Train links to the planned new airport at Badgerys Creek will be the focus of a scoping study into transport projects in western Sydney.

The study, which was jointly announced by the Federal and New South Wales Governments, will cost $2 million and take one year to complete.

But it will not fast-track the delivery of a rail line to Badgerys Creek airport, with the Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss maintaining there is no need for a rail line when the airport first opens to passengers in 2025.

"We don't want to have a rail line that is not used and therefore is a liability to taxpayers on an ongoing basis," Mr Truss said.

"The timing needs to be right."

He said the Sydney and Brisbane airports were the only two in Australia that were connected by rail.

"The reality is Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and certainly airports the size that Badgerys Creek will be when it opens, don't have rail networks. They're exclusively serviced by road," Mr Truss said.

He said the Government envisaged eventually building a rail network that would include a stop at the future airport and connect growing residential suburbs in the area.

The airport would be built "rail ready" with space for a station and tunnels excavated, Mr Truss said.

The Shadow Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Anthony Albanese, slammed the Federal Government's approach to the project.

"It needs a rail line to be open on day one," Mr Albanese said.

"This needs to be a visionary project, it needs to be more than just a runway and an airport terminal.

"It needs to be a driver of the economy and jobs for western Sydney and part of that is the benefit that will come from rail."

The Tourism and Transport Forum welcomed the move to carry out the study and described it as a "change of heart" by the Federal Government.

TTF's CEO Margy Osmond said both the State and Federal Governments should also examine options for high speed rail to and from the airport.

"The international research indicates that travellers place a premium on being able to access their intended destination within 30 to 45 minutes of leaving an airport," she said.

"High speed rail is the best candidate to linking the Sydney CBD and the new airport within that time frame."