It could be a case of 'build it and just hope they don't come.' A bold and courageous infrastructure upgrade that might allow travellers to save hundreds of dollars by just walking or cycling right up to the terminal entry points at Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport has authorities smiling through gritted teeth and apparently praying people just won't notice it. In what must rate as the most paradoxical announcement of the year from NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen, a swag of new "active transport" features that are part of the massive new $2.
6 billion Sydney Gateway project are being promoted as a great win for airport workers and plane spotters. But not so much for travellers. Haylen on Wednesday released details of a new "network of walking and cycling links around the airport, providing critical and direct connections for the 30,000 workers in the airport precinct, and commuters walking, running and riding through to nearby suburbs.
" "These new links will give people a safe way to walk and cycle around the airport precinct," Haylen said, deftly avoiding any suggestion or inference one might be able to actually walk, cycle or take one of the thousands of e-bikes dumped around the city by Uber spin-off Lime to catch a flight. "These beautiful new paths also include plenty of new places for people to pause and watch the planes fly in and out. It's a great new link and a true plane spotter's boulevard," Haylen continued.
"While I doubt we'll see a cavalcade of travellers lugging their suitcases on foot or on bikes to the airport anytime soon, these new paths will provide a valuable active transport option for the thousands of people who work at the airport every day," Haylen said. Or hopes. It's a heroic call if ever there was one.
Surely if airport workers can get there cheaply, so can everyday people. Because let's face it, airport workers are very everyday people. While the Sydney Gateway project was commissioned and designed well and truly before.
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