SYDNEY AIRPORT RAIL LINK

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

This project provided a new 6.2 miles railway, almost entirely underground, running from downtown Sydney through the Inner South suburbs and Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport to join the CityRail Illawarra Line at Turrella. Five new stations were built including two at the Airport at the Domestic and International Terminals. Exhibit 4.23 shows the International Terminal Rail Station on the Sydney Airport Link.

Exhibit 4.23 Sydney Airport International Terminal Rail Station

Source: Maunsell of Australia, 2005

The rail link was implemented at a cost of A$800million and was Australia's first hybrid build-own-operate-transfer project and was opened in May 2000 prior to the Sydney Olympics. Equity participants are Transfield and Bouygues S.A. (50/50) who via a Joint Venture constructed the tunnel, laid the track and built the infrastructure. The Airport Link Company owns and operates four new stations along the link. The Debt Participants are the National Australia Bank. The New South Wales Government shared the cost and risk of the development.

Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport is the largest and busiest in Australia with all ground access being via the road network prior to the implementation of this link.

Issues/Results: When announced in 1990 Transport Minister Baird claimed, "the airport link will not require one cent of Government money." On November 30, 2000, the Airport Link Corporation was placed in the hands of the receivers at KPMG. The New South Wales Government according to one estimation "had to bail out the project, costing taxpayers A$704M" (PPP's in South Australia: Partnerships, privatization and the public interest - John Spoehr, Evatt Foundation, September 2002). This was blamed on grossly overestimated ridership projections - forecasts were 48,000 passengers per day but in reality only 12,000 per day. Actual patronage may also have been affected by the use of the Eastern Distributor (another PPP), which runs parallel to the Airport Link rail line.