Western Sydney Airport (WSI) Discussion

[justinbrett]

In close to 40 trips to London over the years I still am yet to catch a train to the city. Always a cab or private driver or occasionally relatives if staying with them but I also don’t use trains to/from airports anywhere really and especially not SYD and doubt I’ll ever use the MEL one when completed. Each to their own though, some people swear by them

Hence the caveat "not many sensible people". You're either not sensible, or in the "not many" group.

You need better luggage. Wheel to the platform, wheel on the HEX, wheel off, get taxi. It's not hard and that just saved you an hour of traffic and a hundred pounds.

Speaking of Sydney specifically, I used to live in Bondi Junction. I only made the mistake once or twice in getting a cab to/from SYD airport even with a work cabcharge, it's so much quicker on the train.

Yeah, I do get that but whilst on holiday I want door to door service and happy to pay for the convenience

Unless you're arriving in the middle of the night, I wouldn't call being stuck in traffic a convenience.

 

[SeatBackForward]

Hence the caveat "not many sensible people". You're either not sensible, or in the "not many" group.

I've certainly met people who outright refuse to use public transport even if it's clearly a better option under most reasons, not sure if it's a sense that it's unreliable, or they consdier it unworthy of themselves.

 

[elanshin]

I've been told many times for KUL, if its peak hour, get the train then maybe the last couple of bits by taxi. You could be in a cab for 2h+ whilst a train is guaranteed 35mins.

 

[SYD]

I've been told many times for KUL, if its peak hour, get the train then maybe the last couple of bits by taxi. You could be in a cab for 2h+ whilst a train is guaranteed 35mins.

Jakarta can also be “pick a number” depending on ToD and DoW.

 

[markis10]

You could be in a cab for 2h+ whilst a train is guaranteed 35mins.

Not a guaranteed 35minutes when they modify the service to also operate as the transit service stopping enroute at 5 or so stations which was the case numerous days last month.

 

[dajop]

LGW is one where I think train wins to most locations. I know a couple of years ago it took about 50mins to get to our hotel at West Brompton (near earls court) whilst google maps was showing 1.5 hrs for the 60km journey by car.

 

[RooFlyer]

There’s plenty of city hotels that would have been easier - and don’t have that ghastly “airport feel”.

Not sure why any city hotels should have an airport feel - ghastly or otherwise.

If you are referring to my comment above, I was referring to airport hotels being pretty ordinary.

But I sometimes do choose hotels based on proximity to public transport – trains. Like last night here at Windsor, right next to one of the Windsor train stations. Travelodge. cough hotel.

When I can afford it, and with checked baggage + carry on, I’m with @jase05 - door to door preferred. A station may be close but you still gotta shlep over there, down the escalators wait for the train (and delays are not uncommon) then faff around at the airport station. and of course the Sydney ‘airport train’ was never designed for people with luggage! Very Sydney (I was living in Sydney when it was built - remember the kerfuffle over that!)

Uber that is, with many cities I'm familiar with. Hong Kong and obvious exception and London also; and Stockholm. In places like Jakarta and Bangkok I’ll deal with them on case by case basis but i’ll probably get a private driver if I can get a recommendation.

BTW i’m not sure whether this is old news or not but I heard here that the HEX is going to be or might be abandoned.

 

[SeatBackForward]

Not a guaranteed 35minutes when they modify the service to also operate as the transit service stopping enroute at 5 or so stations which was the case numerous days last month.

That's understandable, a dedicated railway service to an airport is quite a significant cost if it ONLY serves that airport. Bringing the topic back to WSI, the entire premise of the Metro to WSI is mostly about serving the airport, but there are the economic zones that will be developed around the airport precinct and that is certainly part of the justification for building infrastructure.

I think for Australia, Brisbane and Perth are the closest examples we have of railways built ONLY to serve the airport, but even these are just minor extensions to existing networks. WSI is quite more than that, and the existing SYD railway line is well..just another stop during peak hour services.