Article: The Fate of "Second" Airports Far from the City Centre

[kookaburra75]

The snippet about Singapore airlines is interesting. This was the dream of the guy who bought CBR off the government decades ago. No curfew. Bring the jumbos in from Singapore at 2am, process them in Canberra, and load them onto the Fast Rail that was looking hopeful back then. They'd be in Sydney as or before the Sydney curfew lifted.
Same with freight, bring in freight all night, load contents onto the fast train. I'm glad that one's fallen through. They can't route all night planes over surrounding areas of NSW forever.

Sort of. Being a fellow Ken Behren I feel your pain about travel, especially as my head office at one stage was at Macquarie Park - $100+taxi fare. But the Snows weren't interested in running an airport when they bid for the 99 year lease, they got to build a business park full of offices that didn't need ACT planning approval, given it was Commonwealth land. And we got a new airport terminal out of it too for the project future travel demands.
It would have been good if the fast train link was up and running, as the original plan back in the 80s was for high speed freight, they weren't interested in passenger traffic. But Canberra being the small place it is, we hear the flights take off in the morning, even though we're hard up against the western border of the ACT. Not that it's an issue.
But back to the original topic. WSI will work, as it is a green field operation. Some of us will remember when the 3rd runway was opened at Mascot and the benefits that would bring - not. Although building the flyover road for departures at SYD in the 90s was a massive improvement, as the traffic jams were reduced. Many a time when stuck in traffic on O'Riordan Street I would pay the taxi driver and walk the rest of the way as it was quicker.

 

[Jacques Vert]

Another - Istanbul.

Old IST closed - close to the city but too hemmed in. New IST an hour away by freeway ( add some for inner city congestion ) and very successful. Freeways in from the start however, metro not connected at the start. Is nowadays, but you have to change lines via a surface walk. Poor planning on that side.

SAW on the Asian side of the Bosphous, still operating but in a lesser role. About equi distance from the city centre as IST.

And they discourage Uber, etc. When we flew into IST in Dec '24, we used Uber which arranged for a taxi to pick us up. The driver was in a bit of a panic: wanted us to meet him at the far end of the pick-up area, and "get in quickly". He kept watching out for airport officials and stated that he would get a big fine if he was caught.

The cast of the taxi/Uber ride to the city would discourage me from visiting IST again and as RooFlyer says the train is not convenient (especially if traveling with luggage).