AUSTRALIA: The Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority has announced the preferred bidder to rebuild Sunshine station as part of Stage 1 of Melbourne’s long-planned Airport Rail Link. It has also committed to starting Stage 2 works in 2028, leaving the final stage without a timescale.
The airport rail project is being delivered in three stages. Stage 1 comprises the comprehensive remodelling of Sunshine station, Stage 2 would see the construction of 7.4 km of new tracks along the existing freight line to Keilor East and Stage 3 would involve the airport link.
When completed, services from the airport would continue beyond Sunshine over existing lines to reach the Metro Tunnel through the CBD, which opened in November 2025.
On October 21 VIDA named the Network Integration Program Alliance consortium of CPB Contractors and SMEC as preferred bidder to carry out upgrading works at Sunshine station. This aims to enable the station to handle more than 1 000 trains a day, offer more capacity and serve as a key interchange for airport and regional services.
The alliance is to build two additional platforms at Sunshine for regional trains, allowing future airport trains to use the current platforms. The existing concourse is to be extended, forecourts built on both sides of the station and the bus interchange upgraded.
As part of the wider Sunshine Superhub project, some works are already underway to untangle the complex junctions over the 6 km section of the suburban network between West Footscray and Albion, including in the Tottenham yard.
Two railway flyovers will be built for the Sunbury and Bendigo lines, airport line tracks built and a station constructed at Tottenham. Existing tracks will be renewed and the signalling updated.
A key objective will be to separate traffic flows, with passenger and freight lines to be realigned.
Four of the five contract packages for Stage 1 have now now awarded and the last, for the construction of Albion station, is planned for next year.
VIDA announced on September 30 that main works on Stage 2 of the airport line are to start in 2028 and finish in 2031. Site investigation works started on October 13, with procurement to follow later this year.
Stage 2 will see the construction of 7.4 km of dedicated 1 600 mm gauge tracks for airport services alongside the existing 1 435 mm gauge freight corridor from Albion to a new Keilor East station. This will include 1.1 km of elevated tracks near Albion and signalling supporting frequent services.
Stage 3 involves the construction of a new alignment from Keilor East to the airport terminals. However, there are disagreements between Australia Pacific Airports and the federal and state governments over the airport station’s exact location and design.
An elevated station design was agreed in July 2024, and in March 2025 the three sides signed a memorandum of understanding and established the Melbourne Airport Rail Steering Committee. The Prime Minister’s office announced on September 30 2026 that the steering committee ‘is continuing to work through options for the final stage of Airport Rail, Stage 3 which will include an above ground station at the airport precinct’.
The state and federal governments are still ‘working on the timing’ for Stage 3, according to local media reports.
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