Construction of an long-awaited Melbourne airport rail link could start by the end of 2022 after the Victorian Labor government promised to match a $5bn funding pledge from the commonwealth.



The Turnbull government in April declared it was taking the project out of the “too-hard basket”. The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, urged the Victorian premier to match the funding.

On Sunday Daniel Andrews promised his government would also stump up $5bn if Labor was re-elected at the November state poll. Construction would begin during the next term of government, which ends in 2022.

The route for the project, which was first mooted in the 1960s, has long been a point of contention in Victoria. Andrews said his government wanted the route to go through Sunshine, in Melbourne’s western suburbs, to create a “super hub” that would connect regional and metro train lines to the new airport link.

“We were never going to agree to just an airport rail link, it can be an airport rail link and it can unlock capacity for rapid, fast services to Geelong and Ballarat,” he told reporters. “It’s the alignment, it’s the corridor option that stacks up best.”

Assessment of the four preferred routes for the rail line gave the Sunshine option a better performance than going through Flemington, Craigieburn or tunnelling under the Maribyrnong defence site. The detailed business case for the Sunshine route is expected to be completed in 2019-20.

The Victorian public transport minister, Jacinta Allan, said it was expected the travel time would be about 30 minutes, but the business case would confirm that.

The cost range is expected to be $8bn to $13bn and Andrews said the project could be an opportunity to partner with the private sector. However, he could not say whether that would lead to more expensive tickets for travellers.

Turnbull, said he was happy with the announcement and that the commonwealth and Victoria would be “shared partners” of the project.

“I have had a number of very good meetings with the premier, Daniel Andrews, and I’m delighted that today he has confirmed that Victoria will commit the same amount of money, and I’m confident that … $10bn will enable us together to build the rail line from Melbourne to Tullamarine airport,” he told reporters on Sunday.

Victoria’s Liberal opposition has also backed a rail line to the airport but is yet to nominate a preferred route for the project.

The previous Liberal government also promised to build a Melbourne airport rail link before it was turfed out by voters in 2014. The new Labor government then prioritised its Melbourne Metro project, which will create a number of new stations in and around the CBD.

The opposition leader, Matthew Guy, suggested in April that the commonwealth’s $5 billion cash injection could in itself be enough to an airport rail link.

Melbourne airport is currently served by the privately-operated SkyBus service, which carries commuters from Tullamarine to the CBD, bayside suburbs and the city’s west.

Australian Associated Press contributed to this report