Mini budget gives birth to mini metro
BY JEREMY BROWN
NSW Premier Nathan Rees announced on November 10 that the mini-budget had a significant transport element.
“I’ve made it very clear that public transport is important and what we are announcing is affordable and deliverable,’ the premier said.
There was hope that light rail and other potential low-cost transport projects might finally be in the mix.
But instead of taking the low cost, low energy solution offered by light rail, the premier subsequently announced the anchor of the new transport plan was to be a ‘mini-metro’, providing an underground link from Central to a new station at Wyndham, on to Barangaroo and under the harbour to Pyrmont, then down under the harbour again to make the steep climb to Rozelle.
It would eventually be the first stage of a new line to the northwest.
Newly-elected Leichhardt Mayor Jamie Parker has dubbed the mini metro plan ‘a costly mistake’.
‘Premier Nathan Rees’ new CBD metro plan is ill-thought through, expensive and an exercise in policy on the run. The sensible option for the Inner West is right under Nathan Rees’ nose: extend the existing light rail service,’ Councillor Parker said last week.
And transport experts are not thrilled by this new $A 1.8 Bn project, which has been widely described as impractical and of little use in solving Sydney’s transport problems.
It would be an expensive feat of heroic engineering to build, and a long term project that will not deliver relief to commuters until well after the next state election.
Some planners argue that encouraging flexibility in work hours and decentralisation would be more effective than more motorways and underground transit projects.
Before the mini-budget, Greens MP Lee Rhiannon encouraged the premier to make savings by ‘canning new motorway projects like the M4 East and the Port Botany truck tunnel’.
“The government should drop its plans for new road projects, and concentrate on new rail infrastructure. Rees is keen to distinguish himself as a thoughtful, visionary premier. Next week’s mini-budget is the Premier’s once in a lifetime opportunity to make his mark,” Ms Rhiannon said.
But it was not to be. In response to a request about the future of light rail to the Transport Minister, David Campbell, his office issued the following statement:
‘The Government will consider all options for potential transport uses of this corridor. I’m aware of interest by the current operators to lease more disused freight lines, between Summer Hill and Lilyfield, to use as a light rail extension. I understand the line currently forms part of the Metropolitan Freight Network, which is scheduled to be formally transferred to the Australian Rail Track Corporation. To ensure that the corridor remains in NSW Government ownership until its future use is determined, I have written to the CEO of RailCorp requesting that the corridor be excised from the Metropolitan Freight Network.’
One potential use of the goods line would be to remove spoil from Glebe Island, where a depot is to be constructed for tunneling and concrete casting for the Rozelle Metro.
Light rail advocates point out there is no difficulty sharing light and heavy rail on the same line, so they say this should not be a reason for inaction, were the project to proceed.
Deputy Premier and Marrickville MP Carmel Tebbut’s spokeswoman restated that the deputy was prepared to wait until the result of the current feasibility study into the proposed Western Metro, before considering light rail, which she had championed earlier this year.
This study into the Western Metro was signed off in 2006. Infrastructure Australia, a Federal Government authority, would provide $25 million and the state government a further $20 million to investigate a fast metro underground from the CBD to Parramatta.
The current state of this study is not known. It was due to be finished by the end of 2008 but according to Federal Minister for Transportation and Infrastructure Anthony Albanese, ‘We expect the studies to be finalised by the middle of next year…’
