Road, rail congestion to get ‘worse’ in Sydney by 2031: report

It’s a crushing forecast, but roads and trains across the Harbour City are set to get even more congested by 2031.

Traffic congestion on Parramatta Rd is tipped to get even worse as the population in Sydney increases over the next two decades.

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The road and rail crush in the inner west is set to worsen in the next decade under the weight of Sydney’s population boom, a new report predicts.

The 700-page Australian Infrastructure Audit 2019 tips the cost of road congestion across Greater Sydney, the Hunter and Illawarra regions will be $15.7 billion by 2031 if the NSW Government fails to add to its already record levels of investment.

The report, released last week, identified that Ashfield to Sydney CBD, via the City West Link/Anzac Bridge, was the fourth slowest morning-peak transport corridor in Sydney. It ranked fifth in the afternoon peak.

North Sydney to the city, via the Sydney Harbour Tunnel, was the slowest morning and afternoon commute, followed by Mount Druitt to Westmead (via the M4) and Liverpool to Sydney Airport (via M5).

The run along Parramatta Rd, near the entrance/exit of the new M4 tunnel at Ashfield, at about 6pm on a weekday has been congested.

Rail congestion is projected to worsen by 2031, reaching or exceeding crush capacity on the Western, North Shore and Illawarra lines, and inner parts of the Northern and Richmond lines.

There is expected to be an even “higher level” of overcrowding from Auburn and Strathfield to the city during the peak commuter times.

One Strathfield commuter said this prediction was “beyond a joke”.

“I can’t believe it’s going to get worse on trains in Sydney. You can hardly move getting home after work in the city,” Kate Jackson said. “We’re all packed in like sardines getting back to Strathfield.”

A packed train at Strathfield station.

The audit says that 71 per cent of trips to and from Sydney CBD in peak periods are by public transport.

It says Sydney will need to significantly upgrade its public transport network, as well as the inner-city hospitals and schools to help cope with the population increase.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics forecasts that Sydney­’s­ population will hit 8.3 million by 2050, up from 5.2 million last year.

The inner west’s population of nearly 200,000 is expected to grow by about 15 per cent over the next two decades.

The 2019-20 budget forecasts an annual average of 268,600 new arrivals to Australia over the next four years, many of whom will settle in Greater Sydney.

This is despite a commitment by the Liberal Party in the lead-up to the recent federal election to “freeze immigration levels” at an annual intake of 160,000 over the next four years to help ease the pressure on Sydney and Melbourne.