Article: New car parks to encourage Sydney train commuters

[ozbob]

From ABC News click here!

New car parks to encourage Sydney train commuters

New car parks to encourage Sydney train commuters

Updated May 29, 2012 14:56:05
Map: Moss Vale 2577

The New South Wales Government will built nine new car parks at Sydney train stations to encourage more commuters to use public transport.

The Government has allocated $170 million to build the car parks, which will provide 1,200 extra spaces.

They will be built at train stations across the city, including Padstow, Canley Vale, Moss Vale and Gordon.

Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian says the sites have been carefully selected.

"The criteria I gave to the department is show me which areas need them the most, where is the demand highest and which ones are ready to go," she said.

"But obviously this is just the start. There will be more to come. The announcement today represents $170 million out of a $770 million fund called the transport access program."

170 x 10E6 / 1200 = $142,000 per car park ....     

[somebody]

Yeah.

Gladys: 

[Gazza]

Fail.
Perth did 3000 for $50mil.
http://www.pta.wa.gov.au/Projects/CarParkExpansionProject/tabid/223/Default.aspx

[somebody]

Fail.
Perth did 3000 for $50mil.
http://www.pta.wa.gov.au/Projects/CarParkExpansionProject/tabid/223/Default.aspx

I think land values are significantly higher in Sydney than in Perth.

[colinw]

Fail.
Perth did 3000 for $50mil.
http://www.pta.wa.gov.au/Projects/CarParkExpansionProject/tabid/223/Default.aspx

I think land values are significantly higher in Sydney than in Perth.

All the more reason to use them for something with more intrinsic value than a car parking space which earns back a miserably low CityRail fare every day if you're lucky.

[Golliwog]

I suppose in a way this is an alternative to widening roads. There are probably people who are not going to use PT unless they can park their car at it. IIRC a single extra lane adds about 1800 vph of capacity to a road? According to wikipedia, the widening of Waterworks Rd (8km from The Gap to Red Hill) cost $50 million all up. It did involve a decent amount of land accquisition I believe, but was a much shorter route than from the areas listed in Sydney. Though each car park can only be used once for typical commuting traffic.

So it could be argued there is SOME logic here, though IMO, not very good logic.

[somebody]

Doesn't really make much difference IMO.  The number of cars coming in to the city is pretty much governed by the number of parking spaces.  Makes it easier to create another 1200 jobs on the train line though.  Not very many, for $170m !!