Melbourne Airport Rail: CPB and SMEC chosen for Sunshine rebuild

Victoria's infrastructure authority has picked a CPB Contractors and SMEC alliance to rebuild Sunshine station, the first stage of Melbourne Airport Rail, and has fixed 2028 for the start of main works on the second stage. The third stage, the section that actually reaches the airport, still has no timetable.

The Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority (VIDA) named the Network Integration Program Alliance as preferred bidder on 21 October, Railway Gazette International reports. The contract covers two extra platforms for regional trains, so that future airport services can use the existing ones, an extended concourse, forecourts on both sides of the station and a larger bus interchange. Sunshine will become a six-platform interchange due for completion in 2030, according to Build Australia. "Melbourne Airport Rail is a nation-building project, and this Sunshine upgrade is a big step towards delivering it," federal infrastructure minister Catherine King said.

The station is only part of the job. Over the 6 km between West Footscray and Albion, junctions are being untangled, with two flyovers for the Sunbury and Bendigo lines, a new Tottenham station, track renewals and new signalling, so that passenger and freight flows are separated and the area can handle more than 1,000 trains a day. Four of the five Stage 1 packages have now been awarded; the last, for Albion station, is due next year.

Stage 2 will add 7.4 km of dedicated track alongside the freight line from Albion to a new station at Keilor East, including 1.1 km on a viaduct near Albion. VIDA said on 30 September that main works would run from 2028 to 2031, and site investigation began on 13 October. Stage 3, the new alignment from Keilor East to the terminals, remains caught in a disagreement between the federal and state governments and Australia Pacific Airports over the location and design of the airport station. An elevated design was agreed in July 2024, and a steering committee was set up in March 2025; on 30 September the Prime Minister's office said it was "continuing to work through options for the final stage of Airport Rail, Stage 3".

The gauge question explains why Stage 2 is a separate pair of tracks rather than shared running. Melbourne's suburban network is built to 1,600 mm, while the freight corridor out to Albion is 1,435 mm standard gauge, so the airport trains cannot simply borrow it. Once at Sunshine, services would continue over existing lines into the Metro Tunnel, which opened in November 2025, and the high-capacity signalling there sets how many airport paths can be added to the cross-city timetable. The staging has a practical upside: the Sunshine works bring more frequent Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo services whatever happens to Stage 3. The risk is a line that reaches Keilor East and stops there. We looked at the national push towards common signalling standards in our report on Australia's move to ETCS, and at the existing interstate service in our Sydney to Melbourne train guide.

Procurement for Stage 2 is expected later this year, with the Albion contract to follow in 2027.

Sources: Railway Gazette International, 3 November 2026; Build Australia, 22 October 2026.

Photo: V/Line VLocity set 90 at Sunshine station, 25 April 2025 — Billy Evans, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

Article written with the help of artificial intelligence from the sources cited, reviewed by the TrainsNews editorial team before publication.