(Sydney) Airport bus and train links 'dismal'

[Joe Frampton]

Quoted from www.smh.com.au, 17 July...

Linton Besser Transport Reporter
July 17, 2008

SYDNEY AIRPORT has blasted the State Government for "unsatisfactory" public transport at its terminals, claiming bus and rail services were "well below international standards".

The Macquarie Bank-owned facility launched the tirade in its official submission to a national aviation policy being drafted by the Commonwealth.

Despite charging high prices for parking and other ancillary services at its terminals, the airport claimed the privately owned Airport Rail Link was too expensive, that trains were too infrequent and that bus services were inadequate.

"It is clear that the public transport infrastructure and services provided to access Sydney Airport are well below international standards for major world airports," the submission said.

"The NSW Government is encouraging growth and development of the broader airport precinct, growth which will increase pressure for supporting infrastructure to be put in place. Unless this infrastructure is provided as this growth occurs, it will put additional pressures on airport development."

Forecasts predict air traffic into Sydney would double to more than 60 million passengers over the next 20 years. The airport said a "more efficient and effective bus transport system" was a priority because of the shortcomings of the private rail link.

"The Airport Link train service is unsatisfactory as a major public transport service for both travel between the airports two terminal precincts and between the CBD and the airport itself," the submission said. "For example, it is expensive for many passengers and their families, with the private operators charging $13.80 for passengers to travel to or from the CBD. By way of comparison, the fare for the longer trip from the CBD to Turrella [the next station along] is only $3."

The 10-kilometre rail link went into receivership six months after it opened in May 2000, and in March last year Westpac bought a 49 per cent share. Capital Partners has 51 per cent.

Since the buyout, patronage has been steadily climbing, bolstered mainly by interstate and overseas visitors.

"The time of operation for services does not adequately link to the times when many Sydney Airport workers need to travel to work," the paper said. "The train carriages are not well designed for passengers who, at times, have large amounts of baggage."

The chief executive officer of Airport Rail Link, John Wilson, yesterday said there was "ample capacity" and frequency of services to cater to air travellers.

He dismissed criticism of the train ticket prices, citing climbing patronage figures. He said the airport was not comparing apples with apples because the price of a ticket to CityRail stations was subsidised in a way the airport stations were not.

"Our fares are very competitive with any of the alternative means of transportation to and from the airport," he said.

"For example, they compare very favourably with the cost of car parking at the airport."

Andrew Heslop, a spokesman for the Transport Minister, John Watkins, said the airport was well served by both the train and seven "high-frequency bus routes".

"The payment of a station access fee in addition to the CityRail fare was agreed by the former Liberal government who decided the stations on this commuter line should be privately operated."

[Joe Frampton]

My initial post was for the actual news thread. Now here's my opinion:
This just makes me laugh. Sydney Airport have got a hide coming out with that - with the price they charge for parking. How dare they question the price of public transport? My God, it's absolutely unashamed impudence and nothing less. Shame on Sydney Airport.

[Sarah C]

I'm with Joe. At first reading, I agree with the entire article but then I remembered that the airport overcharges for everything themselves so pointing the finger at a privately run Airport link is a bit rich.

[Michael Morrison]

Living in the CBD I find it cheaper if myself & partner get a cab than taking the train.

That is not right.

The train should be cheaper than a taxi!

[damien b]

For CBD travellers it may be more expensive, but for those who live out west, the train is certainly much cheaper. My taxi fare to the train station (only 8km away) cost more than my train ticket to the domestic terminal a few weeks ago. When Macquarie drop the car parking fees (which is a major deterent to parking at the airport and thus getting the train)then they can complain about the train fares.

Actually i would have thought they'd prefer expensive train tickets as that means more taxi's using the airport and more revenue from the taxis.

I think having a train every 10-15 minutes is pretty good considering that the line is not just an airport line but one that serves East Hills and Campletown. Macquarie could always run their own dedicated train service and charge a mint for it - as i am sure they would, and not allow city rail to operate trains on the line.

