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).

 

[Jacques Vert]

The 350 bus doesn't seriously compete. It goes to Bondi Junction via Mascot and Coogee and takes an hour to get there. The pineapples did this trip once just for fun. For pain it was right up there with an hour at the executive lounge bench at the Sydney Airport Pullman.

I do the bus/train via Mascot every time I go to Sydney. $2-50 maximum daily charge on a Gold Opal.

 

[Snowant]

I do the bus/train via Mascot every time I go to Sydney. $2-50 maximum daily charge on a Gold Opal.

Me too. And the airport train really blows a hole in it. Had to use it last week due to a long day on the trial, and it hurt.

Discovered this morning not to get on the 420 with Burwood on it...

 

[Chicken]

Discovered this morning not to get on the 420 with Burwood on it...

Oh no ....

I do the bus/train via Mascot every time I go to Sydney. $2-50 maximum daily charge on a Gold Opal.

Same here. Public transport is public transport, I'm not paying an extra $18.61 gate fee just because I'm getting on a plane. Me getting on a plane is not an invite to rob me

I live in Windsor

I'm in Rouse, and by public transport:
- WSI = 1 h 45 m
- SYD and pay train gate fee = 1 h 15 m
- SYD via bus to Mascot = 1 h 40 m
so both are same same

What I'm surprised with some of the comments here, is that they are forgetting the many businesses in south west sydney and western sydney, where WSI would be closer than SYD. These are all in manufacturing and logistics (Minchinbury) and engineering, including multinationals. WSI would serve those businesses as well.
- Coke is in Northmead
- Magnum ice cream (split from Unilever) is Minto
- DHL and Toll Team Global Express are both in Eastern Creek
- Komatsu Aussie HQ is in Fairfield
Just some examples. Not everything is in Sydney city.

 

[Forg]

I'm in Rouse, and by public transport:
- WSI = 1 h 45 m

That seems to depend on the time of day … I checked it just now, and by public transport it’s 3.5hr if you left Rouse Hill now!

It’d be way cheaper by ride-share or taxi than to SYD though, the travel distance is a fair whack less and you could avoid a bunch of tolls.

Manufacturing & stuff which needs a warehouse or processing is Out There. But I guess a lot of offices & suits are in the CBD. It’s a reality of HR that trying to hire young professionals with vim & vigour is quite difficult if you’re not located somewhere fairly inner …

 

[Chatswood]

That seems to depend on the time of day … I checked it just now, and by public transport it’s 3.5hr if you left Rouse Hill now!

Not sure how you got to that given the 665 bus runs into the late evening to connect at Westmead. The point remains that without the gate fee, travelling from NW Sydney and Parramatta would be very competitive in terms of journey time to WSI or SYD.

Not to mention the logistics setting up shop around WSI now, Aldi has a huge warehouse and lots of other distribution centres moving in. Whilst the development of the Aerotropolis has slowed down somewhat it’s still building for the future.

 

[Chicken]

That seems to depend on the time of day … I checked it just now, and by public transport it’s 3.5hr if you left Rouse Hill now!

3.5 hours? Are you walking there?! It should be well under 2 hours. See govt trip planner

Manufacturing & stuff which needs a warehouse or processing is Out There. But I guess a lot of offices & suits are in the CBD. It’s a reality of HR that trying to hire young professionals with vim & vigour is quite difficult if you’re not located somewhere fairly inner …

Well, now that I have outed myself as from Rouse, I would only apply for jobs in Macquarie Park or the city or Parramatta, because anywhere else is too hard to get to. I looked at some of the jobs in manufacturing in south west sydney, like Fairfield and Milperra, they would take me close to 2 hours (one way) on public transport.

Just because the office is in the city doesn't mean you never have to go to the plant or warehouse in western sydney. If you want to have a meeting with the plant manager or warehouse manager to investigate stuffs, drive efficiency, you have to go to the plant to understand what's going on there.

If the factory is in Milperra, an Uber to WSI would be a much easier and gives a higher certainty on travelling time, than SYD. If I need to go from an office in Milperra to SYD, I would honestly ask someone to drop me off at Panania train station, and train to SYD, because the traffic near SYD / Botany is just too scary.

 

[L2.]

I live in Windsor and to drive to Kingsford Smith is 1 hour its 49 mins to WSI, Public transport is 1h33m to KS 1h49m to WSI. KS i have to change at Central, WSI I have to change at Blacktown and then bus from St Marys. Hopefully they will link up to the Metro at Tullawong and provide more options.

I worked out that it's possible to get from WSI to Richmond (which you'd of course know is the next suburb out) in 80 minutes entirely via bus, using routes 677 and 790 via Penrith.

Unfortunately the 677 bus isn't very frequent (usually around once every 2 hours) so it's not the most convenient schedule.

There's also a 673 bus from Windsor to Penrith, although it runs even less often and I'm not sure if a similar journey would be possible

It could also be an option to ride the train for a short journey from Windsor to Richmond, then take the 677 and 790 buses to WSI.

None of these options are hugely appealing, but I'd rather take two buses with ground level connections than be dragging my suitcases across the stations at both Blacktown and St Marys.

 

[Snowant]

Well, now that I have outed myself as from Rouse, I would only apply for jobs in Macquarie Park or the city or Parramatta, because anywhere else is too hard to get to. I looked at some of the jobs in manufacturing in south west sydney, like Fairfield and Milperra, they would take me close to 2 hours (one way) on public transport.

I've been trying to figure out how to do a quick trip from macquarie park to parramatta, and it seems if it's all public transport, the best way is to train back to Strathfield, then train to parramatta. The light rail goes to Carlingford, really close to Epping, but on public transport it gets very complex. So I haven't done it.

 

[Forg]

3.5 hours? Are you walking there?! It should be well under 2 hours. See govt trip planner

I specifically said “if you left Rouse Hill now” to indicate that it was time dependent … it was 3.5hrs at the time, which looking back was about 10pm on a Thursday night.

It didn’t occur to me at the time of writing that it being 10pm would be all that relevant, as I’ve been conditioned to SYD’s operating hours. But in hindsight, it’s potentially relevant with a 24hr airport, innit? You might have a 1am or 2am flight!