There is much talk about the need for a
second airport in Sydney. I understand there is a debate between a second
airport for Sydney or a high-speed train linking Sydney to Melbourne. I have
also heard that Sydney’s second airport should be located in Canberra and a
high-speed train linking Sydney and the second airport. I was actually
surprised that Canberra doesn’t have an airport! The capital territory of
Australia does not have an airport! Even Richard Branson, the CEO of Virgin
Airlines got on his soapbox explaining that Sydney will lose its global city
status if it does not build a second airport.
Obviously, it is good for business if
Virgin could put more flights in the air from a second airport. The whole
high-speed train to Melbourne argument doesn’t seem a feasible second option.
The cost and infrastructure for it will be tremendous! And I remember hearing
once that a vehicle produces less emissions to carry one passenger than the
emissions from a high-speed train run on coal does per passenger to travel the
same distance. Although, train infrastructure may have better chances for
long-term success when one considers the cost of oil and its eventual
extinction.
Then comes the question of how long-term
sustainable Sydney’s second airport will be? With the costs of airplane fuel in
the next decade, will people continue to fly? What other options do they have?
Even with telecommunications these days, millions of people still fly to do
business, travel or visit family. In terms of Sydney’s long-term success as
world/global city, the airport is hugely important right now.
Now where to locate the new airport?
Canberra? Well Canberra needs an airport, that’s not a question. However,
Canberra is a long drive from Sydney for those landing in Canberra, trying to
get to Sydney for a 2-day business trip. I don’t think this is a realistic
option. Apparently the Newcastle airport has a landing strip long enough for a
space shuttle (says a friend from there – from Newcastle, not from space…
Haha). Because of Sydney’s location on the harbour, there is no readily
available space to just mow-over the land and throw down a few landing strips
for an airport worthy of competing with the biggest in the world. Could they
build the airport on a fabricated island like Tokyo did? Imagine the expense?
Ha, the Australian government would have to be taken over by a dictator before
that would ever happen. Then what? Take a page from the book of 1960s
engineers-turned-planners and bulldoze entire neighbourhoods to build an
airport (this time, instead of mega free-ways).
Actually, if you think about it. Today’s
airports are like the massive freeways in the 1960s. Airports today symbolize
the most important form of transportation and billions of dollars are poured
into them across the world. Freeways were essential for connecting people with
business in the 1960s; airports are essential for connecting people across the
world today. A second airport in Sydney is essential to ensuring continued
foreign investment and growth, which is in turn essential to Australia’s
greater economy. Wow, that connection just came to me. I am starting to see the
benefits of this type of class assignment. It really helps you work through the
ideas rolling around in your head.
So let us learn from history (as the
over-used cliché says) and not do what transportation planners did in the
1960s; address the second airport debate with a solid understanding of the
Sydney’s needs, and make a sustainable choice.
Here is a link to an article:
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