With a fast paced central business district (by Australian
standards), sprawling suburbs, and beautiful beaches, Sydney has something for
everyone. Unfortunately for “Everyone”
getting around Sydney is the biggest pain in the ass I have ever seen.
Sydney Australia is home to the worst transportation system
in the world. People can get around
quicker and easier on rickshaws in Vietnam compared to the robust
transportation “Infrastructure” Sydney claims to have.
I decided to break the laundry lists of issues down by the
mode of transportation to make this a manageable task for me.
Automobiles
Buses – My morning commute consists of catching a bus, it is
a 5-7 minute ride but the waiting for the bus to come can last anywhere from 2-20
minutes even though I get to the bus stop at the same exact time every
day. What I find completely laughable is
that I can wait for 15 minutes and then 3 busses driving the same route will
come down the street one behind the other.
The Aussie’s responsible for transportation haven’t figured out that if
you stagger the busses at 5 minute intervals the level of service will increase
and the passenger experience will be much better.
Cars – Driving a car in Sydney is laughable, traffic jams
here there and everywhere crush any hopes of getting anywhere fast. The roads are narrow, parking is basically
non-existent and costs a fortune, and the amount of roundabouts you encounter
is ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong,
roundabouts had their time and place when Henry Ford invented the model T.
Trains
Australia is known as The Sun Burnt Country, temperatures
can easily reach 35-40 degrees Celsius (95-100+ Fahrenheit) during the summer
months and the geniuses behind Sydney’s transportation didn’t bother to include
air conditioning on trains. Australians
think air conditioning is opening the windows on the train and letting hot air
swirl around the jam packed passengers.
Now Aussie’s will chime and say that the new trains have AC but I would
liken the AC on the “New” trains to a dog panting on you. A battery operated fan would be an
improvement from the air conditioning the trains have. Air conditioning isn’t the only issue,
overcrowding on trains is the worst I have ever seen. The Aussie government released a report
stating that Sydney’s commuter trains were at 125% of capacity and they plan on
adding more trains by 2016… Wow, that’s the
response from the government!
Anne Frank would rather ride the trains in Germany in the
1940’s than step foot on a Sydney commuter train.
Airports
London
Fancy a spot of tea
and making ridiculous faces at the guards in front of the Buckingham Palace,
and having the potential to riot with some the finest of England’s youth then
London is your spot.
If you are flying in or out of London you will have five
airports to choose from including London Heathrow, London Stansted, London
Gatwick, London Luton and London City.
Seems like London has a lot of options for travellers to choose from!
New York City
If you want to catch a
Yankees game, a horse drawn carriage ride through Central Park, have hot dog
from a street vendor, and get mugged then NYC is your place!
When flying to and from New York City you have some options
when it comes to airports, the three major airports are John F. Kennedy (JFK),
Newark, and LaGuardia. There are also
three regional airports to choose from as well including Teterboro which sits
about 10 miles west of Manhattan, Macarthur which is on Long Island, and
Westchester County Airport which is just north of New York City.
Los Angeles
Does rubbing elbows
with the rich and famous excite you, can you see yourself on Hollywood
boulevard, do you want to try and OD yourself at the Viper Room, then a trip to
LA is in the cards.
When people think about LA they think about the vaunted LAX (Los
Angeles International Airport) which is one of two international airports that
service Los Angeles the other option for international travellers is LA/Ontario International Airport which has absolutely nothing to do with Canada, the airport grounds sit on
Ontario California city property.
Domestic travellers traipsing in, out, and through LA have 5 options
including Bob Hope Airport (formerly Burbank), John Wayne Airport, Long Beach
Airport, LA/Palmdale Regional Airport, and Palm Springs Airport
Moscow
If a shot of vodka, a
picture in front of the Kremlin and some good Ol fashioned communism is your
game then you have the luxury of choice when it comes to flying in and out of
Moscow.
Three major airports service Moscow and travellers can
choose between Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, and Vnukovo.
Sydney
If you ever had the
desire to box a Kangaroo, eat and drink at the world’s most overpriced
restaurants and bars, and whinge about the quality of the coffee not being up
to your standards than book your flights to Sydney today!
Close to half of all flights that take off or land in
Australia have Sydney as an origination point or destination point, 35 ½
million people flew in or out of Sydney last year alone. Whether you are an international traveller
and the idea of a trip down under gets you up in the morning or you are a
businessman from Melbourne that needs to pop into Sydney for a power lunch you
will have absolutely zero options!
Sydney only has one airport… And no, I don’t count Bankstown Airport as a
real option for Sydney as every Aussie I spoke to either has never been there
or said “It’s not a real airport”.
I bet the Wright
brothers are fucking rolling over in their graves right now knowing that their
inventions and pioneering ways have been used to torture 35 ½ million domestic
and international travellers annually in Australia’s most well-known city. I have heard talks about a second airport
being built in Sydney’s western suburbs to alleviate the massive congestion but
there is a ton of opposition from Sydneysider which is puzzling to me. What kills me about this is after I did a
little digging I found out that government officials have been talking about
the NEED for a second airport in Sydney since the 1940’s!
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