The Airport Link (also known as the Airport Line or New Southern Railway) is a railway line in Australia connecting
Sydney Airport to the
Central Business District and the south-western suburbs of
Sydney. With the exception of
Wolli Creek
Wolli Creek () is an urban watercourse of the Cooks River catchment located in the southern suburbs of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia.
Course and features
Wolli Creek rises south of Narwee, within Beverly Hills Park, Beverly Hills, and fl ...
, the Airport Line stations are operated by a private company, the
Airport Link Company, as part of a
public private partnership
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
. The contract allows the company to charge a surcharge on top of the normal fare. The line is served by
Sydney Trains
Sydney Trains is the operator of the suburban passenger rail network serving the city of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The network is a hybrid urban-suburban rail system with a central underground core that covers over of track and 170 ...
T8 Airport & South line services.
Alignment
The Airport Link includes a four kilometre rock tunnel and a six kilometre soft ground tunnel. The tunnel is below the earth's surface.
For most of its length, the line travels underground. It runs south from platform 23 at
Central station
Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...
across a viaduct to the tunnel portal beneath Prince Alfred Park near Chalmers Street. The tunnel roughly follows George Street underneath the suburbs of
Redfern and
Waterloo. At
Green Square station, beneath the intersection of Botany Road, Bourke Road and O'Riordan Street, the line continues beneath Bourke Road to
Mascot station, a block south of Gardeners Road.
From Mascot, the line roughly follows O'Riordan Street before turning sharply to the west once underneath
Sydney Airport. The line runs westward under the
Domestic
Domestic may refer to:
In the home
* Anything relating to the human home or family
** A domestic animal, one that has undergone domestication
** A domestic appliance, or home appliance
** A domestic partnership
** Domestic science, sometimes c ...
and
International
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
terminals before continuing north-west underneath the
Cooks River to reach the surface at
Wolli Creek
Wolli Creek () is an urban watercourse of the Cooks River catchment located in the southern suburbs of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia.
Course and features
Wolli Creek rises south of Narwee, within Beverly Hills Park, Beverly Hills, and fl ...
where it joins the
East Hills line. The line is two tracks for its entire length.
The two new stations which were built for the airport's International and Domestic Terminals, feature larger lifts and wider ticket barriers to cater for passengers with baggage. Three new suburban stations were built – one each for the residential development areas of
Mascot
A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...
and
Green Square, and an interchange station with the
Illawarra line at
Wolli Creek
Wolli Creek () is an urban watercourse of the Cooks River catchment located in the southern suburbs of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia.
Course and features
Wolli Creek rises south of Narwee, within Beverly Hills Park, Beverly Hills, and fl ...
.
Construction
In 1990, the
State Government called for Expressions of Interest to build a line to the airport. In July 1994, the Government announced it had entered a
public private partnership
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
with
Transfield Services and
Bouygues to build the line. Under the deal, a private company,
Airport Link Company, would cover the costs of building four of the stations. In return it would operate those stations for 30 years and have the right to impose a surcharge on fares for their use.
The company's involvement was predicated on passenger estimates and train reliability guarantees that later proved to be optimistic. The State Government would fund (and own) the railway itself and Wolli Creek station.
[
Construction began on 12 February 1995 with a view to improving facilities for air travellers ahead of the ]2000 Summer Olympics
The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...
. At the time, the main public transport link between the city and its airport were two Sydney Buses express routes, the 300 to Circular Quay
Circular Quay is a harbour, former working port and now international passenger shipping port, public piazza and tourism precinct, heritage area, and transport node located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia on the northern edge of the Syd ...
and 350 to Kings Cross branded as ''Airport Express''.
A tunnel boring machine
A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole", is a machine used to excavate tunnels with a circular cross section through a variety of soil and rock strata. They may also be used for microtunneling. They can be designed to bore thro ...
was used for the construction. Manufactured by the German firm, Herrenknecht
Herrenknecht AG is a German company that manufactures tunnel boring machines, headquartered in Allmannsweier, Schwanau, Baden-Württemberg. It is the worldwide market leader for heavy tunnel boring machines. Roughly two-thirds of its 5,000 employ ...
, it arrived in Australia in October 1996. While the use of a Tunnel boring machine relieved the need for large numbers of workers at increased pressure, a caisson system is formed at the cutting head. Workers entering this space for inspection, maintenance and repair had to be trained.[ Medical direction was utilised for planning compression and decompression, assessment of ]fitness to dive
Fitness to dive, specifically the medical fitness to dive, is the medical and physical suitability of a diver to function safely in the underwater environment using underwater diving equipment and procedures. Depending on the circumstances it ...
, training of workers and lock operators, health monitoring of workers and treatment of related injuries.[ This project was the first time ]oxygen
Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as ...
decompression tables
There are several categories of decompression equipment used to help divers decompress, which is the process required to allow divers to return to the surface safely after spending time underwater at higher ambient pressures.
