But they aren’t going to Varsity Lakes anymore once CRR is commissioned.
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Question. I know Airtrain is privately owned, so this is just a hypothetical if anybody knows.
If the section of track from Toombul to Skygate was to be duplicated and a station built at Skygate, does anybody have any idea of what potential cost they think it might be to do that?
There are no hard numbers, but we can estimate. Its a good question, lots of visitors will be arriving at Brisbane Airport and we do need to know if train frequency can run a lot more intensively than 15 minutes in both directions.
The junction is also likely to be a constraint.
Estimation Method
- Use the Richlands Springfield Project as a basis (some stations elevated)
- Adjust up the cost from 2011 to 2025 (projected)
- Divide by length to get a per-km cost
- Scale down the cost as this is a duplication not a new line, say 60% of the cost of a new line
- Apply to the Airport Line length
Working
- 475 million ($2011) => 663.52 million ($2024)
- Divide by 9.5 km => 69.84 million/km unit cost
- Take 60% of this value => 41.9 million/km unit cost
- 8 km length assumed x 41.9 million/km => 335.2 million
There would be a few more things to account for such as roadworks, enviro studies, consultations, flying junction at Eagle Junction, etc. Maybe $400-$500 million?
Notes
Ms Bligh said TrackStar Alliance has been awarded the $475 million Richlands to Springfield section of the project now due for completion in 2013 – two years ahead of schedule.
A 9.5km dual track rail line from Richlands to Springfield;
RBA Inflation Calculator
I didn’t realise that the new terminal will also include a rail extension to it.
Terminal 3 (T3) Rail Connection: The new terminal precinct will include a dedicated rail station, ensuring seamless transfers between T1, T2, and T3 (BAC Master Plan, 2025).
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Breaking
Brisbane Airport reveals plans for new DFO train station by 2032
Brisbane Airport’s CEO has called for a new DFO train station and doubled tracks to boost Airtrain services before the 2032 Olympics amid growing passenger demands. (Couriermail, 2025)
A train station at DFO and the doubling of tracks to increase the frequency of Airtrain services should be considered as part of negotiations to allow more public transport to the Brisbane Airport before 2032.
That is the suggestion of Brisbane Airport CEO Gert-Jan de Graaff, who said it was in the best interests of everyone for the state government to broker a new deal.
Mr de Graaff said the number of passengers and workers travelling to and from the airport’s precincts would double over the next 20 years.
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Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg said: “The Crisafulli government will continue to work with our partners on options to improve services to the airport precinct.”
As well as frequency they should increase the operating hours by simply extending the current Bowen Hills terminators.
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(post deleted by author)
From the same article:
“But the current Airtrain deal with owner, London-based Universities Superannuation Scheme, prohibits any other form of mass transport servicing the airport until 2036 — four years after the Brisbane 2032 Games.”
"He [Brisbane Airport CEO] said if Airtrain continued to operate the services or if the contract was extended beyond 2036, a third station at Skygate — home to DFO Brisbane — should be discussed."
You would have to be absolutely insane to even consider extending the contract!! 
When you owned AirTrain BAC why didn’t you build the DFO station and duplicate the line? 
“Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said that in the meantime, council was getting creative by linking public transport to the airport’s free terminal transfer bus services at Skygate, while the government needed to keep working on that agreement.”
Ripping up a train line for a BRT is hardly “creative”. Relying on BAC to ferry people to the terminals defeats the purpose of ‘public’ transport.
“Airtrain CEO Chris Basche could not comment on whether there were ongoing discussions about the current deal, if a deal extension was being sought, or if investment in a third train station or dual tracks to increase frequency was being considered.”
“RACQ head of public policy Dr Michael Kane said rail was the best way for tourists and frequent flyers to get around because it was typically the easiest transport system to understand.”
It’s not the best way if its the only available way? - when are monopolies the best? 
I though cars were the easiest transport system to understand? 
