Airtrain negotiation breakdown to put squeeze on Brisbane Airport

Brisbane Airport has warned that congestion in and out of the airport will only get worse until Airtrain’s monopoly on public transport to the precinct is torn up.

The 8.5-kilometre Brisbane Airport Rail Link operates under a deed between the Queensland government and Airtrain that prevents the state facilitating competing services.

Negotiations for the Airtrain to be absorbed into the Translink network have broken down.Credit: Cameron Atfield

A year after Brisbane Times revealed the government had entered negotiations to bring that 35-year exclusivity agreement to an end, those discussions have broken down.

Brisbane Airport Corporation spokesman Stephen Beckett said the agreement, which took effect in 2001, would continue to cause headaches for workers and passengers alike as long as it remained in force.

Beckett said more than 20,000 people worked in the wider Brisbane Airport precinct on any given day, a figure that was expected to surge to 30,000 by the time the city hosted the Olympic Games in 2032.

The Airtrain, which stops at the domestic and international airports – bypassing the airport’s busy Skygate employment precinct altogether – costs $20 one way from Central Station.

“Forty per cent of the morning peak on the road coming into the airport is actually workers going to work,” Beckett said.

“What we have is passengers and workers all fighting for the same space. It can become quite congested and it’s going to get worse as we go from 20 million passengers through Brisbane airport terminals last year to 30 million by 2032, and from 20,000 employees to 30,000 employees.

“The best thing we can all do is work hard to try and get affordable, reliable and fast public transport options for both commuters and workers.”

An Airtrain spokesman said: “Due to confidentiality, Airtrain does not comment on commercial discussions with TMR [the Department of Transport and Main Roads] regarding its concession arrangements.”

Transport Minister Mark Bailey left the door open for Airtrain to come back to the negotiating table.

“Airtrain are welcome to recommence negotiations with TMR,” he said.

That was certainly Brisbane Airport’s hope.

“At the moment, around 97 per cent of all people who come here to the airport come by car,” Beckett said.

“We can’t keep building roads and car parks forever.

“One of the best things we can do both in terms of busting congestion, but also helping improve our environmental performance, is to have fast, reliable and efficient public transport to and from the airport precinct.”

Airtrain’s private operators were left seething last year when the SEQ Rail Connect plan showed an end to its direct link to the Gold Coast, once Cross River Rail came online.

Then, Airtrain chief executive Chris Basche said the direct link to the tourist mecca was a key part of its agreement with the state.

Bailey said a lot had changed since the Borbidge Coalition government entered into the agreement with Airtrain CityLink in 1998.

“This includes the commissioning of the Airport Link tollway, substantially expanded and affordable parking at Brisbane Airport, the emergence of ride-share services and the establishment and maintenance of international services at the Gold Coast Airport,” he said.

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