Engineering, Passenger Rail

Waterloo/Sydney Uni decision to come this year

Sydney Metro Video Help Point. Graphic: Sydney Metro Northwest

Sydney Metro program director Rodd Staples expects a decision on the alignment of the planned metro station between Central and Sydenham to come by the end of the year.

Staples spoke with Radio 2UE’s Stuart Bocking this week, to discuss progress on the multi-billion-dollar Sydney Metro line, which will eventually run from the north-west, through Chatswood, under the harbour, through the CBD and on to Bankstown.

With the first stage of the project – Sydney Metro Northwest – well underway, the government recently announced the planned stations and alignment for the second half of the project – Sydney Metro City & Southwest.

But the recent announcement left the door open for the location of the final new station on the line, between a new terminal at Central and the existing station at Sydenham.

Sydney Uni has lobbied to have the station built on its campus, while the alternative at Waterloo has also had local support. Staples said his team should have an answer by the end of 2015.

“The great thing about that choice is there would be two very positive outcomes,” he said. “The challenge is that we’ve got to choose one of them; we can’t choose both, unfortunately.”

Sydney Metro - project map

Staples said the new stations already announces for the line between Chatswood and Sydenham – at Crows Nest, Victoria Cross, Barangaroo, Martin Place, Pitt Street and Central – had been chosen to provide to high density jobs and living areas.

“Ultimately we’re putting these stations where people want to get to,” he said.

“Whether it be jobs in the city around a place like Martin Place or Town Hall, or somewhere down like Barangaroo.

“Over on the north side – Crows Nest and North Sydney [Victoria Cross] – there’s lots of employment over there … so we’ve made sure we’ve got stations scattered through that corridor that are going to do the right things for people.”

He noted the line had wider implications than just serving the areas around the new stations, however.

“It’s just as much about giving more connectivity to people, to be able to do different types of trips.

“So you’ll be able to come out of say, Bondi Junction and end up at North Sydney or Macquarie Park much more quickly … by having an underground interchange.

“It is also about giving more capacity through the next fifty to a hundred years, through the CBD.

“In doing that we’re actually freeing up the existing Town Hall station, the existing Wynyard station, they’ll be less crowded when this is in place.

“We’ll carry more people through this train service than we can currently carry on the bridge and the harbour tunnel put together – road and rail.”

Staples said the project development team understood not everyone would be happy – especially if their building was among those which will be acquired to make the project happen.

“I’d love nothing more than to be able to build this railway and not have to do anything on this railway,” he said. “But we do need to break a few eggs for this to occur.

“It’s keyhole surgery; it’s more targeted [than in the past]. For the station at Martin Place, we’re acquiring buildings at either end of what the station will be like underground. The station is almost like two football fields in length – so quite large underground – but we’re essentially buying the buildings at the goalposts at each end.”

Finding a route to tunnel and build underground stations through the CBD’s complex web of underground networks was not easy, he explained, but the team has benefited from the work already conducted on the first portion of the metro project.

“We’ve learnt a lot from Northwest,” he said. “We’re taking all of that learning to bring it into the city, under the harbour.”

When the project is completed, the sites acquired by the project will hold potential for new development, he added.

“There is an opportunity to develop over the top of the stations long-term, which will be a fantastic thing for the city, I think.”


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