Tulla Airport Rail link

[Cool banana]

Finally after so long $5 Billion will put down by the Federal Government to link Melbourne Airport with Melbourne city.
50 years in the making.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-11/melbourne-airport-rail-link-gets-$5bn-from-federal-government/9643054

[topend3]

even Perth will have a train running probably before construction starts at MEL

[Buster Hyman]

Albion line is the wrong option IMHO. For that matter, a suburban train is also wrong, should be a dedicated service to be worthwhile.
Broady line was the best option if a Suburban train must be used. Shorter distance to build, green field project, etc. Only problem was lack of third track (express) opportunity.

[Roj approved]

how about 2 more friggen runways?:ugh:

[Berealgetreal]

:ugh:You guys have got it all wrong. In Victoria the priority is the "safe" schools project.

[le Pingouin]

As opposed to the chaplaincy program? :yuk:

[Guptar]

As economists, you lot make great pilots. As a stand alone rail line the numbers simply don't stack up. Here are some numbers. ML moves 35 million pax a year according to wiki. If half of that total number used the train it would be 41,000 passengers per day. That's significantly below a reasonable return on investment of 5.1 Billion dollars. The only way to make it pay is to make it part of a bog standard suburban line. I hope they don't do what Sydney did, had it as a private venture charging 4 times the normal fare. 2 years of carrying 30 passengers a day saw it go bankrupt. They didn't even offer a heavily discounted annual ticket for airport workers.

[le Pingouin]

Mind you the number of pax is forecast to double over 20 years. Making the route part of a suburban network makes sense as that should help with frequency.

Hopefully facilities are provided on the trains to accommodate baggage though.

[Berealgetreal]

Melbourne in time will outgrow Sydney. To the west is flat land.

I think they’ve added 1 million in 5 years.

I like the point about economists/pilots. We don’t need pilots to make decisions. We’ve got guys like Andrews who cancelled the East West link and cost what a billion dollars in penalties? It’s gold. Take a drive around the joint. It’s impossoble to run more than two errands in a day.

[le Pingouin]

And building more roads ain't the answer! They tend to suffer from induced demand ("build it and they will come") - just look at the Ring Road.

[Buster Hyman]

Removing Freeways works sometimes, but I guess there needs to be a certain level of intelligence & planning to make it work...something that is seriously lacking in Oz at the moment. All the Pollies want their 'ribbon cutting' re-election moment so, long term vision is pushed aside.

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/03/6-freeway-demolitions-that-changed-their-cities-forever/
(Saw an article on the one in Seoul. Amazing.)