Melbourne Airport Rail Stage 1 has a preferred bidder for the Sunshine Superhub, with Stage 2 to Keilor East on the way

Stage 1 of Melbourne Airport Rail — the West Footscray to Albion upgrade — is under construction. The Victorian Government's own project page describes it as "now underway", with completion in 2030.

Works began on 25 February 2026, backed by a $4.1 billion joint investment from the Australian and Victorian governments. In April, two consortia were shortlisted for the Sunshine Station package — CPB Contractors with SMEC Australia, and FCC Construction with Martinus Rail, Arcadis and BG&E. On 21 October 2026 the governments named the Network Integration Program Alliance — CPB Contractors and SMEC — as preferred bidder. That package builds two new regional platforms at Sunshine, an extended concourse, new forecourts on both sides of the station and an upgraded bus interchange.

Work through 2026 has been the unglamorous enabling scope: underground utility relocation, the Albion jet fuel pipeline, and site investigations at Tottenham ahead of new tracks and a rebuilt Ashley Street rail bridge. Drilling on the 2km, 30m-deep pipeline tunnel between Sunshine and Albion wrapped in June; in July crews welded and pulled 160 steel pipes through it. In September, overnight works began on Sunshine Road, Tottenham, to move electricity services underground — work that continues into 2027.

The full Stage 1 scope is larger than the Sunshine works alone:

• turning Sunshine Station into a superhub — two new regional platforms, a new cycling and pedestrian connection, an upgraded bus interchange and new forecourts
• two new rail bridges and one new rail underpass
• new and upgraded tracks, new signalling, and realigned passenger and freight lines

• new stations at Tottenham and Albion (Albion is funded by the Victorian Government)

Sunshine is being built for capacity of more than 1,000 trains a day, connecting the Metro Tunnel, regional services and future trains to the airport.

Why six kilometres of suburban rail is the whole project

Stage 1 does not reach the airport itself. It untangles a complex rail junction across six kilometres between West Footscray and Albion — and until that is done, no airport service can run.

This is the part of the project most often skipped in coverage, and it is the part contractors should understand. Sunshine is where regional and metropolitan services converge, and the airport line depends on capacity being created there first. Stage 1 is enabling infrastructure dressed as a station upgrade.

It is also brownfield rail work on an operating corridor, which is a materially different proposition to greenfield construction: possessions, staging, live rail interfaces and night works, with all the productivity consequences those carry.

The essentials

Stage 1 is being delivered through five works packages, four of them by existing VIDA Rail program alliances:

• Western Program Alliance — McConnell Dowell, Arup, Mott MacDonald, Metro Trains Melbourne, V/Line and VIDA Rail — awarded in February to relocate underground utilities, including the jet fuel pipeline between Albion and Sunshine
• Southern Program Alliance — Acciona, WSP, Metro Trains Melbourne, V/Line and VIDA Rail — reconfiguring tracks between West Footscray and Albion, including in the Tottenham yard
• North Western Program Alliance — John Holland, KBR, Metro Trains Melbourne, V/Line and VIDA Rail — two new rail bridges for the Sunbury and Bendigo lines, new airport rail tracks and the new Tottenham Station
• Network Integration Program Alliance — CPB Contractors and SMEC — preferred bidder for Sunshine Station
• New Albion Station — the fifth and final package, to be awarded in 2027

Three of the alliances put the rail operators inside the delivery team, which is common on brownfield rail and reflects how much of the risk is operational rather than constructional.

What the business case says

Melbourne Airport Rail's 2022 business case — for the full line to the airport, not Stage 1 alone — reported a benefit-cost ratio of 1.8 to 2.1 and a net present value of $7.5 billion to $10.8 billion, excluding the SRL North connection. Those figures use a 4 per cent discount rate and include wider economic benefits. Including the SRL North connection, the business case reported a BCR of 1.1 to 1.3.

Infrastructure Australia's 2022 evaluation described the strategic need for the project as strong. Assessing the business case's reporting base case, which includes SRL North, it reported a BCR of 1.2 at a 4 per cent discount rate and 0.6 at its central 7 per cent rate (both including wider economic benefits), and recommended further work on cost certainty and delivery timing. The spread between the figures comes from the discount rate and whether SRL North is included, and both sets are worth knowing when the project's economics come up.

What comes after Stage 1

Stage 1 is funded and under construction, with its last package — Albion Station — to be awarded in 2027. Beyond Albion, the line is being taken forward in two more stages.

On 30 September 2026 the Australian and Victorian governments announced Stage 2: a new 7.4-kilometre rail line from Albion to Keilor East, built alongside the Jacana freight corridor, with a new station at Keilor East, a new rail flyover at Albion and a new rail bridge over the Maribyrnong River. Site investigations, procurement and development works were due to begin within weeks of the announcement, with major construction from 2028 and trains reaching Keilor East in 2031.

Stage 3, which would include an above-ground station at the airport precinct, is still being worked through by the Melbourne Airport Rail Steering Committee. The Federal Government, Victorian Government and Australia Pacific Airports, the Melbourne Airport operator, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 20 March 2025 to progress delivery and establish a steering committee. The 2022 business case had placed the new elevated airport station in an Airport Package, alongside a Viaduct Package between Airport West and the airport and a Corridor Package along the Albion–Jacana freight corridor.

"Melbourne Airport Rail is underway" still means the Sunshine end of the line: six kilometres of suburban junction upgrade that every future airport service will run through.

What to watch

1. The Sunshine Superhub contract with the Network Integration Program Alliance, and the Albion Station package, the last Stage 1 award, due in 2027.
2. Tottenham Station, where the government said in February that construction begins in 2027.
3. Stage 2 site investigations and procurement, ahead of major construction from 2028, and the steering committee's options for Stage 3 and the airport station.
4. Victoria's pipeline capacity. The 2026-27 Victorian Budget projects government infrastructure investment of $21.4 billion in 2025-26, moderating to $15.3 billion by 2029-30; Stage 1's 2030 completion falls at the end of that period.

Published 28 September 2026 · Updated 28 October 2026