When it comes to planning airports, we are stuck in the 1970s.
The Federal Government has announced Badgerys Creek as Sydney’s second Airport, but it is not providing any details about the role or passenger potential of the Airport.
Victorian Government announced vaguely earlier this week that it intended to move forward with the delivery of a Melbourne Airport Rail Link – all costs, benefits, and timing issues, as well as network integration questions, are uncertain.
The two examples of Sydney and Melbourne show how Australian infrastructure is out-of-date and reflect a mindset that revolves around jet and car travel.
Melbourne – cars stuck in the mud?
The Melbourne airport rail link has been in the making for a very long time. We acknowledge its importance. The way in which it is integrated into the existing network of transit is crucial. Melbourne planners are stuck in the 1970s, assuming that people would travel by car from and to its Airport.
Rail links that serve a simple point-to-point or A-to-B travel pattern, such as from Melbourne’s Southern Cross Station to Tullamarine Airport, will attract a certain number of riders. Still, the benefits will be limited to those who live in Melbourne’s North or West and will have to travel to the CBD to reach Southern Cross.
If there is no direct option, those traveling from Melbourne’s east suburbs or southeast will need to change trains.
International examples show the right way to develop airport connections. There are three “airport express” services per Airport in Osaka and Tokyo, which each serve different residential areas and utilize existing rail corridors.
This could be done in Melbourne if multiple services converged at the Airport. Plan for future airport-bound services to be provided from Dandenong and Frankston, as well as the yet-to-build Doncaster rail corridor.
Similarly, passengers coming from the north and west could also be offered interchange points in the suburbs of Footscray, Sunshine, and Arden-Macauley, located to the west, respectively.
The cost of these ideas is not necessarily higher, but it does require a network mentality, which doesn’t exist in Melbourne right now. Rail is a secondary concern in Melbourne.
Sydney: the world has moved beyond jet travel
Sydney’s airport story is fascinating for its old-fashioned ideas. Sydney “can’t live without” a 24-hour airport to ease current congestion and plan future population needs, we are informed. Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that an A$3 Billion road package would accompany his announcement.
Kansai Airport in Japan serves about 25 million people. Greater Tokyo, with its 35 million inhabitants, is fine with just two airports. London, with three airports, services a megaregion in Southeast England that has a population of over 20 million.
The Federal Government has rejected the idea of conducting a detailed study on airports. Infrastructure Minister Warren Truss refused to provide specific numbers about Western Sydney Airport’s passenger numbers.
There is still little information on the mix of domestic and international travel that will take place at this new Airport, nor how it will serve freight.
Badgerys Creek’s announcement is a “no” to high-speed rail links between Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.
However, investigations into the future high-speed rail in Australia consistently show that HSR will capture a large chunk of travel between Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra.
Sydney would only need one Airport (regardless of where it is located). Fast rail would be the main mode of inter-city travel on the East Coast, and Sydney’s Airport could concentrate more on international connections.
Sydney’s thinking is stuck in the 1970s when jet travel was a brand new concept. Since then, however, the world has changed. High-speed rail is the most popular option for travel within a country.
Breaking with past assumptions
When the concept of the new infrastructure is not well-thought-out or is outdated, or when politics is the driving force, it is dangerous to commit.
It’s time to move on from the simple obsessions with roads and planes of a decade ago.
