This is based on my personal experience in Sydney couple of weeks ago in the month of April. With 4.5 million population, Sydney is the most happening place in the entire Australasia. I love sydney. I can’t help but fall in love with this city every time I visit there. The city has vibe like no other places, even when compared with its nearest cousin Melbourne. I’m sorry, though I’m an Aucklander and it may boast itself as “the world’s most liveable city”, it comes nowhere near Sydney in almost all areas of urban vibes. Comparing Sydney and Auckland are doing that between apple and oranges. Melbourne has its own identity but Sydney is “the” cosmopolitan city to be among the Aussie urban aggregations.
Sydney’s transportation system is one of the most sophisticated in this part of the world. Residing in Auckland, Sydney’s train system is something I envy with great sense of resentment towards the slack mass transport policies of Auckland. During the three days of my stay in Sydney, things were going fantastic until 2.9 days. Things went horribly wrong in the final few hours.
Downtown Sydney just after dusk
The morning of Monday 29 April was the first day after school holidays, but that should not be a reason for Sydney’s train and airport systems to crap out. To catch a flight to Auckland in the late morning, I was at Revesby Train station before 7:45 AM. After purchasing my one-way ticket to the airport, I headed towards the platform. Until then, I had not realised the PA announcement at the station that the train system had some signal failure issues and that many services had been cancelled or delayed. A train that had been delayed by an hour or so arrived but it even didn’t stop as it was too full. Checking frantically on website for train timetable, following the announcements being made in the PA system at the station, and upon re-checking with my friend, I decided to catch a cab just before 8AM from Revesby Station.
I got out of the station and looked for a cab. Unfortunately, in panic mode of looking for a cab, I happened to walk towards Marco Ave that is located to the north of the station, which is on the other side of the railway track from Coles, where my friend suggested me to find a cab. Once I realised this, I decided to head towards Coles across the station. Luckily, there was a train in the platform waiting to leave, and it was stopping at the airport. I made it to the train just before it took off but only after rushing, pushing and shoving other passengers. Phew, on train finally just after 8AM. Never mind my luggage and difficulty to stand straight. But it was an All Station train and the trip to the Sydney International Airport Station from Revesby Station took about than 30 minutes. At a number of stations, passengers could not board the train as it was already running beyond full capacity.
The envious mass transit network of Sydney. www.railmaps.com.au
Finally, I made it to the airline check in counter prior to two hours of my flight. The que at check in was very long but I was aware that is normal for Sydney International Airport. Things got even more interesting after check in. As I headed to Customs from check in desk, the que to get into the Customs was a snaking line from the furthest check in counter to the Customs gate, wrapped around nicely but twice. It must be a good more than a kilometer of line. You can imagine my situation because there was less than an hour left before the flight. By then I had already given up any hope of making it to the boarding gate on time. The good thing was this kilometer long que was moving.
30 minutes prior to the flight, I made it to the x-ray station. I passed through this capsule where they make you stand on two yellow footprints and the machine circumnavigates you. I could not help but think of the planet Saturn with its rings and the image of an electron whizzing around nucleus of an atom as I stood there in the middle of this machine and it made all those mechanical sounds. A rude (yes, he was rude. No manners; no etiquette. He seemed to be of South Asian origin) staff pointed me to the screen located to the left of the capsule and rudely said I failed the inspection. He goes, “are you wearing a boot”. “Yes, of course”, I said. “Go back, take off your shoes, put it in the tray and pass through the machine again”. On this side of the Tasman we are used to hearing two magic words - “please” and “thank you”. No, not in Sydney International Airport. It felt like the place was too busy, and as if those unproductive simple words of courtesy maybe got sucked out of the frantic and panic ambience that hangs in the air all the time inside the terminals. Second time through the high tech x-ray machine, I passed the security test but it meant I lost 5 more minutes. I was literally running towards my gate by then.
Chaos at Sydney International Airport in the morning of 29 April 2019. www.9news.com.au
Once at the boarding gate, there was even more frantic chaos. The staff were operating like headless chicken, including the passengers. Murphy’s law, “whatever can go wrong, will go wrong” is amazing. Even more astounding is that it will go wrong at the wrong moment. Somebody spilled their salad at the bottom of the escalator leading to the gate to the aircraft. This is not your few pieces of onion and leaves but a big pile of shit scattered all over. You had to dodge those litter on the floor over the metal parts of the escalator. Could have easily been a case of serious health and safety incident if anyone slipped over it.
After successfully circumnavigating the horticultural mayhem in the form of the spilled salad, I finally got to the level of the terminal leading towards the Passenger Boarding Bridge. Thing were still continuing to go downhill in terms of customer service. One staff shouted to call passengers of our flight and asked us to proceed to our craft. No PA announcement but on the top of their lungs. Immediately, a few seconds later another guy ordered (not asked, but rudely told us off) us to stop, and instead called passengers from another flight. Within matter of moments, we were again told off to board our craft. Finally, I got to my seat in the aircraft.
After the safety demonstration, the pilot announced that the engineers identified a problem and that he needs to shut the engines off. You can imagine the sigh and grunts in the airplane from the already annoyed passengers. Luckily, it was announced after about 10 minutes that the engineers gave the craft green light. We did not have to get off the plane and we were good to fly. “Once engine shuts down and restarted, the safety demonstration has to be repeated”, the pilot announced. The poor flight attendants, who were by then red as a ripe strawberry presumably due to having to manage the chaos on board, had to do the boring safety demonstration once again. There was no enthusiasm or any life, by any standards, in that second round of safety demonstration. I wasn’t watching; I was busy fiddling with my phone notifying my friend and family in Auckland that my flight was delayed.
Why am I reciting this typical “first world problem”? Here is why. The “Regional NSW Services and Infrastructure Plan” as part of “Vision for 2056” states that “our vision for regional NSW is a safe, efficient and reliable network of transport services and infrastructure that recognises and reinforces the vital role of …”. On that couple of hours in the morning of 22 April, the transport network in the heart of Sydney was neither reliable nor efficient. The train system gave up (to their credit, they offered solution by offering additional services) and there was apparently system breakdown at the airport that was affecting the Customs checking and clearance. Now, if this was a Third World airport not big deal. But Sydney International, Hello?
Now, here comes my judgemental and highly opinionated statements as an urban planner. Once again, I love Sydney. The Local Government and the NSW government seem to be getting many things right in the city in urban and transport planning matters. But it seems like the city is choking in its own success and the unprecedented amount of growth. Without even having the benefit of referring to the official numbers, it is obvious that Greater Sydney must be one of the fastest sprawling cities in the world. High density living is being promoted but it obviously is not dense enough as, anecdotally, new low-rise suburbs are mushrooming on the edge of the town everywhere in all directions around the fringes. 40 local governments (councils) within a region of that size sounds far too many and fragmented.
www.theconversation.com
Greater Sydney is already a great place. It has got all the fancy planning strategies and plans printed in those glossy papers and uploaded in those sleek looking websites. It could be even greater if Sydney could fix those niggling small matters, that at the end of the day, really matters. I wish to see a seamless transition from train station to airport on my next visit to Sydney. Is that a big ask?
*****
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