When the news dropped just weeks ago that the Melbourne Airport rail link was severely delayed, the little faith we had in seeing the project come to life was dashed. Gone were the dreams we held dear of being able to conveniently zip between the airport and the city, like most modern cities across the globe have been doing for years. But our luck could be about to turn – there's been a development in the seemingly never-ending saga that means the train line could be up and running sooner than we think. Do we dare to dream again?
Word on the street is that after much debate, the Victorian government and Melbourne Airport operators have reached a compromise to move forward on the project. The whole reason there was a huge hullabaloo about the rail link's timeline being blown out was because the two parties were at an impasse, with the airport fighting for the train station to be built underground and the state government arguing that this was too costly and pushing for an overground design.
Now airport authorities have conceded (perhaps after realising they weren't too popular for causing the delay) and agreed to the train station being above the ground in the name of progress. This means the project can finally proceed, hallelujah!
In even better news, while it was reported that the approximate finish date for the project had been pushed back to 2033, with these new developments it could be brought forward to 2030. Let's just say we won't be holding our breath on that one though.
Who knew that a nascent airport train could be the subject of so much drama? We're tempted to start taking bets on what will happen next because it could be anything at this point.
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