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

Action for Public Transport (NSW) is a public transport users' advocacy group, active in Sydney since 1975.

We confidently expect that rail access to Western Sydney Airport (WSA) from both north-east and south-east will be required and therefore we suggest that both should be allowed for in airport design. This includes designing and constructing a station box underneath the terminal with room for enough platforms and tracks to accommodate adequate services to the south-east via Leppington and to the north-east. The north-eastern connection might be made via St Marys, via Blacktown, or via one of several possible routes to Parramatta; there should therefore be flexibility to connect in any of those directions and hence there should be no constraints built into the airport station that might preclude north-eastern connection in one or more directions. Also, the rail corridors and station should be designed to permit through running, i.e. trains arriving from the south-east departing toward the north-east and vice versa.

We note that Sydney Trains is planning to run both single-deck and double-deck trains to various suburbs. We recommend that the rail station and corridors be planned to be capable of carrying either type of train as appropriate.

We also think that provision should be made for rail freight. The EIS expects that some industries will set up around the WSA area; these should be able to use rail freight if considered appropriate. The nominated freight route would cater for rail freight traffic from WSA to the Moorebank intermodal terminal and elsewhere.