RE: Re: Illawarra Airport - was Airport West
  prescottt

It's Albion Park Station I'm referring to and the airport is called Illawarra Regional Airport. It's about a 500 metre walk, about the same as from Essendon terminal to the tram stop. Thoughtless (i.e. lack of) planning has conspired to thwart the walk in the vertical dimension in one case and in the horizontal dimension in the other. Never mind, you can always use your own private car or a taxi.

This reminds me that last time we landed in Perth off a late evening flight we got all the way along the 26 km to Fremantle by Transperth buses (including a 5 minute transfer at Victoria Park transfer station) in only 10 minutes more than it takes by taxi and, for me, for free compared to over $60 by taxi! The buses were really flying along. Public transport options really aren't considered very well in airport planning in Australia. Perth Airport is getting a train station in a couple of years or so.

On a related subject, I've previously provided a list of world tram systems by intensity of use (passengers per route km). I came across a similar calculation for Australian suburban rail systems today that shows that the most intensely-used rail system is, surprise surprise, Perth (over 1,000 passengers per km per day), followed closely by Sydney. Like with the trams, Melbourne is disadvantaged in the calculation by the huge length of its rail system and sits at around 730 passsengers per km per day. Adelaide and Brisbane are down inthe 200s, Adelaide because its patronage is small, Brisbane because of the system length.

Tony P

---InTramsDownUnder@..., <hunslet@...> wrote :

I wouldn’t want to walk from Shellharbour (Junction) to what Tony has called Illawarra Airport, but which I know as Albion Park Airport. The airport just about abuts the South Coast Railway at Albion Park station – the end of one runway is the other side of the Princes Highway which passes through the township of Albion Park Rail paralleling the railway. It is a walk of several hundred metres to the main entrance to the Airport – one which plane enthusiasts undertake each year for the “Wings over the Illawarra” show.
Hunslet.