Melbourne Airport Rail has a builder lined up for its biggest station job. The Network Integration Program Alliance, made up of CPB Contractors and SMEC, has been named preferred contractor for the first stage of the Sunshine Station upgrade in Melbourne’s west, covering 2 new regional platforms, an extended concourse, new forecourts on both sides of the station and an upgraded bus interchange, with stage one due for completion in 2030.
The announcement was reported by Infrastructure magazine, which said the work will turn Sunshine into a 6-platform transport hub and untangle 6 kilometres of track between West Footscray and Albion.
That track untangling is the number worth hanging onto. Reconfiguring 6 kilometres of track between West Footscray and Albion will create capacity for up to 1,000 trains a day, according to the October 2026 announcement reported by Infrastructure magazine.
Why a western suburbs station is doing the heavy lifting
Sunshine is where the regional lines, the metropolitan network and the future airport link all have to fit through the same throat of track. Pull them apart and the services behind them get room to move.
Victorian Minister for Public Transport Vicki Ward said the rebuild was about capacity first. “Untangling the tracks will create capacity for 1,000 trains a day, including future airport services,” Ward said.
“Untangling the tracks will create capacity for 1,000 trains a day, including future airport services,”
Stage one is expected to allow more frequent services on the Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo lines, and to leave the corridor ready for future electrification of the Melton and Wyndham Vale lines. That last bit matters for anyone watching the work pipeline out west: electrification isn’t funded in this announcement, but the civil work is being built so it can happen later.
Federal Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Catherine King framed it as a milestone for the airport line itself. “Melbourne Airport Rail is a nation-building project, and this Sunshine upgrade is a big step towards delivering it,” King said.
Member for Fraser Dr Daniel Mulino said the project would deliver across Melbourne’s west, including new stations at Albion and Tottenham. “Today we take the next step by announcing the preferred contractor to deliver the Sunshine Superhub,” Mulino said.
Three packages down, one still to let
Stage one has been carved into 5 construction packages, and 3 are already awarded. They cover underground utility relocations, track reconfiguration, new rail bridges and the new Tottenham Station.
The station package at Sunshine is the one the alliance has just been picked for. The fifth and final package, for the new Albion Station, isn’t expected to be awarded until 2027.
For subbies, that’s the live piece of information. There’s still a head contract to be let on a new station roughly a year out, and the packages already running will be building their own subcontract lists well before then.
What the sequence actually looks like
Rail jobs like this get built in a stubborn order, and the package list tells you what it is. Services come first, which is why underground utility relocations were one of the earliest packages awarded. You can’t slew track or sink bridge piers through someone else’s water main, gas main or comms bundle, so the locating and shifting of services runs ahead of everything.
Then the heavy civil: bridges, earthworks, track reconfiguration. After that, the station structure at Sunshine goes up, 2 new platforms, an extended concourse over the top, and forecourts on both sides rather than the usual single entry.
Fitout follows the structure floor by floor and platform by platform. Concourse and platform work pulls in electrical and comms rough-in, lifts and escalators, drainage, tiling, glazing, balustrades, roofing and signage. The bus interchange upgrade is its own slab-and-shelter job with its own lighting and drainage.
All of it happens on a railway that keeps running, which is the part that shapes a tradie’s week more than anything else on this list. Work on a live corridor gets done in planned possessions, so shift patterns tend to follow the shutdown calendar rather than a normal Monday-to-Friday site routine.
Stage two heads for Keilor East
Stage two of Melbourne Airport Rail is due to start in the coming weeks and finish in 2031. It extends passenger rail to a new station at Keilor East, connects the line directly to the Metro Tunnel, and uses high-capacity signalling to support frequent services.
High-capacity signalling is a cabling and communications job as much as a rail job, and it runs late in the program when the civil work is behind it.
Add the two stages together and you’ve got a corridor in Melbourne’s west with funded work running to 2031, which is the sort of timeline that changes a hiring decision. A first-year apprentice put on now would be out of their time before stage two is handed over. Victoria’s Big Build program publishes its project and contractor updates at bigbuild.vic.gov.au.
The dates to watch are the Albion Station package in 2027, the start of stage two works in the next few weeks, and the 2030 completion target at Sunshine. If you’re chasing work out west, the subcontract packages under the 3 awarded contracts are the ones moving now. The Albion job is the one worth getting your capability statement in front of early.
Frequently asked questions
Who won the contract for the Sunshine Station upgrade?
The Network Integration Program Alliance, made up of CPB Contractors and SMEC, has been named preferred contractor for stage one of the Sunshine Station upgrade.
When will the Sunshine Station upgrade be finished?
Stage one is due for completion in 2030, and includes two new regional platforms, an extended concourse, new forecourts and an upgraded bus interchange.
What work is still to be awarded on the Melbourne Airport Rail project?
The fifth and final package, covering the new Albion Station, isn’t expected to be awarded until 2027.
When does stage two of Melbourne Airport Rail start?
Stage two is due to start in the coming weeks and finish in 2031, extending the line to a new station at Keilor East and connecting to the Metro Tunnel.
Sourced from Infrastructure magazine. Original article.
