Transport when Sydney was first established was an issue. The ships of 1788 bought over very few work animals, and they were too precious to use as beast of burden. Convict labour was used a lot of the time, as that was all that was available.
One thing that was available was water transport. The ships that bought the settlers over could be used to reach other parts of the coast; rivers also allowed settlements to be established in Parramatta, Hawkesbury, Lane Cove and Nepean rivers. Not for the first time areas were settled around the means of transport available at the time.
Early land transport was slow to develop. Carriages from Europe were eventually bought over, but proved unsuitable for the harsh conditions. The lack of roads didn’t help. Eventually the railroad was introduced. Parramatta and Sydney were linked in 1855, and suburbs developed as further train stations were added.
Residential and commercial areas tend to develop as train-lines and river –transport develop; they also tend to remain after the transports systems change. Infastructure can be limited by what was imposed in the past. Roads that were more than adequate generations ago can now be too narrow for heavy traffic, but changes to the roads and surrounding building is near impossible.
Sydney airport developed in the 1920s. Its first regular flights began in 1924, though some private flight had been running for a few years beforehand. It had a combination of features over the next few decades, including 3 gravel runways, but by the 1960s the 2 paved runways were proving inadequate for increased air traffic. Both a third runway and a second airport were proposed. The third runway was eventually built from land reclaimed from Botany Bay but the second airport has never been built, despite being proposed and shelved several times in the last 50 years. Most projections claim the present airport will be inadequate by 2030.
A second airport, use of Canberra’s airport linked by high speed rail to Sydney, or the greater use of Bankstown airport are all options that will change air travel. Sydney airport transfers will adapt around these changes; roads and rail-links will be built to get passengers to and from their flights. Sydney airport shuttle services look forward to seeing the implantation of these new additions to the infrastructure, and plans to expand to meet the new demands
Sydney’s Plan B Shuttle runs several services including airport shuttles at any time of the day or week needed for connection to flights.