Action for Public Transport (N.S.W.) Inc.

The State Rail Authority has submitted plans to Ashfield Council for a $4.4M upgrade of the pedestrian subway and concourse at Summer Hill station in Sydney's inner west.

The move marks the latest milestone in a nine month tussle between State Rail and local residents. State Rail had previously submitted plans for a new concourse on an overhead bridge, Summer Hill being the first in a new program to upgrade some twenty stations with "easy access" (wheel chair) facilities, including lifts.

Local residents objected to the overhead design on aesthetic grounds (its "bulk"), the excessive number of stairs to be negotiated to cross the lines, and the way in which longer access paths for both able bodied and handicapped passengers would also have been separated. Their concerns had been triggered by events at adjacent Ashfield station, where the previous subway was replaced with an overhead bridge. The Save Summer Hill Station Group mounted a vociferous campaign, involving petitions, public meetings, the mass media and an Internet website.

The existing subway is the only means of crossing the tracks for about a kilometre in either direction.