Sydney’s future transport network: how each region will benefit
Sydney’s commute times are the longest in Australia but a raft of congestion-busting projects could finally provide relief. SEE HOW YOUR REGION WILL BENEFIT IN OUR INTERACTIVE.
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Teiria Harrison leaves her south west Sydney home at 6.30am each day to start her three-and-a-half-hour round trip to and from work.
She catches a bus from Claymore to Campbelltown railway station, hops on a train to Glenfield where if she’s lucky she will be able board a “very, very packed” one bound for Parramatta, where she works.
“Depending on the day it’s either two or three trains to work,” Ms Harrison said. “Sometimes the direct train to Parramatta is cancelled, so I need to go to Granville and change there.”
In the afternoon the 21-year-old has to do it all over again.
It’s a tale all too familiar to residents living in the Harbour City, which according to the latest Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia report has the nation’s longest daily commute time at an average of 71.1 minutes.
But in a few years’ time that could be a thing of the past, with the State Government in the midst of a $55.6 billion investment in “game-changing” transport projects — the nation’s largest ever transport infrastructure program.
And it’s needed, with 16 million trips on Sydney’s roads each day while demand for its train network grew by 35 per cent over to 402 million passengers per year the last five years.
Transport Minister Andrew Constance said the government was committed to ensuring people spend “less time travelling and more time doing what they love”.
SYDNEY CBD, INNER WEST AND EASTERN SUBURBS
Much of the focus of several of the government’s major transport projects revolve around moving people more effectively to, around and from Sydney’s CBD.
First services on the long-anticipated opening of the $2.7 billion CBD and South East light rail project is set to open in December 2019, which will move tens of thousands of people per hour between Randwick and Circular Quay.
Services from Circular Quay to Kingsford will start in the second quarter of 2020.
Four years later in 2024, the city’s new $12 billion metro line is expected to be running from Chatswood all the way to Bankstown via the CBD and Sydenham.
“Tunnelling on the next stage of Metro is already more than 50 per cent complete with those services to be up and running in the next five years,” Mr Constance said.
WestConnex should already be completed by that point, with a scheduled opening date of 2023, which the government promises will reduce congestion throughout the inner west and slash travel times between Sydney’s east and western suburbs, and to Sydney Airport when the Sydney Gateway opens.
“In the past few months we’ve opened the new M4 Tunnels, which are saving drivers up to 20 minutes travel time between Parramatta and the Sydney CBD,” Mr Constance said.
GREATER PARRAMATTA
Parramatta is the next focus area for the government, with billions of dollars being poured into creating a new light rail network to connect its CBD to suburban areas.
Stage one of the $2.4 billion project will link the growing employment hub of Westmead to Carlingford through the heart of Parramatta, expected to be online by 2023.
By the end of the next decade it should also extend to Sydney Olympic Park, connecting two of Sydney’s emerging powerhouse regions.
The project that is most exciting to Western Sydney Business Chamber director David Borger is Metro West, an underground rail line that will run from Westmead to Sydney CBD under the inner west by the late 2020s.
“I think Metro West will have a big impact for people west of Parramatta by freeing up the western line,” he said.
Mr Borger has called for the project to be fast-tracked. So far $3 billion has been committed to begin work on the project next year.
Metro West will double the rail capacity between Sydney’s two CBDs and reduce travel time between them by about 20 minutes.
WESTERN SYDNEY AND NORTH WEST
The long-suffering regions west of Parramatta — namely Blacktown and Penrith — where locals endure the longest commutes and packed public transport, will also see the benefits of mammoth investment.
The opening of Western Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek in the mid-2020s has seen both state and federal governments pay unprecedented attention to upgrading infrastructure in the west, and will lead to a new rail link — Metro Greater West.
Formerly known as the North South Rail Link, it will run driverless trains from the north from Schofields to the new airport via St Marys.
It is planned to be open by 2026, however details on how many stops it will have — and where — are yet to be released. It is hoped to eventually link to the Metro North West at Rouse Hill.
For those driving to work in the inner city, WestConnex will shave up to half an hour off their commutes when completed in 2023.
An upgraded Northern Rd will better connect the greater Penrith region to Luddenham and the future airport by 2022.
The opening of Metro West is also expected to take the pressure off the packed T1 Western Line, which is already at breaking point.
SOUTH WEST AND CAMPBELLTOWN
The biggest “game-changer” set to hit the south west in the next decade — apart from Sydney’s second airport — will be the metro line between Sydney and Bankstown.
Set to open in 2024, it will provide trains every four minutes between Bankstown and Sydenham via 11 upgraded stations including Canterbury, Belmore, Campsie, Lakemba, Wiley Park and Punchbowl.
“The upgrade of the T3 Bankstown Line to metro rail is integral to taking the pressure off the rest of Sydney’s suburban rail system,” a Transport for NSW spokeswoman said.
“This line creates a significant bottleneck for the existing rail network. It effectively slows down the network because of the way it merges with other railway lines close to the Sydney CBD, including the T8 Airport and South Line and the T2 Inner West and Leppington Line.”
Plans for the areas further from the city, however, are less certain.
The government promised to extend the metro line from Bankstown to Liverpool at May’s State Election, and investigations are being made on how to link it to the new airport via Leppington.
WestConnex will also improve travel times between the south west and CBD, with the upgraded M5 to connect to city-bound tunnels at St Peters.
NORTH SHORE AND NORTHERN BEACHES
Apart from the Sydney Metro, the biggest project set to hit Sydney’s north shore and northern beaches is the Western Harbour Tunnel and Beaches Link — which combined could cost $15 billion.
The Western Harbour Tunnel includes a new western bypass of the Sydney CBD, Anzac
Bridge, Harbour Tunnel and Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The 6.5km twin tunnels will link Rozelle to the Warringah Freeway with three lanes in each direction.
The Beaches Link includes 7.2km twin tunnels from the Northern Beaches, under Middle
Harbour and connecting with Warringah and Gore Hill Freeways, reducing travel times
for Northern Beaches bus commuters by up to 40 per cent.
The project includes an upgrade of the Warringah Freeway.
The Beaches Link will bypass 19 sets of traffic lights from The Spit to Falcon Street, North
Sydney with three lanes in each direction.
It’s expected motorists will save 27 minutes between Brookvale and the CBD and 25 minutes between Chatswood and Sydney Airport.
WHAT AN EXPERT SAYS
Dr Geoffrey Clifton from the University of Sydney Business School’s Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies said the state government had “done a lot of work to get the balance right” between investment in public transport and the “missing links” in the road network.
Dr Clifton said the opening of the Sydney Metro North West this year showed the life-changing impacts new public transport options can create.
“By building these new public transport networks. that will transform a lot of peoples’ lives,” he said.
“In The Hills it has opened up a whole new set of opportunities for where people can live, work and recreate.”
Dr Clifton said new road projects filling in gaps in the city were critical, adding roads also delivered avenues for public transport in the form of buses, cycling and light rail.
He believed the new metro projects and WestConnex would have the most impact on a large amount of Sydneysiders, but warned against letting the city’s bus network become the “poor cousin” to major projects.
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