The NSW Greens have renewed their push for a light rail line linking Strathfield, in Sydney’s inner west, to the CBD.
NSW Member for Balmain Jamie Parker in February pushed Parliament for action on a light rail line down Parramatta Road.
Parker referenced petitions signed by “thousands” of community members, as well as community meetings and events where locals have called for the line to be built.
“Now more than ever we need to connect and extend light rail along Parramatta Road and to Balmain,” he said.
The Greens say the plan revolves around the University of Sydney’s ambitions to “drive the innovation agenda by linking existing health, creative, media and technology nodes with a centralized knowledge hub”.
Parker praised the University of Sydney’s ambition, saying, “a light rail service along Parramatta Road linking the University of Technology Sydney, the University of Sydney and so on would be critical to this development”.
The line would travel east down Parramatta Road from Strathfield.
Parramatta Road eventually becomes Broadway and then George Street, where the light rail line could presumably link with the Sydney CBD and South East light rail project, which is currently under construction.
“The claim that WestConnex [toll road project] will reduce traffic on Parramatta Road has gone up in exhaust smoke,” Parker said.
“Light rail works … There is an opportunity to connect light rail along Parramatta Road and into Balmain.
“We know that the knowledge sector wants it, the business community wants it and ordinary travelers from our area and from Greater Sydney want it.
“It is time for us to examine the opportunities in that corridor.”
I’m not sure that there is enough money in this for my developer mates…
If that’s the case, then maybe the way we finance infrastructure needs to change. Rather than funding every new line with mass developer profits, why not a combination of moderate value capture across existing homes and businesses, and increased developer contributions on all new approvals? We don’t have to build highrise everywhere to get decent transport – the Inner West is already quite densely populated, but remains lowrise. The whole region was made for trams, not cars – so light rail is nothing new and the market is there as far as numbers. We don’t need to overdevelop this area, and that’s okay.
It’s a strange irony that the only thing making light rail on Parramatta Road possible is Westconnex. When you consider that currently all six lanes on Parramatta Road are fully used most of the time, cutting it down to one lane in each direction (as shown in the drawing) by putting light rail in the middle can only make the traffic worse. So the Greens actually support Westconnex!