Article: Tram push for western Sydney

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Tram push for western Sydney

Tram push for western Sydney

By Sarah Hawke

Updated Wed Jan 11, 2012 10:21am AEDT

Western Sydney is pushing to be included in any New South Wales Government plans to expand Sydney's light rail network.

Parramatta City Council is seeking funding for a feasibility study on an ambitious plan to improve access between north and south in Sydney's west.

Lord Mayor Lorraine Wearne says the first stage should be a $3-billion, 44-kilometre network with links stretching from Castle Hill to Bankstown.

After that the council says a further 105 kilometres of light rail should be rolled out across the city's west.

Councillor Wearne says the current focus on inner Sydney ignores the rapid population growth in the city's west.

"Everything seems to be funnelling people into that little funnel into Sydney, which can't work because there's two million people currently in Parramatta and to the west and that's expected to be four million in less then 10 years," she said.

"Those people cannot, just cannot get into Sydney to work.

"It's some very short sighted, in my view, transport planning going on at the moment."

The mayor says light rail is a cost-effective option.

"What we'd be proposing to run is basically parallel to a lot of the roads, so that light rail doesn't need the width of corridor that heavy rail does," Councillor Wearne said.

[somebody]

Bankstown?  Bring back Parramatta-City via Bankstown trains?

[SurfRail]

How about making the bus network work properly first?

[somebody]

How about making the bus network work properly first?

It's not that bad though is it, if you accept the constraint of the un-integrated fare structure?

[SurfRail]

How about making the bus network work properly first?

It's not that bad though is it, if you accept the constraint of the un-integrated fare structure?

Frequency on the orbital Metrobus services could be improved, and there are a few which could be added (going from the Unsworth bus corridors which are not yet fully implemented).  Very little in the way of signalling priority, and still lots of routes which finish quite early.  Those are things that can be solved a lot more cheaply than laying 100km or more of suburban tramways, which is almost Parrahub like in foaminess. 

LRT belongs (at least initially) on ANZAC Pde and other inner city corridors to shunt the STA out of the picture as much as possible.

At very least they have buses feeding rail for the most part in the western suburbs - only really the Hills district which is operating BT style, and that will change once the railway is there.

[somebody]

LRT belongs (at least initially) on ANZAC Pde and other inner city corridors to shunt the STA out of the picture as much as possible.

Agree there, but even that area could do with some improvements in a pre-LRT world.

At very least they have buses feeding rail for the most part in the western suburbs - only really the Hills district which is operating BT style, and that will change once the railway is there.

This is so not the main game.

Garry Glazebrook of UTS reckons the cost per pax-km is 47c for Cityrail and 57c for bus in Sydney.  Saving that 10c/pax-km is a side show.

The main game is finally getting PT use outside of peak hour in more of Sydney than what actually occurs at present.

There is also getting Cityrail to actually operate properly, which will no doubt bring their operating cost per trip down.

[SurfRail]

This is so not the main game.

Garry Glazebrook of UTS reckons the cost per pax-km is 47c for Cityrail and 57c for bus in Sydney.  Saving that 10c/pax-km is a side show.

The main game is finally getting PT use outside of peak hour in more of Sydney than what actually occurs at present.

There is also getting Cityrail to actually operate properly, which will no doubt bring their operating cost per trip down.

It isn't all about cost.  It is also about getting buses out of the freeway congestion (which is not getting better), reducing travel times, improving connectivity across the whole swath north of the river, encouraging people and businesses to set up shop in the Macquarie precinct etc.  The cost of provision is really, as you say, quite minor.

Off-peak utilisation can be improved without infrastructure.

CityRail is a broken and sad thing that probably needs to be privatised to squash some of the more insidious problems caused by the unions and government operation.  There is no way they can bootstrap it into something like Transperth Trains or even QR.

[somebody]

This is so not the main game.

Garry Glazebrook of UTS reckons the cost per pax-km is 47c for Cityrail and 57c for bus in Sydney.  Saving that 10c/pax-km is a side show.

The main game is finally getting PT use outside of peak hour in more of Sydney than what actually occurs at present.

There is also getting Cityrail to actually operate properly, which will no doubt bring their operating cost per trip down.

It isn't all about cost.  It is also about getting buses out of the freeway congestion (which is not getting better), reducing travel times, improving connectivity across the whole swath north of the river, encouraging people and businesses to set up shop in the Macquarie precinct etc.  The cost of provision is really, as you say, quite minor.

Off-peak utilisation can be improved without infrastructure.

CityRail is a broken and sad thing that probably needs to be privatised to squash some of the more insidious problems caused by the unions and government operation.  There is no way they can bootstrap it into something like Transperth Trains or even QR.

I agree with:

It isn't all about cost. 

improving connectivity across the whole swath north of the river

encouraging people and businesses to set up shop in the Macquarie precinct etc.

Off-peak utilisation can be improved without infrastructure.

CityRail is a broken and sad thing that probably needs to be privatised to squash some of the more insidious problems caused by the unions and government operation.  There is no way they can bootstrap it into something like Transperth Trains or even QR.

However, I have to say that the NWRL will be a retrograde step on travel times.

Similarly, I'm a bit ambivalent on the NWRL reducing freeway congestion.  Of the 350 or so buses arriving at Wynyard 8-8:59am only 79 of them come from the NW.  Can you say "decker"?

[SurfRail]

Similarly, I'm a bit ambivalent on the NWRL reducing freeway congestion.  Of the 350 or so buses arriving at Wynyard 8-8:59am only 79 of them come from the NW.  Can you say "decker"?

I have no doubt that is correct, but I would expect that the line would get those buses out of general traffic and into a feeder role, in the same way there are no buses from Liverpool to the CBD via the M5.

[somebody]

Similarly, I'm a bit ambivalent on the NWRL reducing freeway congestion.  Of the 350 or so buses arriving at Wynyard 8-8:59am only 79 of them come from the NW.  Can you say "decker"?

I have no doubt that is correct, but I would expect that the line would get those buses out of general traffic and into a feeder role, in the same way there are no buses from Liverpool to the CBD via the M5.

My point was that it is only targeting what is under 1/4 of the problem.