Road traffic congestion into Melbourne Airport

[whatmeworry]

With the current Liberal state government no new train lines will be built. Instead we be getting the East-West Link will probably be a flop but will make friends of the Liberals a lot of money.

Melbourne is currently groaning under the weight of traffic across the whole city. We need the metro (underground) to go ahead plus train lines to Rowville, Doncaster, the Airport and possibly another train line in the west.

 

[Melburnian1]

On the so-called 'quieter' days for air travel such as Wednesday morning as well as somewhat busier times (but not peak) such as Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings, is there ever a queue of cars trying to get off the Tulla Freeway? These are times when it's fairly rare for me to go to the airport. If so, are the queues pretty short? Is the worst time between 0800 and 0900 or are other morning times on those days notable for congestion?

 

[nlagalle]

nlagalle, you are correct in that 'many people will never take public transport to the airport, ever.'

However, if I recall correctly, when the Sydney Airport rail link was built, it started very slowly, with perhaps five per cent of passengers and staff overall using it, or even below.

It then built up to a 10 per cent share, and is now at either 16 or 20 per cent depending on who you believe.

If 15 to 20 per cent of Melbourne Airport's passengers and say five per cent of its staff used a rail line (bearing in mind that not all staff work at the airport: they may be in import/ export processing some considerable distance from the passenger terminals), this would make a huge difference.

So depending on how often trains ran and their operating hours, you might well be surprised at what a positive difference a rail line would make.

The way things are going, if it isn't built, the airport may be rather hard to get into and out of in five years' time for more of each day than is presently the case.

THere are major differences between Melbourne and sydney airports, namely location.. Times of day are also a factor for public transport choice. At my end of the day (early morning arrival), a train line will make little difference to traffic, as no one will want to catch a train at 5am to get to the airport at 6am. Certainly may help later in the day. But then I see a lot of people on skybus too (and that runs every 10 minutes).

 

[nlagalle]

On the so-called 'quieter' days for air travel such as Wednesday morning as well as somewhat busier times (but not peak) such as Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings, is there ever a queue of cars trying to get off the Tulla Freeway? These are times when it's fairly rare for me to go to the airport. If so, are the queues pretty short? Is the worst time between 0800 and 0900 or are other morning times on those days notable for congestion?

i travel most wednesday and it is almost as bad as Mondays. Many people who work a couple of days interstate generally leave Wednesday. while the traffic is not banked back to the ring road, it generally crawls from before the Age print site. And that is around 6.30am too.

 

[boomy]

On the so-called 'quieter' days for air travel such as Wednesday morning as well as somewhat busier times (but not peak) such as Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings, is there ever a queue of cars trying to get off the Tulla Freeway? These are times when it's fairly rare for me to go to the airport. If so, are the queues pretty short? Is the worst time between 0800 and 0900 or are other morning times on those days notable for congestion?

Monday mornings are the worst for driving to MEL airport. This week the traffic jam started at Merlose Dr.
I noticed that Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays are about the same and it means only slightly better then Mondays.
It gets worse every year and no real solution in sight.

 

[whughes3]

Monday mornings are the worst for driving to MEL airport. This week the traffic jam started at Merlose Dr.
I noticed that Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays are about the same and it means only slightly better then Mondays.
It gets worse every year and no real solution in sight.

It is specially bad at the moment because of the roadworks at the airport end, but overall you are quite right. On busy mornings I often find it is easier to exit the freeway at Melrose Dve and take the "back way" from there.

 

[BAM1748]

You guys would know better than me, but there seems to have been road works for years!

Of perhaps It just seems like years to this Sydney sider.

MAtt

 

[Gerardf]

In a 2010 thread, one AFF contributor suggested that he or she kept on driving past Tulla Airport towards Sunbury, did a U turn at Oaklands Road and was at QF parking in next to no time. Another mentioned using Keilor Park Drive.

.

Good in theory except that you will face severe delays doing a right hand turn from Centre Road into the short term or drop off elevated roadway. I come in very often from Macedon so go via Sunbury. The delay at the traffic lights are due to the right turn arrow cycle not being triggered due to the shear volume of cars coming off the Freeway. Last week, I waited for 7 traffic light cycles before getting through!

