Western Sydney Airport (WSI) Discussion

[henrus]

I guess that means SYD BAE146 flights end in July?

 

[jase05]

I guess that means SYD BAE146 flights end in July?

They have been a great workhorse but yes they will be phased out in the coming years.
Not sure of exact timeframes just yet as there is still plenty to work out

 

[moa999]

New WSI Airport website stating October 2026 opening.

Discover WSI | WSI

wsiairport.com.au

Sun 26 Oct is the start of IATA ticketing season so is a strong favourite.

Video has this teaser which I think is the first time this side of (I assume) the domestic terminal has been shown.



Parking shown at the start is listed as P2 which looks like the large onsite parking station.

 

[LionKing]

Saw this on insta

View attachment 493938

I am sure there will be massive chaos when the airport opens.
Only 1 bus line from St Marys is not enough.
There needs to be buses running every 15 minutes from Central and Waterloo, Bondi Junction, North Sydney, Chatswood, Manly, Macquarie Park, Strathfield and Hurstville direct to WSI to cater for those who may need to choose WSI to fly, or else I don't think the airport is going to serve its purpose.

 

[SYD]

There needs to be buses running every 15 minutes from Central and Waterloo, Bondi Junction, North Sydney, Chatswood, Manly,

Not really the target catchment area for WSI. Let's see if early fares justify the schlep out there from the East but I assume most east of the ANZAC bridge will be sticking to SYD for the time being.

 

[markis10]

There needs to be buses running every 15 minutes from Central and Waterloo, Bondi Junction, North Sydney, Chatswood, Manly, Macquarie Park, Strathfield and Hurstville direct to WSI to cater for those who may need to choose WSI to fly, or else I don't think the airport is going to serve its purpose.

You have an unrealistic expectation of how busy they will be, and who would take a bus from the eastern suburbs FFS, easier to go to Syd.

 

[moa999]

There needs to be buses running every 15 minutes from

Laughable.. the airport will average 1-2 flights an hour.
Cath the train to St.Marys and get the express bus from there.

A direct bus from Campbeltown (seemingly will be indirect) and Leppington maybe.

 

[Saab34]

It’s been nearly 60 years since our last major airport was built so I’m certainly looking forward to some newness.

Now can we demolish Tullamarine and build a new one on the other side of the runway

 

[AuSammy]

I am sure there will be massive chaos when the airport opens.
Only 1 bus line from St Marys is not enough.
There needs to be buses running every 15 minutes from Central and Waterloo, Bondi Junction, North Sydney, Chatswood, Manly, Macquarie Park, Strathfield and Hurstville direct to WSI to cater for those who may need to choose WSI to fly, or else I don't think the airport is going to serve its purpose.

Huh.

With maybe 6 JQ domestic jets based out of there and one or two international departures per day at the beginning, who is going to be sitting on all those bus seats????

 

[elanshin]

High-speed rail enters next stage in Australian journey

Some may have dismissed high-speed rail in Australia as a pipe dream – but real progress has been made to take it from dream to reality.

www.railexpress.com.au

The Newcastle to Sydney high-speed rail network is planned to run from central Newcastle through the Central Coast into Sydney CBD before heading west, with stations at Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Central Coast, Sydney Central, Paramatta and Western Sydney Airport

Not sure how far along the study is or if we'll ever see it enter real build, but there has been significant more activity on the Sydney - Newcastle front. The talk of it turning west into a terminus at WSI however I've not heard previously.

 

[moa999]

talk of it turning west into a terminus at WSI however I've not heard previously.

Think that talk appeared after the current government de-prioritised the under construction Metro West extension from Westmead to WSI.

Personally think HSR beter going to Campbeltown then onto Canberra, with the Metro extended to Campbeltown.

Airports need more turn up and go style transport rather than the fixed time ticketing that most global HSR services use.

 

[SYD]

High-speed rail enters next stage in Australian journey

Some may have dismissed high-speed rail in Australia as a pipe dream – but real progress has been made to take it from dream to reality.

www.railexpress.com.au

Not sure how far along the study is or if we'll ever see it enter real build, but there has been significant more activity on the Sydney - Newcastle front. The talk of it turning west into a terminus at WSI however I've not heard previously.

An earlier proposal was suggesting that the line from the Central Coast / Newcastle would arrive in the Sydney Metropolitan area somewhere like Parramatta before heading south towards Canberra ie you’d still need to then get to the CBD somehow.

They’re leaning towards tunnelling, so they’re probably less constrained on finding corridors into and out of Sydney so they can now propose to make a beeline to Central Sydney (which potentially allows for an onward line to the Illawarra. But heading all the way to WSI before turning left to Canberra doesn’t sound very optimal IMHO.

Airports need more turn up and go style transport rather than the fixed time ticketing that most global HSR services use.

Yeah, you wouldn’t want to prepay for a particular service only to have your flight delayed or bags take forever etc… But certainly help peeps from much further afield.

