Transport for all need not cost $600b: expert

A SWEEPING, multibillion-dollar transport plan, to be unveiled next week, would link almost every home, office and university in Sydney to upgraded train, tram and bus services within 30 years.

The discussion paper from a leading transport researcher, Garry Glazebrook, of the University of Technology, Sydney, proposes six new metro lines, a heavy rail link to the barely serviced suburbs of south-west Sydney, and trams serving the inner suburbs and Parramatta.

Six major bus ring routes would directly link minor centres without commuters having to divert through the city.

While Dr Glazebrook's plan would cost $40 billion, it averages just $1.4 billion a year, in addition to the current expenditure of $3.2 billion a year on public transport.

He says it is a fraction of the estimated $660 billion Sydneysiders would spend on car travel over the next three decades if mass transit is not upgraded.

His proposal would also allow a 25 per cent increase in peak-hour trains on the existing heavy rail system, which is groaning under a large increase in patronage.

The key to the Glazebrook plan - which has taken shape over the past five years, as the Carr, Iemma and Rees governments have unveiled, altered and abandoned three previous designs for better public transport - is to integrate all the different services.

Trams would be linked to metro stations, for example, to ensure passengers wait a peak-hour maximum of five minutes when changing modes.

Dr Glazebrook said his plan would slash travel times on journeys from the outer suburbs to the city. "Trip length is also a key factor," he writes.

"For short trips, comfort is not so important but high frequency is vital. For long trips, comfort and travel speed become important."

The plan would also increase services to Sydney's job-rich "global arc", which covers the commercial centres between Macquarie University in North Ryde and Sydney Airport, as well as the city's second central business district, in Parramatta.

He proposes rolling the plan out in three stages.

The first stage, between 2009 and 2016, would include building a metro link between Epping and Castle Hill, a metro link between Parramatta and Strathfield, and tram lines from Lilyfield to Dulwich Hill, Rozelle Bay to Drummoyne and White Bay, and Circular Quay to Central Station.

Two bus ring routes - from Manly to Bondi Junction, via Mosman, Drummoyne and Kensington, and from Dee Why to Brighton, via Frenchs Forest, Chatswood, Burwood and Rockdale - would start operating.

Phase one would also include the first stage of the south-west heavy rail link.

The second stage, from 2016 to 2026, would link the north-west and west metros, via the Sydney CBD, and include a fast heavy rail link from Chatswood to Wynyard. It would also extend tram lines into the eastern and southern suburbs and convert the underused Carlingford rail line for trams.

The final phase, between 2026 and 2036, would complete the heavy rail, metro, tram and bus networks, and enable a high speed rail link between Newcastle and Canberra, serving the Central Coast, the Southern Highlands and Wollongong. A key element of the plan is to provide 30,000 parking places at 40 interchanges located at strategic points on the road and rail networks, along with 220,000 secure bicycle and scooter places. Dr Glazebrook would fund the expansion of the network by a mix of fares, efficiency savings, congestion and parking levies, increases in land values around stations, and carbon trading.

He said he hoped the Federal Government would contribute through its infrastructure budget.


http://www.dab.uts.edu.au/research/outcomes/index.html