Labor vows to lower ticket fares for airport trains

Labor has promised to lower the cost to passengers of travelling on the train to Sydney Airport and scrap the so-called station access fee altogether for people who work at Kingsford Smith, if it is elected to government next year.

A day after the Berejiklian government announced that a new $2.6 billion motorway link to the airport would not be tolled, the Opposition pledged to help road congestion at Mascot by cutting the cost of train fares and increasing bus services to Australia's largest airport.

The station access fee is $14.30 for adults and $12.80 for concession card holders.Credit: Dean Sewell

Under the plan, the station access fee on the airport rail line would be cut from $14.30 to $5, and abolished altogether for the tens of thousands of people who work at the airport.

Labor leader Luke Foley said it would cost the state about $30 million a year to cut the station access fee, but emphasised that the policy would help bust congestion on roads around the airport while boosting public transport usage.

“Our priority here is to get cars off streets around the airport and get people onto trains,” he said.

Congestion on roads around the Sydney Airport is one of passengers' biggest gripes.Credit: Dallas Kilponen

Mr Foley said the promise to cut the fee to $5, instead of removing it completely for airport passengers, was a trade off between the cost to the state budget and wanting to encourage more people to use trains.

“We think getting it down to $5 would provide a big incentive for people,” he said.

A one-way journey from central Sydney to the domestic and international terminals costs an adult passenger $18.70 during peak hours. Of that single-trip fare, $13.80 is for the station access fee.

The access fee does not count towards the daily travel cap for holders of Opal cards.

Under the contract with the private operator of the stations on the airport line, the government is entitled to 85 per cent of the sales revenue – almost all of which comes from the station access fees.

The Airport Link Company paid the state almost $87 million last year, and the amount is set to top $100 million this year based on patronage growth.

But Transport Minister Andrew Constance said the Opposition leader had failed to outline the full cost of his policy, which he said could exceed $1.5 billion to the state over the next 11 years.

“He now has to come back ... and tell the community how he is going to pay for it, and which services he is going to cut to pay for it,” he said.

Mr Constance sidestepped questions about whether he would rule out cutting the station access fee, but said it was needed so that the government could put on an extra 200 train services a week on the T2 Airport line.  

Labor's plan to boost bus services would involve putting on a new service from Miranda in Sydney's south to the airport via St George, and increasing the frequency of the Burwood-to-Bondi buses that travel via the domestic and international terminals.