Landowners eye airport rail bonanza
A 250ha pocket of semirural and light industrial land in High Wycombe is set to leap in value when the Barnett Government announces the terminus station for its airport rail link.
The station will be located between existing rail yards and Dundas Road, east of Perth Airport, on Public Transport Authority-owned land.
The station will be south of Maida Vale Road and north of Berkshire Road. It will be surrounded by a 2000-bay carpark.
Premier Colin Barnett was to announce at Saturday's Liberal Party State conference that the entire 8km railway spur line from near Bayswater station on the Midland line would be tunnelled, according to ABC reports.
With a tunnel required to go under the airport runways, sources said the Government had found there was almost no difference in cost between building the whole line underground, as opposed to a 2012 plan.
The tunnel is expected to run next to Tonkin Highway, under the Swan River and Great Eastern Highway, before running along Brearley Avenue - the existing major access route to the Qantas domestic terminal.
Two stations on Perth Airport land are expected at Airport West, about 700m from the Qantas domestic terminal, and Airport Central, just south of the air traffic control tower south of the existing international terminal.
The Forrestfield station is next to a strategic pocket of land bounded by Maida Vale Road, Dundas Road and Roe Highway.
The land is certain to be rezoned for higher density mixed-use residential and commercial - a windfall for dozens of landowners.
The exact location of train stations in the airport precinct featured in Liberal Party attack advertisements during last year's election campaign, with the Government accusing Labor of placing stations hundreds of metres from the terminals under its Metronet plan.
The Government had promised the $2 billion line would open by 2018 but it has been pushed back to 2020.
