Calls to put Parramatta Road back on track

BY MICHAEL FORNO

There have been renewed calls to build a light rail running the length of Parramatta road.

Greens MP Jamie Parker started a petition last week calling on the government to extend the southeast light rail project on George Street down Broadway and down Parramatta Road.

“With our city growing and our roads clogged by traffic it is critical that we start investing in more light rail infrastructure,” he said earlier this week.

“I call on the government to support extending the light rail service to Parramatta Road and Balmain.”

The support for the project has been slow but strong with over 100 signatures now appearing on the petition.

One signatory to the petition, Wendy Kain, commented her eagerness for the project on the petition’s webpage.

“This idea has come of age. I’ve just returned from inner city Melbourne. The tram system allows things to run so smoothly and easily. Studies show it would work well. Come on, do what’s good for the environment too,” she said.

Activist groups have also gotten behind the idea of extending Sydney’s once substantial light rail network.

Gavin Gatenby is the co-convener of EcoTransit Sydney. He has long advocated for an extension of the light rail network.

“With a modest investment in light rail, it’s now possible to remove tens of thousands of vehicle movements a day – particularly in the peak periods – from Parramatta Road and restore the historic thoroughfare as a pleasant and liveable place.

“The Parramatta Road Light Rail will distribute people throughout the densely populated inner west, and to the many services and attractors like universities, shops, hospital, businesses and parks,” he said.

Despite strong community support it seems unlikely that the light rail extension will happen any time soon. Many think it will share the same fate as Mr Parker’s attempts to establish a new ferry service from the Glebe Foreshore to Circular Quay.

Sydney once had a larger tram network that Melbourne currently does with over 290 kilometres of track. Today’s light rail network consists of a single line running just 12 kilometres.

The petition can be found at www.jamieparker.org/lightrail