I use the line every day and the morning and afternoon peaks are certainly busy, but there is room for airport passengers and their luggage.

[NickN]

the airport claimed the privately owned Airport Rail Link was too expensive

Holy sweet baby Jesus!

If there was ever a perfect example of the pot calling the kettle black there it is right there!

Thats the equivalent of the King claiming Robin Hood has more money than he does! Pathetic. Who at Macquarie came up with that load of tripe?

[John Thoroughgood]

Hallelujah Nick! Couldn't have said it better.
It seems that one, already named company, must believe they have sole rights to the legalised extortion being practised on airport commuters.

[Nigel C]

It would make sense to have the trains running frequently enough, and cheap enough for airport workers to utilise. I'm sure it'd get good patronage if the citywide service matched the demand times for the airport workers.
Unfortunately the Cityrail network doesn't cater to shift workers at the best of times.

[Philip Argy]

Holy sweet baby Jesus!



You've been spending too much time around WYD, Nick!

[Andy N]

If I don't have much luggage, I definitely try and get the bus from Bondi Junction to the Airport. Even though it seems to take aaaaages, it's ridiculously cheap compared to the other options.

As for the train, it's overpriced and best avoided in my opinion. If I have a fair bit of luggage, it's cheaper and easier to get a taxi. In any case, if they chopped the prices of a train ticket, I doubt the service would be able to cope with an increase of airport travellers and the other users.

[Rhys Xanthis]

I must admit when i went to Sydney a few years ago and took the train for the first time from the airport, i was very surprised it was part of a regular urban service route.

I would have thought sufficient demand existed to have its own line running to the airport?

[NickN]

I believe the cityrail airport link is worth the price. I have used it many times and the convenience and simplicity and direct access to the domestic departures area was great. I understand the prices might be steep for workers there who do it every day but for the traveler the convenience is good.

I'd rather CityRail get my money than Macquarie.

[Andy N]

I believe the cityrail airport link is worth the price. I have used it many times and the convenience and simplicity and direct access to the domestic departures area was great. I understand the prices might be steep for workers there who do it every day but for the traveler the convenience is good.

I'd rather CityRail get my money than Macquarie.

Isn't the reason the prices are so steep because it's not run/subsidised by Cityrail or the government? I suppose you might not be paying Macquarie for it but you are still giving money to some corporation who are sucking people dry.

[Robert Zweck]

How is that the Car Park charges at Sydney are about 3 times that of Adelaide?


e.g. Off the top of my head, it's $70 for 7 days in the Adelaide Long Term park.



Do you Sydney guys feel you are being " fleeced "?

[Ash W]

I must admit when i went to Sydney a few years ago and took the train for the first time from the airport, i was very surprised it was part of a regular urban service route.

I would have thought sufficient demand existed to have its own line running to the airport?

You will find the airport link wasn't build to specificaly serve the airport. Apparently the main reason a line was built was to overcome capacity problems on the line from Redfern to Sydneham. The line going through the airport was a bonus.

As for the operation of the line, the line is operated by City Rail. The stations (and this inlcudes Mascot and Green Square) are operated by the private company. Cityrail get's their fare, the company gets the premium they charge for using their stations. Wolli Creek is City Rail owned and operated so has no premium.

In an ideal world I reckon what they should have done is have two seperate pairs of platforms at International and Domestic. One set of platforms to serve a dedicated premium cost airport train, with provision for baggage, alla London's Heathrow Express and the normal City rail platforms for other traffic, alla London's Picadilly tube line. The only problem is though who would then want to pay the premium fare to use the express when the normal line isn't much slower and most people would then have to change to a normal line at central anyway.

[Nigel C]

I'd rather CityRail get my money than Macquarie.

If the State Govt here in NSW continues down the current path of wanting to sell off public assets, then I've got no doubt the CityRail network would be in those plans somewhere.

If it was, Macquarie might just be a tender for it. Then they'd have you covered everywhere you go in the City from tollways to taxis to the airport itself.

