Australia’s experience with airport rail links in Sydney and Brisbane have reportedly proved to be somewhat unsuccessful in terms of patronage, or lack of it. Furthermore, as a possible consequence, the Victorian Government earlier this year decided to put on hold the concept of the Melbourne airport rail link. The Australian experience has prompted this investigation into the drivers behind airport rail link patronage along with other issues that should be considered when providing an assessment of the ridership forecast. This paper compares airport rail links in the USA and Europe in addition to the two Australian cases. The key comparative measure in each case is the rail mode share, and factors considered as being important in having an impact on this mode share are discussed. Other factors, evident in the case of Australia, are also covered in a qualitative manner rather than quantitative, which are considered to have a bearing on the mode share and also on the reasoning as to why ridership has not achieved levels that were forecast. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E213716.
Samenvatting