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Avalon Airport says a dedicated rail service modelled on London’s Luton Airport could be up and running within two years as the spat over Melbourne Airport’s rail link drags on.
A station could be built on existing land that was planned to house it in the 80s, said Avalon CEO Tony Brun, who added that the airport already owns the necessary land and is willing to chip in money to support the project. According to Brun, a rail link would be “transformative” for the airport.
“Our proposal to state government is effectively the London Luton model. We build a new train station on the existing Melbourne-Geelong line, and we build a dead straight road from the terminal to that train station using the existing road interchange on the freeway, and we connect it from day one with a bus and/or trackless tram,” he said.
Speaking exclusively to Australian Aviation, Brun said that from a base of three million passengers in 2003, roughly double Avalon’s numbers, Luton was able to grow to 20 million passengers in 2023 by adding a train station with bus connections.
“We’re proposing exactly the same thing. We don’t bother diverting the train, because that’ll only upset Melbourne to Geelong people – we put a train station there that’s dedicated for Avalon travel, and we connect it day one with bus or trackless tram, and one day it’ll be permanent monorail or whatever,” he said.
“It’ll be done when we’ve got the passenger numbers to justify it, but you’ll be able to buy a Myki ticket out of Southern Cross station or Frankston station or Geelong station and get to Avalon Airport.”
Avalon, Victoria’s secondary international airport, is located 45 minutes from Melbourne’s CBD and 20 minutes from Geelong. It is currently served only by Jetstar, with Bonza services suspended due to the grounding of the airline’s fleet; no international services currently fly to Avalon.
The nearest train station to Avalon is Lara, which is eight minutes away by road and is served by V/Line regional services between Southern Cross Station and Geelong. According to Brun, Lara would not be suitable for these direct airport connections.
“It’d be circuitous because the road layout doesn’t get to there, so you’ve got to weave your way through the back streets of Lara. So it’s not optimal,” he said.
“The lesson from London Luton was keep it as short as possible, as direct as possible, and as free of any other traffic as possible. You put a service on that interferes with local traffic or through traffic and you lose all the effectiveness of it.”
Brun’s intervention comes after Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas said the state government may consider an Avalon rail link ahead of Melbourne Airport’s rail service. The Treasurer this week confirmed that the Tullamarine rail link would be delayed by at least four years.
The state government and Melbourne Airport have been locked in a long-running dispute over the project, with the government wanting an elevated station and the airport wanting an underground station for the rail link, which was initially slated to open in 2029.
“I’m getting increasingly concerned about whether or not as a state, we shouldn’t be putting an each-way bet around Avalon and starting to think about what they can do in terms of provisioning for our transport needs going forward,” said Pallas on Wednesday.
“Either [Melbourne Airport] sort out this problem and they make it a priority … or the government is going to have to look at better provisioning for airport passenger transport than what is available from Melbourne Airport.
“Because at the moment it’s all road transport and it’s car parks.”
Brun told Australian Aviation that Avalon Airport supports the Tullamarine rail link, but said Melbourne needs a dedicated rail service for its secondary gateway.
“We can meet the need in the immediate term to fill the gap until Melbourne Airport’s rail is built,” he said.
“We can enable the state government and the traveling public of Victoria and Melbourne to have their cake and eat it – you can get airport rail through Avalon in the interim on the path to getting Melbourne Airport and Tullamarine’s connection done.
“This ultimately gives you two airports with competition, which will drive additional capacity and more competition and choice, and then that’ll drive down airfares.”
The federal government, seeking to mediate the dispute between the state government and Melbourne Airport, last month sent in Neil Scales, director-general of the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads from 2012 to 2023, in an attempt to finally break the deadlock.
Melbourne Airport has declined to comment.