Decompression o ...
were used for caisson work in Australia.[ The incidence of ]decompression illness
Decompression Illness (DCI) comprises two different conditions caused by rapid decompression of the body. These conditions present similar symptoms and require the same initial first aid. Scuba divers are trained to ascend slowly from depth to av ...
was 1 case in every 286 pressurisations (0.35%) and this problem affected 5.9% of the workers.[
In conjunction with the construction of the new line, the section of the East Hills Line between Wolli Creek Junction and Kingsgrove was quadruplified. Once this was opened, the running patterns of the trains on the lines changed. The ]flying junction
A flying junction or flyover is a railway junction at which one or more diverging or converging tracks in a multiple-track route cross other tracks on the route by bridge to avoid conflict with other train movements. A more technical term is " g ...
s interchange near Central station
Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...
was altered to give the Airport line its own platforms (21 & 23) at Central. Local (all stations) trains generally were timetabled to run from East Hills via the airport, peak hour express trains from Campbelltown run along the original route via Sydenham Sydenham may refer to:
Places Australia
* Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
** Sydenham railway station, Sydney
* Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne
** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne ...
, taking the express tracks between Kingsgrove and Wolli Creek Junction.
History
The line opened on 21 May 2000, three months ahead of the Olympic Games, after the State Government had spent around on the project and the Airport Link Company over . As the stations commenced operation on 21 May 2000, the ownership of the four stations reverts to the state government on 21 May 2030.
Despite the cancellation of the rival Airport Express bus service, taxi surcharges and expensive airport parking, the Airport Link consistently failed to meet patronage targets. Less than a year after the line opened, the State Rail Authority
The State Rail Authority, a former statutory authority of the Government of New South Wales, operated and maintained railways in the Australian state of New South Wales from July 1980 until December 2003.
History
The ''Transport Authorities Ac ...
stated that "patronage has been lower than expected to date", but they remained optimistic, believing "that as airport users become more familiar with this facility and the ingrained habits of many years gradually alter, patronage will continue to increase."
In January 2001, the Airport Link Company went into receivership, exposing the government to costs of around . State Rail blamed "lower than expected patronage" and stated it was working with the company to increase it. Together with the Cross City Tunnel
The Cross City Tunnel is a twin-road tunnel tollway located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The tunnel links Darling Harbour on the western fringe of the central business district to Rushcutters Bay in the Eastern Suburbs. Each o ...
, the Airport Link served to dampen government and business enthusiasm for further public private partnerships in transport in New South Wales.
In October 2005, the Government and the company signed a revised agreement on revenue and patronage, settling the latter's claims against the former. The Government paid to the company, with another due as CityRail
CityRail was a passenger railway brand operated by the State Rail Authority from 1989 to 2003 and by RailCorp from 2003 to 2013 with services in and around Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong, the three largest cities in New South Wales, Australi ...
earns revenue from Airport Line business.
The Airport Link Company was put up for sale in early 2006, and was purchased by Westpac
Westpac Banking Corporation, known simply as Westpac, is an Australian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered at Westpac Place in Sydney, New South Wales.
Established in 1817 as the Bank of New South Wales, ...
. In 2009, the business made a profit of which increased to in 2010. In 2013, Westpac's 49.9% stake was purchased by Universities Superannuation Scheme
The Universities Superannuation Scheme is a pension scheme in the United Kingdom with £89.6 billion under management as of August 2021 (up from £67 billion in 2019). It has over 400,000 members, made up of active and retired academic and aca ...
(USS), who then took control of the Airport Link Company.
Station access fees
From opening, all stations on the line charged a Station Access Fee to use the line, as well as the standard fare. In March 2011, it was announced that the NSW Government would cover the cost of the station access fee at Green Square and Mascot stations, meaning that passengers no longer need to pay a surcharge to access these stations. To compensate Airport Link Company, the Government pays the company a "shadow" station usage fee at a fixed contracted rate of approximately per entry and exit of these stations.
Following the removal of the access fee, patronage at Green Square and Mascot increased by 70 percent between March and June 2011 as a result of the reduced fares. A fee remains in place for the Domestic and International Airport stations, which has been criticised. Workers at the airport do not receive a discount on the station access fee, merely a $21 weekly cap in the additional Station Access Fee.
By the late 2010s, Green Square and Mascot stations were experiencing overcrowding at peak times due to significant increases in patronage. At Mascot station, passenger numbers increased by 117% between 2015 and 2019, and the station is now being expanded to deal with the increased demand.
Criticism
From the beginning, a major criticism of the line was that it is not served by dedicated rolling stock, which contrasts with the other major Australian city with an airport rail link: Brisbane. The Brisbane AirTrain line is primarily serviced by Queensland Rail's IMU and NGR fleets, both of which make provision for luggage carrying passengers, as well as offering additional passenger comforts such as high backed seats, free Wi-Fi and toilets. Furthermore, the Brisbane line terminates at the airport, bypassing most suburban stations, meaning customers travelling on the AirTrain are not mixed with suburban commuters. By contrast, customers entering the Sydney Airport Line at Domestic and International must compete for space with commuters from the East Hills line, and find that the trains have no special provision for their luggage. Services are provided by Sydney Trains
Sydney Trains is the operator of the suburban passenger rail network serving the city of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The network is a hybrid urban-suburban rail system with a central underground core that covers over of track and 170 ...
's K, M, A and B set fleets.
Although often perceived as all revenue going to the Airport Link Company, under the revenue sharing agreement, 85 percent of revenues raised by the access fee since August 2014 goes to the NSW Government. From 2015 to 2018, the NSW Government
The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Governmen ...
received $197.6 million in total net revenue from the station access fee.
References
External links
{{coord missing, New South Wales
Airport rail links in Australia