Badgerys Creek airport needs rail link, say Baird government, Qantas Group

Badgerys Creek airport needs rail link, say Baird government, Qantas Group

Sydney : Pressure is mounting on the federal government to consider funding all or part of a rail line to the Badgerys Creek airport site.The country’s largest airline and the Baird government both made representations on Friday for public transport to run to the airport when it opens in the middle of the next decade.”The opportunity to be something very special”: Kerrie Mather.”The opportunity to be something very special”: Kerrie Mather. Photo: Louise Kennerley
The federal government has committed $3.6 billion for an infrastructure package to support the airport site, the bulk of which would be used on road upgrades around south-west Sydney.”The government’s focus is roads first and airport second,” Prime MinisterTony Abbott said in a prerecorded statement to a conference on Friday, organised to support a Badgerys Creek airport.
But the government has committed only to reserve space for a future rail line to the airport, saying a rail tunnel and station cavity would be dug into the site as part of earthworks preparation.The train line, which would be an extension of the existing south-west rail link to Leppington, would not be running when the airport is scheduled to open, some time around 2026.At the conference on Friday, organised by the Sydney Business Chamber, chief executive officer at Jetstar Australia and New Zealand David Hall said building the airport’s future would hinge on supporting infrastructure.”It is infrastructure that will determine whether western Sydney is positioned for success or if that’s left to chance.”
He said the airport needed to be run without a curfew, in contrast to Sydney’s existing airport at Mascot, and that the new site needed to be easy to access.

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