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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe $10bn Melbourne Airport Rail Link is set to be delayed by \u2018at least four years\u2019. Picture: Melbourne Airport<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tim Pallas is warning Melbourne Airport to \u2018sort\u2019 the Airport Rail problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melbourne Airport wants to build an underground station but the state government is pushing for a cheaper and quicker above-ground station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr Pallas on Wednesday flagged that the government would look at investing in Avalon Airport near Geelong if Melbourne Airport was unwilling to resolve the long-running dispute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Avalon is Victoria\u2019s second largest airport and is owned by trucking magnate Lindsay Fox\u2019s company, Linfox. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEither they sort out this problem and they make it a priority to sort it out, or the government is going to have to look at better provisioning for airport passenger transport than what is available from Melbourne Airport because at the moment it\u2019s all road transport and car parks,\u201d Mr Pallas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m getting increasingly concerned about whether or not as a state we shouldn\u2019t be putting an each way bet around Avalon and starting to think about what they can do in terms of provisioning for our transport needs going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a statement to the Herald Sun, Mr Brun said with 80 per cent of all passenger trips in and out of Melbourne, an Avalon rail link will create \u201cincreased choice and competition in airport transportation\u201d and be delivered at a cost in the hundreds of millions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Melbourne Airport wants to build an underground station but the state government is pushing for a cheaper and quicker above-ground station. Picture: Big Build<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2015, the state government spent $12m to keep Jetstar at Avalon for 10 years. Picture: Alison Wynd<\/p>\n\n\n\n The state and federal governments have stumped up $5bn each towards the Melbourne Airport Rail Link. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr Brun said: \u201cWhat is important to note and in contrast to those at Tullamarine, the owners of Melbourne Avalon Airport are prepared to help fund this project \u2026. Bring it on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr Pallas on Wednesday said the government will build the Airport Rail Link project on its own terms, calling on Melbourne Airport to \u201cstump up and demonstrate that you\u2019re prepared to look after the interests of the Victorian public\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m not seeing the taxpayer actually held to ransom by a concessionaire that basically wants to embellish the value of their asset at the taxpayer\u2019s expense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Herald Sun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The boss of Avalon Airport says a rail link into Melbourne could be taking passengers within two years after Tim Pallas warned Melbourne Airport risked losing state government investment to Avalon if it didn\u2019t end its rail stoush.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":40250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[273,999,4450,513,163],"tags":[8898,472,8981,993,7529,8750,7,8,8832,8751],"class_list":["post-40265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-australia-politics","category-australian-airports","category-melbourne-airport","category-rail-industry-news-australia-new-zealand","tag-airport-rail","tag-australian","tag-avalon-airport","tag-melbourne","tag-melbourne-airport","tag-tim-pallas","tag-transport","tag-victoria","tag-victorian-budget-2024","tag-victorian-government"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40269,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40265\/revisions\/40269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-53.jpeg\")
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