The track to Sunshine is already electrified, and thence to Airport West requires electrification. The only new track is the aforementioned curve and then the line in the median to TA and the station there. (The old tracks may need upgrading with concrete sleepers and long-welded rail, but that is normal maintenance.) The State Government already subsidizes operations on the rest of the Melbourne rail network, why not subsidize this line? It also subsidizes roads in Melbourne, provided free of cost to the user (courtesy taxpayers), except of course the very few toll roads. And what would it cost to create a congestion free route for Skybus? Either you take away existing traffic lanes, or you build new ones. The first won't happen, the second will indeed cost billions. Sydney is not a good example -- the line was tunnelled and cost far too much, there is a massive additional charge for airport passengers and patronage is very poor. Brisbane is better, the line is single track, elevated instead of tunnelled, and after a shaky start is no doing fairly well. London, Heathrow and Gatwick, relies on rail for the workers and passengers, Frankfurt and Zurich have excellent rail services to their airports. Even small towns like Cleveland in the USA built rail lines to their airports. A rail line costs, but it is an INVESTMENT which will return benefits for 100 years. Widening a Freeway is a no-hoper. If it only cost $100 million or therabouts then previous governments