 

[openseat]

Some sort of congestion charge is needed to sort out the mess - perhaps to help raise funds for building better road access and a rail line.

I often get dropped at T4 and walk the rest of the way - it means you can come up Melrose Drive and not face the back up on the Tulla.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Am currently sitting in SQ F Lunge awaiting SQ228 - trip out on fwy was dream - 100kmh from top Bolte bridge on cruise control non stop - only roadworks visible at all was indeed on entry lanes into MEL.

Oh and BTW pre-booked parking - in at 13:00 on Aug 26 - out 20:00 on Sep 2 - $69. (Gotta love that number huh)

 

[jpk]

Am currently sitting in SQ F Lunge awaiting SQ228 - trip out on fwy was dream - 100kmh from top Bolte bridge on cruise control non stop - only roadworks visible at all was indeed on entry lanes into MEL.(Gotta love that number huh)

It's fine during the middle of the day when you went. The congestion is bad early to mid morning.
I've started thinking about flying out the night before rather than in the morning, to avoid the stress.

The changes around T4 have screwed the long term shuttles as well, they used to use the back road from T4 through under the overpass to T3 departures, but now that's been blocked off. The driver gave a long monologue announcement to the whole bus about how stupid it was.

It would help if you could get into the new long term entry from Melrose Dve, but you can't as that new entry is one way to traffic from the fwy only. Stupid design!

Getting rid of the pedestrian crossings would be a big help, can't see an easy solution to that though, short of making everyone walk over at ground level.

 

[whughes3]

Well, they have FINALLY completed the roadworks, and goodness me it is so much better! There are 3 lanes almost all the way from the freeway down to the traffic lights, which makes a huge difference; well, for a while I suppose...

 

[Sprucegoose]

Am currently sitting in SQ F Lunge awaiting SQ228 - trip out on fwy was dream - 100kmh from top Bolte bridge on cruise control non stop - only roadworks visible at all was indeed on entry lanes into MEL.

Oh and BTW pre-booked parking - in at 13:00 on Aug 26 - out 20:00 on Sep 2 - $69. (Gotta love that number huh)

CE was that long term undercover?

 

[serfty]

Well, they have FINALLY completed the roadworks, and goodness me it is so much better! There are 3 lanes almost all the way from the freeway down to the traffic lights, which makes a huge difference; well, for a while I suppose...

'bout time - last Saturday at ~7:30 it took the Skybus 10 minutes to travel the last 1½Km ...

 

[Melburnian1]

whughes3 and serfty, doubtless the extra lane adds to the number of vehicles that can approach the traffic lights, but given the finite number of lanes (two) up to the departure level ramp if I recall where taxis and family or friends drop passengers off and the fixed traffic light sequence, does it really solve the problem of congestion at the busier times?

 

[Bofter]

fixed traffic light sequence

The phase order is likely to be pretty well fixed (and has to accommodate a busy right turn off Centre Road) but I would be surprised if the phase times were fixed as opposed to attempting to respond to demands, however gone is the time where I had access to check such things. Your point about departure side capacity is a fair one however, and I have fortunately managed to avoid going to the airport during the morning peaks to see if things like removing buses from the upper level are significant changes or playing around the edges.

 

[Melburnian1]

From memory Skybus has not stopped at the (upper) departure level to set down passengers for at least two years. It could be even longer ago.

Some afternoons (Friday is one) can also be busy but Bofter it's probably fair comment as you imply that the morning peak is more notceiable as it's a bit more concentrated, just like Melbourne's road network and Metro's train patronage.

 

[boomy]

Looks like all back to normal. Took me exactly 20 min to get to MEL from Albert Park this morning.

 

[serfty]

In my experience, the Skybus has never used the upper roadway.

 

[Bofter]

For clarity, my reference to buses wasn't limited to SkyBus but the other buses that did until recently drop upstairs. Many might refer to them as vans (<13 seats) but there are a fair number if these off-airport parking buses/vans.