Overseas firms eye airport rail tenders
A host of international companies are poised to tender for a contract to design and build the State Government's $2.2 billion underground Forrestfield-airport rail link.
Transport Minister Dean Nalder said construction representatives from as far as Europe had expressed interest in building the twin-tunnelled line from Bayswater to High Wycombe. The State Government will call for tenders in January and hopes to award a contract by mid-2016.
State Government representatives and the Public Transport Authority yesterday met 270 potential proponents at Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, where they were briefed on what would be required for the 8.5km link.
"There's interest from South Korea, Spain, China, Japan, India and France," Mr Nalder said. "We have a very sandy soil so we have experts explaining what will be required and what our expectations are and timelines are."
Mr Nalder said expressions of interest, which close in March, would be short-listed by May.
The transport authority has called for tenders for several staff for the project, including a geotechnical engineer and a tunnelling manager for the track, which is set to include three stations in Belmont, Perth Airport and Forrestfield.
The first trains are expected to run on the line in 2020, creating a 20-minute line from Perth's eastern suburbs to the city, branching off the Midland line. The new tunnel will run under the Swan River and Perth Airport.
The rail link is expected to attract 14,500 passenger boardings a day by 2031. However, as reported in _The Weekend West _, it will carry the fewest passengers per taxpayer dollar expended on transport infrastructure.
Shadow transport minister Ken Travers said the State Government needed to further justify why it had chosen the rail link over other transport infrastructure, including its shelved MAX light rail project.
