Re: [NSW, Ci-tyra-il] Airport Link

["Bill McNiven" <wmcniven@gunzel.ozemail.com.au>]

ROY HOWARTH wrote in message <8gggso$en4$1@bugstomper.ihug.com.au>...
>The main purpose of building the AirportLink was to relieve congestion on
>the Redfern - Sydenham corridor. The fact that the line travels thru the
>Airport was a means of killing two birds with one stone.


Oops!

The City Outer and Illawarra Local carried at peak times, in the last
timetable, 16 trains/hour.  Changing this to 18 trains/hour on the City
Outer, then sending  8 of the trains via the Airport, doesn't do anything
for congestion.

I think that the main political purpose of building the Airport Link was to
demonstrate that anything Atlanta can do, Sydney can do better.  Doing
better than MARTA in Atlanta isn't hard, but it hasn't been achieved.

Somewhere between the "great idea" and implementation, things that have been
forgotten include
*    usually, if you build a railway line, you build rolling stock too
*    usually, if you build a railway line to connect with an airport, you
provide some accommodation for airport-style luggage.

OK, I know there are substandard exceptions like the Boston "Blue Line" (but
then most of it was built as the Maverick streetcar tunnel almost before
airplanes were invented) and like the Baltimore Light Rail (which still gets
to the CBD quicker and cheaper than a cab).

The problem is that a series of political administrations of various parties
have rubber-stamped design decisions without anybody asking "will this
work"?

Rgds