One of the dumbest reports ever delivered on the chronically poor performance of NSW Tourism is headline news this morning in Sydney, calling for a “fast train” to a new international airport at Williamtown north of Newcastle as a solution.
But it’s not really what it seems to be.
Qantas and Virgin Blue have told the Federal Government point blank that unless it builds a second Sydney jet airport in Sydney, as distinct from somewhere out in woop woop, the city can go choke when it comes to business and tourism links and the jobs that go with them.
It isn’t a message either the Federal or State governments want to hear. There is a site for a second airport at Badgerys creek, and it is superbly located beside the new M7 ring road, but is regarded as political poison.
The report delivered to Premier Morris Iemma by NSW Events chairman John O’Neill would, if carried out, add nearly 40% to the current journey time for tourists or business people from China to Sydney, if a minimum three hour road trip was added to an eight hours flight.
Not to mention telling US visitors that Sydney would take nearly three hours longer to reach than Melbourne. O’Neill and Tourism and Transport Forum managing director Chris Brown both know that tour operators will never accept such an absurdity.
They just aren’t facing up to the reality that the second Sydney airport has to actually be in Sydney and that the existing airport can’t cope on its own.
The gruesome truth is that Sydney can’t even make one of the world’s smallest and most dysfunctional underground railway systems work, never mind a high speed rail link to anywhere, and that no government will ever spend tens of billions of dollars on an airport and supporting rail infrastructure no-one will use.
I’m expecting rail and trains to become too expensive to justify 1 day business trips – video links and telecommutes will end up taking over. Don’t waste money on a second airport, soon, one airport will be more than enough, when fare prices diminish volume of travel.
At its current stage of development the Eurostar between London and Paris has gutted air services. Only the poor fly (or those who can afford the time) almost describes the situation, there still being a minor need for connecting flights. Equally on the current market data, Sydney-Melbourne traffic might need to treble to reach anything like viability for high speed rail even with the ‘donation’ of the infrastructure by taxpayers. European and Japanese high speed rail is wonderful. But be wary of the massive and environmentally intrusive landwork needed for the permanent way, the blast shields where it passes through communities, the confiscation of significant freehold, and the obliteration of bird life. Railways are forever. But jets fly wherever demand arises or shifts, and in today’s economic environment, are a risk carried by private enterprise not the state. Europe and Japan have the economic density to make their systems work. By comparison we have fewer taxpayers, less risk capital and smaller transport markets. All of this favors air links over surface links for longer distance business and leisure travel.
Ben Sandilands is 100% correct, but does not go far enough.
I live in Newcastle and have for many years used the train and the road to Sydney. Tha facts are that at the speed limit it will take you (non Sydney rush hour) 2hours 40 minutes from Williamtown by road to the Sydney CBD door to door. Rush hour? Don’t ask.
Train? Don’t make me laugh. The nearest station to Williamtown is Newcastle itself, a 30 minute drive away – there is only a half assed small bus service that noone uses. Besides the trains being old, dirty, and generally pathetic, the trip from Newcastle to Sydney is at absolute best 2hours 30 minutes (generally 2.45 hours). The line is roughly straight to Gosford, but then winds snail like around the Hawkesbury waterways.
To make a fast service out of this would realistically mean building a whole new line at least from Hornsby to Gosford, through hilly bush terrain, and then replacing the rest of the track (which is now worn out) to Newcastle. It is a sick joke to even think about the current service being sufficient for a new airport.
This furphy about Newcastle being a new Sydney airport comes up frequently, probably mostly to satisfy the neglected Newcastle psyche. It will never happen in my lifetime, or that of my grandchildren.
There are probably many good reasons why Williamtown shouldn’t be the next choice for Sydney’s airport, but Ben Sandilands hysterical mathematics haven’t added to the list. Ben says that the location would “add nearly 40% to the current journey time for tourists or business people from China to Sydney, if a minimum three hour road trip was added to an eight hours flight”. Well it would, if you ignore the fact that (a) google maps says that it is 2 hours and 10 minutes from Williamtown to the centre of Sydney, (b) Qantas shows 10 hours 40 minutes from Sydney to Shanghai and 12 hours to Beijing, (c) you ignore the time it takes to get to any other potential airport location, and (d) you ignore the airlines request to arrive 2 hours before your international flight. Lets use 40 minutes for Sydney to Badgery’s Creek and recalculate…10.7% increase to Beijing or 11.8% to Shanghai. Stop treating people like idiots Ben, your creditbility will improve.
Thanks for the sums, and good luck with the roads or trains. Adding three hours and associated costs to accessing Sydney for any international tourism market will either kill it or cripple it.