 

[SeaWolf]

I'm thinking that until the public transport options really get going, WSI's strength is going to be its parking. It'll certainly be way cheaper and easier than the parking at SYD and a lot easier driving there as well. For people living in the area (and possibly even further) being able to drive to the airport and use the long term parking and probably even being close enough to just walk over to the terminal, even with luggage, will be a real selling point.

 

[moa999]

Will be interesting to see what the parking charges are.
At this point it looks like there will be a P1 and P2 at the airport itself, and I'm guessing a Long Term Parking at the Airport Business Park to the north with its own metro station.

 

[SeatBackForward]

An earlier proposal was suggesting that the line from the Central Coast / Newcastle would arrive in the Sydney Metropolitan area somewhere like Parramatta before heading south towards Canberra ie you’d still need to then get to the CBD somehow.

This makes a lot of sense, the (soon to be open) Sydney Metro West would cater for those passengers needing to get from Parramatta to the CBD. The failure here is that they never set aside land or even an underground envelope for a HSR Parramatta station that would allow transfer to the Metro or to the Sydney Trains station.

Having that metro line extend out to WSI would then also make a lot of sense. But hey I'm an engineer not a politician

They’re leaning towards tunnelling, so they’re probably less constrained on finding corridors into and out of Sydney so they can now propose to make a beeline to Central Sydney (which potentially allows for an onward line to the Illawarra. But heading all the way to WSI before turning left to Canberra doesn’t sound very optimal IMHO.

The cost of Tunnelling is hideous, but even using tunnels, finding a route to/from Central will be hard and the cost of actually building the facilities required for a HSR terminal at or near Central would be hideous.

This is one of those opportunities that government could actually do something that would benefit everyone - like here's a crazy idea - why not setup "in town check-in" at Central for both airports? But of course, who's paying for that? the airports? the airlines?

 

[elanshin]

Airports need more turn up and go style transport rather than the fixed time ticketing that most global HSR services use.

They can run both. Amsterdam Schipol (AMS) is an example of air rail link with HSR and more local services all going through it. Shanghai Hongqiao (SHA) is also a major HSR terminus, but also connected to the metro.

Definitely lots of pros to having airports with HSR station attached. It just can't be the only mode of public transportation

Edit: if i think about the ideal transport network (costs not part of the consideration) then having a major HSR station at WSI would be helpful for future growth. The airport would naturally already have PT links which help funnel people into a HSR station too making it a two in one.

 

[kamchatsky]

HSR in Australia will never happen. Way too expensive due to the tunneling requirements, and the large number of feasibility studies, impact assessments, consultation required. It could easily go more than $300B.

There is also very little to gain from political point of view.

The West Metro is supposed to be extended to WSI in long term Transport NSW vision for 2056. That is a far better bet as all they have to do is to extend it from Westmead to WSI.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

It’s been nearly 60 years since our last major airport was built so I’m certainly looking forward to some newness.

Now can we demolish Tullamarine and build a new one on the other side of the runway

Or we could do a PER T1&T2 and then a T3/T4.
MEL could have a T5/T6 across the other side, didnt they want more runways, BNE has added one more runway.
Would say, Tullamarine probably has space for another 2 runways, adjacent ones, does not have to be cross, the new runways linked to the new (in my dreams T5/T6).
===

HSR in Australia will never happen. Way too expensive due to the tunneling requirements, and the large number of feasibility studies, impact assessments, consultation required. It could easily go more than $300B.

There is also very little to gain from political point of view.

The West Metro is supposed to be extended to WSI in long term Transport NSW vision for 2056. That is a far better bet as all they have to do is to extend it from Westmead to WSI.

Sydneham to Tullawong is one of the greatest tho, so it could be done, ie, if there is the will.
They could take away the gate fee too, they were happy to dig and make the M1 all the way, and from Sydneham to Tullawong, its quite far.
Did the trip from Sydneham to Victoria Cross, very fast and good.
No gate fee, imagine if they took away the Sydney Airport gate fee in 2030.
===
Well and good for the airlines going to use WSI, but then (I know, bringing up what I had already mentioned), this is going to a NRT and HND problem, and/or the KUL and the old SAAZ airport transit problem, who will provide a fast transit between WSI and SYD (KSA)?
Unless every single Aus dom and int airline moves, its going to be problematic.
If you live in a regional city, and your SQ flight flies into WSI, but then your QFlink flies out of SYD KSA, who will get you across fast?
Fast bus ($$$/free), uber/taxis, drive, train?

 

[Saab34]

HSR will never have anything substantial allocated to it as the SRL will simply chew up everything that is currently not budgeted for, and needs tens of billions.

 

[justinbrett]

It’s been nearly 60 years since our last major airport was built so I’m certainly looking forward to some newness.

Now can we demolish Tullamarine and build a new one on the other side of the runway

BNE was effectively a new build in the 80s. Not much remained of the old airport, part of the runway and a few taxiways form the logistics precinct.