The winners and losers from Sydney’s most annoying train surcharge

Pressure is mounting on the NSW government to reduce the cost of train trips to Sydney Airport after new figures show it collected $109 million in the past year from fees charged to passengers who pass through stations at the terminals.

It takes the total amount the state has reaped from station access fees at the airport over the past 10 years to about $740 million. The figure would be substantially higher if not for several years of low returns during the pandemic.

Adult passengers are charged $17.34 on top of their train fare when they pass through station gates at Sydney Airport.Credit: Dean Sewell

Sydney University transport professor David Levinson said the city’s airport train fares were among the highest in the world and represented a failure of public policy.

“It is bad public policy because it discourages people from taking public transport to the airport. For groups of two or more it’s cheaper to take a taxi or Uber,” he said.

Adult train passengers are charged $17.34 – and children and concession-card holders $15.50 – when they pass through station gates at the domestic and international terminals.

The station access fee is levied on top of a fare, making a one-way train trip of up to 10 kilometres to the airport during peak periods $21.54 for adults.

The operator of duty-free shops at the airport, Heinemann, warns the high cost of train trips is a burden for many of its 400 front-line staff, making it harder to attract and retain employees.

“This is feedback we have consistently received from candidates, employee surveys and exit interviews,” Heinemann managing director George Tsoukalas said.

While the station access fee is capped at $35.16 a week for adults, the charge placed on top of train fares hits hardest the hip pockets of low-paid casual employees who work only two days.

A private company holds the right to operate the two airport terminal stations, as well as those at Mascot and Green Square, until May 2030, when their ownership will revert to the state.

Under a revised contract for the line, the government has been entitled to 85 per cent of the sales revenue from Airport Link since 2014, almost all of which flows from station access fees. The money is paid to the state’s Transport Asset Holding Entity.

Sydney Airport said more of the 30,000-plus people who work at the precinct every day would take the train if the access fee was shaken up.

“We are having ongoing and constructive discussions with the NSW government about how we can make public transport more accessible for airport workers,” a spokesman said. “We both agree there’s a potential path to mitigating the daily cost of commuting for airport workers.”

A spokesperson for Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the government was committed to ongoing discussions with the airport, but working out “durable solutions” was complicated by the private company’s concession to operate the line and stations until May 2030.

“Any alteration to these arrangements would require Airport Link’s consent. That said, the government is applying itself to developing options to provide relief to airport workers,” he said.

In 2019 NSW Labor made an election promise to cut the station access fee to $5 and scrap it altogether for workers. However, it did not take the pledge to last year’s state election.

Transport for NSW said funds the government collects under the agreement with Airport Link pay for transport improvements.

“There’s a weekly cap on the station usage fee, meaning regular commuters to the airport have the charge waived from their third train trip each week,” it said. “Sydney Airport is also served by the 350 and 420 bus links.”

Qantas told a parliamentary hearing early this year that staff feedback indicated the cost of the station access fee was deterring use of public transport.

Government subsidies mean passengers do not pay station access fees at Green Square and Mascot, unlike Sydney Airport stations.Credit: Louise Kennerley

The airline cited an estimate that fewer than one in 10 of the 30,000-plus workers at the Kingsford Smith Airport precinct commuted by train and other public transport.

The boost to the government’s coffers from the access fee for the airport stations is offset by the state compensating the private operator for passengers using Green Square and Mascot stations. That compensation totalled $43 million in the year to June, and $35 million in the previous financial year.

In 2011, the then-Keneally Labor government decided to subsidise the access fees at Mascot and Green Square, leading to a surge in patronage.

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