“He [RACQ] said Airtrain needed more frequent services and to be incorporated into Translink’s fare structure. “We believe the service frequency should be under 10 minutes all day and we know this.”
Settle down RACQ… 10 minute trains and “metro-glider” buses 
Why don’t you nominate which highways, roads. or toll way tunnels you really want taxpayers to build?
No chance that will happen! Compare that to what they are doing at L.A.'s airport and you can conclude that Brisbane is going backwards. 
BTQ should call out BAC on this and call on them to either ‘put-up-or-shut-up’ by breaking the AirTrain contract and paying and building the “DFO” station and track duplication themselves, if this is so important to them and their investors, as it will benefit them exclusively.
Public transport naming conventions usually exclude or try to avoid using corporate name/identifiers for stations.
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A few thoughts
- A new station is obviously good there long term - it should probably be called Airport Village or something.
- There’s no reason any ownership changes aren’t required to make it happen. I’m sure BAC, Airtrain and government can run the numbers and figure out how much each of them should be kicking in for this if it were to go ahead.
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Being a viaduct, they are likely to duplicate it quite quickly. It doesn’t solve the junction issue though just south of Toombul. I guess ETCS2 could manage the higher frequency around that area when adopted on the Airport line and all lines north.
Theyll need to get on board with duplicatingbthe Toombul turnoff while construction is in the area (Toombul shops rebuild etc)
And DFO prectinct is called Skygate
Toombul is likely just going to be a supermarket under some housing and a coffee shop. The likely scenario is that they will expand Skygate DFO with more options such as Kmart and Coles.
Duplicating the viaduct does partially solve the Toombul flat junction issue. QR wouldn’t have to juggle around having the Airport trains cross over at International station and having northbound Airport trains interfering with southbound Shorncliffe/Northgate trains.
After duplication, QR would only would need to consider the flat junction where Airport would branch out onto the viaduct without interfering with the southbound Shorncliffe/Northgate trains. This could be done by having a northbound Airport train cross a southbound Shorncliffe/Northgate train at Eagle Junction.
Good analysis. Lots of pipe dreams around of late. Airtrain is not the bad guy here. They stumped up the money, built the line with the understanding and confidence of the BOOT agreement. Airtrain is not interested in spending money to further BAC’s pot of gold. BAC want, BAC will have to spend.
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I think you might be a bit confused here. Brisbane Airport Corporation never owned Airtrain. When founded, Airtrain’s owners were Macquarie Bank (30%), Colonial Ltd (20%), British utility group Hyder (15%), GIO Australia Ltd (11%) engineering group Transfield (10%) and French group Transroute (10%). It was subsequently bought by current owner Universities Superannuation Scheme.
The Airtrain contract in place is with the State Government, not BAC.
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Exactly, the BOOT agreement gives Airtrain all the trumps. Whether you agree with that is totally irrelevant as it was Airtrain that risked their funds to build, own, operate and eventually transfer back to government in 2036. Seriously, do think Airtrain wants to duplicate the line and build a station at DFO? No, they don’t. If they wanted too it would have been done years ago. It is not looking like the government is prepared to buy out Airtrain. They have been farting around with this for years now, nothing has changed. I put a proposal forward in another life, that additional services be put on to provide service until midnight, without cost to Airtrain. This would cause some problems with Airtrain staffing (not insurmountable) because of the extra hours. Didn’t get too far. Governments back in the day signed the BOOT. We wear it until 2036.
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No to extending the Airtrain contract.
Do what Perth did instead. Low fares, 60% more train service than Brisbane Airtrain per week. Services form part of usual Translink network (smaller Airtrain charge possible if charging 50c seen as too low).
Public sector can pay for duplication, Airtrain can still be operator while this happens.
Junction at Eagle Junction and possibly train slot availability might be an issue. Are there enough slots? Is there an interaction or conflict with Doomben trains?
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If they extend the contract, the more it’ll suck.
The sooner Airtrain moves under the same roof as the rest of the QR network, the better it’ll be for everyone.
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