Inner Sydney suburb slated as likely site for extra Metro West station

The inner Sydney suburb of Zetland is firming as the most likely site for an extra station for the $25 billion Metro West rail project, as a former transport minister described the location as a logical extension for the line because of its rapidly growing population.

Three sources close to Sydney’s transport projects say Zetland – part of the Green Square precinct which is dominated by high-rise apartments – is now under serious consideration by the NSW government for a station on the Metro West line.

“Zetland is definitely on the cards,” said one of the sources, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Zetland is part of the fast-growing Green Square precinct.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Andrew Constance, who made key decisions on Sydney’s metro rail projects during his tenure as transport minister in the previous Coalition government, said he was “all for” extending Metro West to Zetland because of the fast-growing population at Green Square.

“I would be doing Zetland before Camellia. You can’t have one of the highest concentrations of housing density in Australia and not have a mass transit solution,” he said. “The other station [sites] that could come back on the plans would either be Chinatown or Sydney University.”

An eastern extension of the planned Metro West line between Parramatta and the CBD has been put back on the table after a review into Sydney’s mega rail projects recommended that transport officials provide urgent advice to the government about station options.

City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said she was willing to consider land sales and public domain upgrades to ensure a station at Zetland was viable and delivered on the same timeframe as the initial Metro West project, which is due to open in 2030.

“The NSW government must commit to a Zetland extension to Metro West now, to address significant and growing public transport capacity problems in the area,” she said.

“Zetland Avenue is appropriately sized to fit a metro station, on an axis with a useful alignment out east to Randwick and beyond.”

Green Square’s population is forecast to grow from about 34,500 people today to almost 52,000 by 2030, and 63,000 by 2041.

A spokesperson for Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the government welcomed recommendations of the independent panel on Sydney Metro to explore the feasibility, value for money, alignment and station options for a potential eastern extension.

“The Minns Labor government will explore those options at the appropriate time, but what we won’t be doing is announcing new stations or extensions without doing the long-term planning work to get it right,” he said.

“Mr Constance was transport minister for five years. He had many opportunities to start an eastern extension to Metro West, and never did so.”

The previous government originally planned to extend Metro West to Zetland but dropped it from the project in 2018 due to the cost and a renewed focus at the time on western Sydney.

Extending the underground rail line from a station under Hunter Street in the CBD to Zetland would add billions of dollars to Metro West’s ballooning cost.

Confidential internal government documents on Metro West in 2018 estimated the cost of a Zetland station at about $780 million, while the bill for a proposed service facility at Surry Hills was put at about $200 million. The figures included the cost of property acquisitions, which were $192 million and $150 million respectively.

Transport for NSW also released long-term strategic plans several years ago to extend Metro West from Green Square to Malabar and La Perouse via Randwick and Maroubra by 2041.

The latest review into the metro projects led by federal transport bureaucrat Mike Mrdak has also sparked a push by developers, councillors and business groups for the government to reconsider building a station for Metro West in the industrial suburb of Camellia, near Parramatta.

Constance warned there was “no way” that developers would be able to cover half the cost of a metro station at Camellia, which was likely to be well over $500 million. Developers have said they were willing to help pay for the cost of a station.

He estimates that imposing betterment levies – often referred to as value capture – could “at best” cover only about 10 per cent of the project’s cost. “Value capture is not going to be the magic pudding. Paying for this stuff means that asset recycling has to be put back on the table,” he said.

Constance said the cost of remediating heavily contaminated land at Camellia would also be “very significant” and run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The cost to taxpayers of cleaning up a six-hectare site at Camellia several years ago for the Parramatta light rail project hit $116 million, more than double the original bill.

Business Western Sydney executive director David Borger said Camellia had long been touted as a future site for homes and jobs, and building a metro station there would help deliver thousands of new dwellings to address the state’s housing crisis.

“We have a strong track record of being able to clean up challenging sites in places such as Rhodes and Sydney Olympic Park. Camellia is no different,” he said.

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