‘Hollow promises’: Years after opening, WestConnex tunnel conditions still not met

More than two years after the first WestConnex motorway tunnel opened in Sydney, the NSW government is yet to meet a condition of approval by dedicating two lanes of Parramatta Road solely to public transport.

A lack of progress in adhering to the approval condition comes amid delays to the completion of traffic studies crucial to long-term plans for thousands of new homes along the Parramatta Road corridor.

One of the justifications for WestConnex was that it would remove traffic from Parramatta Road.Credit: Wolter Peeters

The conditions imposed on the 2016 approval of the M4 East tunnels between Homebush and Haberfield included a requirement for at least one lane in each direction on Parramatta Road to be exclusively used for public transport. The condition did not impose a deadline.

Greens MP Jamie Parker said the mantra that there was no set deadline to meet the condition “shows just how hollow promises from this government are”.

“The government has now accelerated the planning process along Parramatta Road to encourage more residential development,” he said.

“If the government fails to honour its commitment, then Parramatta Road will simply become a polluted bumper-to-bumper parking lot between Homebush and Central.”

The government recently sought to progress plans announced in 2016 for up to 27,000 new homes and 50,000 jobs along the 20-kilometre corridor from Granville to Camperdown over three decades.

The M4 East tunnel opened to traffic in July 2019.Credit: Christopher Pearce

The strategy includes a requirement for traffic studies and supporting modelling to be completed before any rezoning along the corridor can take place.

After progress on the traffic studies stalled, the Department of Planning took charge of them last year from Transport for NSW. Planning Minister Rob Stokes had bemoaned a lack of progress on the studies by the transport agency.

Inner West councillor Pauline Lockie, a critic of WestConnex, said residents who lived near the M4 East, which opened in July 2019, had endured the worst of the disruption from construction of the toll road.

“To have to endure all of that and then not get the most basic promises delivered years down the track is just appalling,” she said. “Everything we seem to get promised as a benefit from this project gets kicked into the long grass and no one seems accountable for it.”

Cr Lockie said the thousands of extra homes planned along the Parramatta Road corridor would not be feasible if the arterial road was “chock-a-block with cars”.

“If we don’t want ‘carmageddon’, we need a proper transport plan in place. We are waiting on the traffic studies,” she said.

One of the justifications for WestConnex was that it would remove traffic from Parramatta Road, helping to turn it into a liveable artery comparable with those in Barcelona and Paris.

Sorely in need of revival ... Parramatta Road at Annandale.Credit: Jessica Hromas

Committee for Sydney chief executive Gabriel Metcalf said it would be a “tragic, wasted opportunity” if the government left Parramatta Road in its present state.

“The entire premise of WestConnex was that we could put the cars underground in order to reclaim the surface to make Parramatta Road a nice place to be again,” he said.

“This is definitely a place that can take more growth – that part of the plan makes sense – but only if you make it a nice place to live. What it needs is clear: wider footpaths, reduced traffic, and a decent public transport solution.”

A spokeswoman for Transport and Roads Minister Andrew Constance said the progressive opening of sections of WestConnex allowed the government to rethink the future of Parramatta Road thanks to a reduction in traffic along the corridor.

“Transport for NSW is currently working on a plan to present short, medium and long-term options to enhance public transport and support the corridor’s urban transformation,” she said.

Noting that the condition of approval for the M4 East did not specify a timeframe, she said the first initiatives would focus on improving bus journeys along and across Parramatta Road. “The plan will be outlined publicly once it has been completed and assessed by the NSW government,” she said.

The Department of Planning said the first of the transport models and associated consultants’ reports would be completed in September, and a final report by December.

“The traffic studies are needed to model and understand how traffic will change with the vision for the corridor and identify the necessary road improvements and upgrades required as part of any proposed renewal,” it said.

Transport for NSW said a strategic business case on medium and long-term public transport improvements for Parramatta Road was likely to be completed by early next year.

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