[damien b]

You will find the airport link wasn't build to specificaly serve the airport. Apparently the main reason a line was built was to overcome capacity problems on the line from Redfern to Sydneham. The line going through the airport was a bonus.


I always believed that the Airport Link was built for the Olympics to assist with what was a poor public transport link between the city and the airport. They tied the link in with the Eastern Hills/Glenfield line to allow City Rail to run normal trains and not dedicated airport trains. It was just finished before the Olympics in 2000.

The increase in fares for the four stations are as already mentioned due to Airport Link owning the stations and not city rail. Airport Link charges you a fare to use the station, that is added onto the train ticket. They have also made it so that you can not buy a ticket to say Wolli Creek and get off at International, (which is a cheaper option) by ensuring that your ticket will not work at the gates, unless you buy a ticket to international for example.

[Ash W]

I always believed that the Airport Link was built for the Olympics to assist with what was a poor public transport link between the city and the airport. They tied the link in with the Eastern Hills/Glenfield line to allow City Rail to run normal trains and not dedicated airport trains. It was just finished before the Olympics in 2000.

The increase in fares for the four stations are as already mentioned due to Airport Link owning the stations and not city rail. Airport Link charges you a fare to use the station, that is added onto the train ticket. They have also made it so that you can not buy a ticket to say Wolli Creek and get off at International, (which is a cheaper option) by ensuring that your ticket will not work at the gates, unless you buy a ticket to international for example.

The timming may have been adjusted to co-incide with the Olympics but it was not the driver. As I said it was to releive congestion from Redfern to Sydenham and had been on the drawing boards for many years, indeed one plan would have had the line using the existing goods line past the airport and the other plan was to make Sydneham to Redfern 6 tracks as had always been planned. Oddly it has been a while since I have been to Sydney but I beleive they are now building a 5th and maybe 6th track between Sydneham and Redfern as part of the clearways project.

As for poor transport, it didn't seem too bad before. Traffic was ok and there were dedicated airport buses. I think the link and the removal of the buses was a backwards step for PT to the airport, but overall has done nothing.

[Grant Smith]

taxis to the airport itself.

Macquarie sold their share in that "Apple Taxis" company... Not making money...

[Nigel C]

Thanks for the clarification.
:D

[NickN]

Unfortunately Macquarie is an investment bank and as with most investment banks their assets are run to return a profit plus pay the cost of borrowing the funds in the first place. However, I think Macquarie have gone above and beyond that.

[D Chan]

Quoted from www.smh.com.au, 17 July...
"For example, it is expensive for many passengers and their families, with the private operators charging $13.80 for passengers to travel to or from the CBD. By way of comparison, the fare for the longer trip from the CBD to Turrella [the next station along] is only $3."

I agree with the prices of tickets. They could certainly lower them and get a lot more passengers using these stations. Mind you the train's quite quick to the city from the airport only 3 stops to Central - it should be faster than the cabs? If the train ticket prices are cheaper they would grab a lot more business from the cab drivers.

"For example, they compare very favourably with the cost of car parking at the airport."
Ha... Gotta love this one :p take this SACL! :D

"The train carriages are not well designed for passengers who, at times, have large amounts of baggage."

I can't agree with this one. The trains are actually pretty good because there are often seats next to the doors and ample area for baggages. I mean... are the buses any better designed for passengers with large amounts of baggage? :rolleyes: Really.... :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Also, a general observation, the trains on the green line I catch from Mascot are often quite dirty, heavily graffitied and they smell (must be the chemical they use to clean), although the trains on the red line don't seem anywhere near as bad.

[Ash W]

I was reading a travelllers mag whilst I was waiting for my flight in Moscow today. It rated Sydney's rail link as number 3 in the world, yes number 3. I nearly fell off my chair when I read that. I did when I read that number 10 is the rail link to Bangkok airport, which isn't even going to open for another 12-18 months.

Number 1 was London City airport, cannot recall what 2 was.