Sydneysiders are still in the dark as to whether the new Western Sydney Airport will feature a rail connection from the first days of its operation in 2026, while the results of a joint NSW and Commonwealth Government study into the best rail link option are set to be released in coming months.
Responding to a journalist’s question at Badgerys Creek about the likelihood of rail operations to the new airport “from day one”, federal urban infrastructure and cities minister Paul Fletcher made no commitment to a rail link, and at first instead spruiked the road construction works and upgrades concomitant with the development of the airport.
“There’s $3.6 billion being spent under the Western Sydney Infrastructure Plan, including the Northern Road, which is not too far from us in that direction, being upgraded so it’s at least four lanes across its full 35-kilometre length,” he said.
“In addition, there’ll be a new M12 motorway that will run from the airport to the M7 and connecting to the Sydney motorway network. And, of course, over those roads there will be public transport buses.”
He then briefly indicated that the results of the joint federal and state government scoping study which had been examining the need for a rail connection to the airport were currently informing the government’s future plans on the matter.
“That joint scoping study has now reported to the two governments, and we’ll have more to say about the next steps in coming months,” he announced.
According to its terms of reference, the scoping study was undertaken to “define the need, timing and service options for rail investment to service Western Sydney and Western Sydney Airport”.
The study was to reportedly identify and assess the range of rail service solutions that will be required to meet the transport needs of Western Sydney, including the development of a “dedicated airport express service” between Western Sydney Airport and a “key transport hub” on the city network.
However, other options have been placed on the table by the scoping study, including an extension of the existing South West Rail Link, or an extension of the planned Sydney Metro West network, which was cited by state transport minister Andrew Constance in June last year as the optimal solution for an airport connection.
More recently, federal assistant cities minister Angus Taylor told The Daily Telegraph that a direct city-airport link was “crazy” and would lead to Badgerys Creek becoming a “dormitory suburb”. Priority ought to given, Taylor said, to road developments and a North-South rail link, which would establish the “connectivity that keeps people in the west where they work and live”.
On the question of timing, Minister Fletcher himself said last November that, while a rail link would definitely be a part of the Western Sydney airport precinct in the future, “the honest answer is, from an airport perspective, rail is not that important from day one,” he told The Advertiser.
“The question of rail is very important in terms of the urban growth and development in this region, but from a pure airport point of view, rail is not a critical success factor in the early years of the airport and you can’t justify the rail on the strength of the airport alone.”