria report indicated that an airport rail link is needed within 15 to 30 years. We certainly want to work towards achieving that.”
You’ve gotta wonder whether that report was published 15 to 30 years ago, because an airport rail link is more overdue than Chinese Democracy.
The Federal Government plan is reportedly keen to investigate a number of different options for a dedicated rail link, including a seperate, standalone line that operates outside of the current suburban rail system.
The 2017-18 Federal Budget is due to be handed down by the Turnbull Government on Tuesday, May 9th.
Photo: Steve Christo/Getty.
