Sydney International definitely needs serious upgrading if it wants tobstay ahead of the demand. But if the rail link is installed and Canberra airport is upgraded, that would be at a massive cost. Not sure if the government could afford to do all this at once. And with the estimates at 20 years before Sydney hits maximum capacity, there isn't a lot of time left to be tossing these ideas back and forth.

Compared to every other major international airport, Sydney is definitely lagging behind in terms of standard and efficiency. The number of delays I've experienced while checking in or claiming my luggage is ridiculous! However, Canberra airport in its current state is definitely not going to be able to cope, so some serious upgrading will be required there.

If it is possible, why not expand Sydney airport the same way Singapore did, by filling the water with sand and extending the land? I know it would be expensive, but the cost for the train link is already set at $53 billion. Surely it won't be as expensive as that?

There is no way that Sydney could get a second airport for any cheaper than the rail link plan. Think about it, if it costs $59 bil for a rail line, it must costs stacks more for a new airport or filling in Botany Bay with sand. I reckon Canberra is a good option. But they better bloody do it, not like all this nonsense with city rail and their expansion that continues to be put off. Why can't the government just commit to a single plan?

Lol, the government only wants to make people believe it is making progress for the good of the people, but after the election, everything mysteriously falls through! Of course, the reality is that they commit to too many projects at once and then either realise they don't have the resources to maintain all of them, or like the CityRail debaucle, they plan it so poorly that every problem is patched with a solution that leads to an even bigger problem!

Would be nice to have a rail link to Canberra which would seriously cut down on travel time. Sure you can fly down in around the same time, but then you have to consider getting to the airport can be more problematic than getting to the train station.

Currently, by train it takes around 4+ hours from Sydney to Canberra. Driving makes it 3 hours, but the traffic conditions can change that. 50 minutes is very attractive for people wishing to spend time away for a day or do business. Hopefully if it all comes together (doubts there), travelling this way won't be too expensive (more doubts there considering CityRail keeps jacking up ticket prices while failing to improve the service delays).

It takes about 2.5 - 3 hours from where I live to drive to Canberra, which generally means leaving Friday afternoon and coming back late Sunday night when we go to visit our relatives.

Considering I haven't actually seen either of my baby cousins in the five years or so they've been around, mainly due to the fact that I work Saturdays, and can't get down to Canberra easily, something like this would be wonderful.

I also think it would help Canberra airport on the International scale. If you've ever had to wait for a changeover in planes or change to a whole new air service, you'll know that you can be waiting anywhere from 20 minutes to hours and hours (we had to wait 4 hours once at Bangkok airport).

With those waiting times, it becomes immediately feasible that you could catch a train to another airport and then board a new flight there. It would probably ease up the amount of flights coming in and out of Sydney, because you could possibly catch a local flight out of Canberra.

Of course, that would be kind of complicated, and dealing with airports and train stations in general is hard enough as it is so it would have to be REALLY streamlined to work.

That's ignoring all the costs associated with organising two airports to synchronise together