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| Action for Public Transport (N.S.W.) Inc. |
| P O Box K606 |
| Haymarket NSW 1240 |
| 22 April 2016 |
Action for Public Transport (NSW) is a transport advocacy group active in Sydney since 1974. We promote the interests of beneficiaries of public transport; both passengers, and the wider community. We are pleased to see early consultation on the proposal to extend Sydney Metro services from Bankstown to Liverpool. If this had been done before earlier proposals had been too far advanced, significant drawbacks might have been averted and a better result achieved. True metro systems facilitate short trips in and near city centres. Sydney Metro as it is currently planned does not achieve that outcome.
It is unfortunate that the technology chosen for Sydney Metro has such different requirements from existing Sydney trains. We see the closure of a perfectly functional railway line between Epping and Chatswood and another between Sydenham and Bankstown for six months or more to convert them to metro operation as an unacceptable burden on passengers and the communities around the line. Never again should this disruptive and wasteful approach be adopted.
All future extensions to the Sydney Metro should provide new services connecting currently unserviced areas. Properly conceived, the possible extension of the Sydney Metro from Bankstown to Liverpool can fill such a gap in the system. There are many other missing links in public transport services in Sydney's inner and middle-ring suburbs, and filling them is more productive than cannibalising the existing system.
There are two key activity nodes we believe should have stations on any extension to the Sydney Metro from Bankstown to Liverpool: Bankstown Hospital and the UWS Bankstown Campus at Milperra. These are sources of higher order employment in an area of Sydney plagued by low levels of educational attainment and higher than average levels of unemployment.
Better public transport services will enhance their accessibility and make a positive contribution to the wellbeing and future prospects of residents.
The current metro plan is doing a very poor job at connecting town centres and key facilities. With the sole exception of the Macquarie stations, the metro line north of Chatswood will have stations located too far apart to connect these features. In particular, there will be 6km gaps between Chatswood and North Ryde and between Epping and Cherrybrook. And some of the stations are poorly placed, for example Cherrybrook station which will be a long way from Cherrybrook centre and North Ryde station which is located adjacent to a large cemetery.
South of Chatswood does not fare much better. There is to be only one station between Chatswood and North Sydney. There will be no station convenient to the Gore Hill health and educational facilities.
Nor does Sydney Metro help fill in many of the train-free gaps in or south of the CBD. Consider London Underground's Circle Line. The area within its 27-station loop contains eighteen other stations and no point in that area is more than 500 metres from a station. But the western corner of Sydney's ironically-named Railway Square is more than 500 metres' walk from all of Central's suburban platforms. Sydney Metro does little for our southern CBD and nor does it do much for the area between Central and Sydenham.
This pattern should not be replicated in any extension of the Sydney Metro from Bankstown to Liverpool.
The residential areas in the study area are low density, characterised by a subdivision pattern hostile to pedestrians and inimical to public transport services. The culs-de-sac intended to prevent vehicular through traffic typically also cut off pedestrian access through to adjoining streets, creating long walking distances to services which may be close enough "as the crow flies".
Every opportunity should be taken to correct this impediment to public transport use, in concert with the local councils.
No comment.