THERE is no dispute that the business community, and of course, residents of Greater Western Sydney, are eagerly awaiting the opening of Sydney’s second airport, the Nancy Bird Walton International Airport (NBWIA)at Badgery’s Creek in Sydney’s Greater West.

It was a relief for all that a decision was finally made, and all got in behind expediting its construction and opening.

The airport, aside from relieving pressure on Sydney Airport, will create thousands of jobs in Western Sydney, certainly during construction, but unlike the mining construction boom in WA, it will lead to thousands of new jobs and opportunities well into the future. Already businesses are well on the way to establish opportunities within the precinct of the new city of Bradfield. Bradfield being named after John Bradfield an engineer for the NSW Department of Public Works who oversaw the design and construction of significant public works in the early 20th century.

Western Sydney people will have a choice of work opportunities closer to home, and that will help with traffic congestion heading south. CAWS (Chamber Alliance of Western Sydney), is pleased to see the project on track to open by 2026 which when this first phase is finished will effectively see 50 per cent of runways and 25 per cent of terminal buildings of the ultimate design completed.

We’ve come a long way from the days, back in the 90’s, when Parramatta, Penrith, Liverpool and to a lesser extent, Blacktown Councils and Business Groups were working vying against each other for the status of being the second Sydney CBD! - and then out of nowhere suddenly North Sydney was declared that second CBD!

Now we are talking about Bradfield, the city around the airport, with connections to Liverpool and Penrith with links out to Parramatta and other parts of Western Sydney. What we need is a holistic approach, and have everyone working together for the betterment of all the various business centres within Western Sydney. This will produce that greatest benefit of all; much like seeing the total value being greater than the simple sum of its parts.

However, from a CAWS perspective, we are disappointed that the Metro servicing the airport is disjointed. The plan is that it will to run from Bradfield to St Marys, but not continue on to Tullawong. Thus, much of north Western Sydney will be denied speedy access to the airport. Those people will have to bus it or cab it form Tullawong to St Mary’s, or alas … drive straight from home to the NBWIA
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Gaps in transport links like this hark back to the stupidity of the different train gauges we have between States. The Metro all the way to Tullawong now, and then be extended on to connect with Liverpool and then ultimately to Bankstown to complete the loop.

What will happen is that it will be too much and people will just drive to the airport, and what Western Sydney needs is less cars on major roads, particularly during peak hours, which on the M$ and M& can start at 5 am.

While there is still land, about 20 acres, before the airport is at its final stage, there will be plenty of parking, but this should not be used to promote the use of private cars as the primary means of transport to Bradfield and the NBWIA. Everyone is focussed on the airport without thinking much about the missing Metro link.

CAWS, does however applaud the development the road planning that is underway, and the status of what has been done so far. We do trust however that these roads will not be subjected to tolls, because the future of Western Sydney could well end up buried under the shear cost to simply move around it, … but that’s a story for another day!

By Schon G Condon RFD, President - CAWS.