Airport railway line, Perth


The Airport railway line is an under construction railway line on the Transperth network in Perth, Western Australia. The line is intended to service Perth Airport and the Perth foothills with a terminus in High Wycombe.

History

In 2004, Perth Airport's twenty-year Master Plan proposed a rail link to connect with the Midland line between Bayswater and Ashfield stations at the Tonkin Highway. The rail link was proposed to continue above ground along Tonkin Highway to the Great Eastern Highway where it is believed it would go underground along Brearley Avenue and to the terminals in operation at completion of the line.
In December 2013, the Government of Western Australia announced its intention to construct a railway line to Forrestfield via Perth Airport. In August 2014, the scheme was endorsed by the Cabinet.
In March 2015, it was announced five parties had lodged Expressions of Interest to build the line:
A shortlist of Forrestfield Connect, JHL Joint Venture and SI-NRW Joint Venture was announced in April 2015. In January 2016, the SI-NRW Joint Venture was named as the preferred tenderer. Construction on the project commenced on 3 November 2016.
In December 2018, WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti announced that the project's opening has been delayed to mid-2021 due to the project's numerous problems, including a sinkhole, flooding, the boring machines moving slower than expected and two workplace incidents related to the project. Despite this, the project budget of $1.8 billion remains the same.
Originally conceived as the Forrestfield-Airport Link, it will be named the Airport line when it opens.

Route

The line will diverge from Transperth’s existing Midland line near Bayswater station and run in twin-bore tunnels, initially paralleling the Tonkin Highway, then run under the Swan River to reach Perth Airport. It continues in tunnels under the airport, before emerging to terminate at a new bus-rail interchange at High Wycombe.

Stations

The line will have three stations:
*