COM: Adelaide Airport Carpark & Pedestrian Plaza

[Ho Really]

Going to look worldclass! Cant think of a nicer way to enter into a Capital City. Those visiting and locals alike will really be impressed.

I agree, it looks very good now. But maybe visitors will be less impressed when they try to find some public transport into the city. And the airport won't truly be worldclass as long as there's a curfew and until there is an airport hotel close to it. Still, compared to what it was 10 years ago it's fantastic progress.

The curfew doesn't matter that much. We're not Sydney where it's embarrassing. Public transport is much more important and a light rail system would do the trick. The hotel would be nice too, but it isn't a prerequisite. We've got hotels that aren't that far from the airport at Glenelg and in the city. However it would be a bonus, but it needs to be linked with good public transport. Not everyone will go by cab or limousine.

Anyhow, the car park looks great. It's better than T1! Good work Adelaide Airport. I hope you keep winning accolades, you deserve it.

Cheers

[Maximus]

The curfew doesn't matter that much. We're not Sydney where it's embarrassing. Public transport is much more important and a light rail system would do the trick. The hotel would be nice too, but it isn't a prerequisite. We've got hotels that aren't that far from the airport at Glenelg and in the city. However it would be a bonus, but it needs to be linked with good public transport. Not everyone will go by cab or limousine.

Anyhow, the car park looks great. It's better than T1! Good work Adelaide Airport. I hope you keep winning accolades, you deserve it.

Cheers

+1 to all this, Ho. It's more about the nature of the curfew. Heathrow, e.g., has a curfew, but it works on a bit more of a market-based system, rather than a blanket ban. There are financial incentives for airlines to use quieter aircraft at Heathrow during the night. If we must have curfews in Australia, then something like that would be much better IMHO.

Anyhoo, I'm looking forward to getting my first look at this tonight when I fly in for the weekend.

[serca]

More public transport is a great idea. Can you imagine what a light rail system or the likes would do to the already struggling taxi industry here in Adelaide

[Norman]

How is the taxi industry 'struggling'? They are putting on extra cabs over the next few weeks already

[Adelarch]

I fly in Christmas Day, can't wait to see this. Hope it's near completion by then.

+1
I'll be flying in soon and can't wait to see how it looks. Just hope the plaza landscape will be complete by then

[Eurostar]

The bus stop has been moved out into the elements, I'd hate to be waiting for a bus to the City or Glenelg on a hot day

[Maximus]

Some nice pics of progress with the plaza in the latest Adelaide Airport update.

[Nathan]

Had to use the new carpark yesterday, and it was a breeze. The parking indicators and counters made finding a spot much easier than the old open-air parking. The plaza, as shown in that update, was coming along nicely.

Exiting the airport was more of a task though, traffic from the lights on Sir Donald Bradman Dr were backed up well past the roundabout, and there were people off-roading it along the median strip... (It was a bit disconcerting to discover a car in my right side blind spot, when I was in the far right lane...)

[rogue]

What happens to the elevated road once the plaza is complete?

[SAR526]

Having had occasion to use the Metro bus access to the airport several times during the past few weeks, I must protest at the obvious bias against airport patrons who use public transport by choice or necessity.

The bus stop is as far away from the terminal as it is physically possible to make it, and (like its predecessor for many years) was without shelter or even seating when I first visited last month. Now it has a very nondescript shelter at odds with the rest of the precinct, but does at least have seating and a ticket machine. Access, though, is still by a route march past setting down/pick up areas for private cars and an integrated bus stop for other than Metro services. Then follows a section going around three sides of a square over open tarmac, without even ramps to accommodate wheel-chairs and wheeled luggage, to get to a separate platform and the bus stop.

All buses pass right through the car park access road under shelter. Why cannot Metro buses stop opposite, or close to, the lifts and the lower walkway from the terminal instead of going a further hundred metres or so? Luggage laden passengers can easily watch the only available bus for up to an hour pass them and leave before they have a hope of reaching it.

If Paris and Chicago and many other cities can have public transport at the terminal door, why can't Adelaide?

[Maximus]

SAR, I suggest you wait until the plaza/car park redevelopment is fully complete before making a final assessment of the public transport arrangements. There have a been a lot of temporary arrangements in place during construction and some of us have been embarrassed before in making premature comments about the new design. (Not me, of course... ) With regard to proximity to the terminal, Australian airports are now beginning to work towards arrangements that take vehicles away from the immediate vicinity of the terminal so as to minimise the risk from car bombs and the like.

Rogue, I don't believe there's been any specific reference to the future of the elevated road, apart from a vague statement in the major development plan noting that "provision in the form of a spatial corridor has been made for the development of light passenger rail to the front of T1 in the future".

[Nort]

SAR, I suggest you wait until the plaza/car park redevelopment is fully complete before making a final assessment of the public transport arrangements. There have a been a lot of temporary arrangements in place during construction and some of us have been embarrassed before in making premature comments about the new design. (Not me, of course... ) With regard to proximity to the terminal, Australian airports are now beginning to work towards arrangements that take vehicles away from the immediate vicinity of the terminal so as to minimise the risk from car bombs and the like.

Rogue, I don't believe there's been any specific reference to the future of the elevated road, apart from a vague statement in the major development plan noting that "provision in the form of a spatial corridor has been made for the development of light passenger rail to the front of T1 in the future".

A tramline going up to the doors there would be awesome!

[Dazzeland]

What happens to the elevated road once the plaza is complete?

It will be closed to public traffic, but emergency vehicles will use it to have direct access to the terminal

[ChillyPhilly]

After the plaza is finished, the elevated road will be pretty redundant anyway.

[SAR526]

I too would be very happy to have trams serve the terminal via the former access ramps, but the reality is that they will be a long time coming. The fear of Government debt by both parties, (though actually it isn't at all analogous to private debt – the USA and Japan function quite well with astronomical debt levels), means that many desirable public transport initiatives will be postponed indefinitely. Then too, the car and truck lobbies will ensure that disproportionate amounts will be spent on improving roads at the expense of rail based initiatives.

In the meantime, why can't the buses serve that end? They will merely go over the ramp as before, with an under-verandah seated stop near the entrance doors to the terminal. It would make for more convenience and less congestion all round. Yes, I know that pedestrians cross the ramp in both directions, so perhaps the buses could stop on the lower level.

The present most inconvenient terminal and its shelter look to me as though they are intended to be permanent, letting down the whole airport both in appearance and in function.