Sydney’s transport planning “insane” say experts

by Michael Gormly
Transport planning in Sydney showed ‘a level of madness’ and signs of ‘desperation and insanity’, according to transport planner Leah Mason from the Eco-Transit group.

‘The government’s process can be summed up as Plan, Announce, Defer and Abandon,’ she said on Saturday at a city forum organised by The Greens.

Leichhardt Mayor Jamie Parker listed 15 major projects which had been axed since Bob Carr was Premier.

He said transport was driven by politics and bickering between transport agencies protecting their own turf. Worst of all was the RTA, which had near absolute control over the government.

As a result, said Ms Mason, the billions of federal infrastructure dollars about to hit Sydney would be misspent mostly on more roads.

Motorways were well known to induce increased traffic. This meant the proposed M5 motorway duplication would simply funnel more traffic into a huge bottleneck near the airport, she said. Also on the table were the unpopular M4 east extension, the M6 extension (shelved but now revived), the duplication of the Iron Cove Bridge on Victoria Road, and other tunnel proposals.

Meanwhile, declining world oil supplies meant the price of petrol would soar again within the next two to five years.

UTS lecturer Garry Glazebrook has a plan that would double public transport use within 30 years, also doubling cycling and walking. In spite of a projected 30 per cent population increase for Sydney, this would keep vehicle travel at present levels, making extra road-building unnecessary.

CBD Metro a ‘waste of money’

He said the proposed $4.6 billion mini-metro from Rozelle to Central was not only a waste of money but was part of a larger system that would prevent future expansion of both heavy rail and light rail.

The full metro with a city loop would involve five underwater crossings. ‘This would require tunnels to be 40m underground,’ said Mr Glazebrook. ‘You have to go that deep to reach the solid sandstone beneath the mud and slush.’

‘This in turn means the stations would have to be deep underground, so it would take passengers ages just to travel to and from the surface. This would make the whole system inefficient.’

In addition, the city loop would use the underground space needed for expansion of the heavy rail system. And using the Rozelle goods rail line to remove construction waste would prevent expansion of the existing light rail system.

‘I think this Metro is deliberately designed to kill off heavy and light rail,’ he said. ‘It might seem a bit Machiavellian but that’s my view,’ he said.

Nor was the metro cost-effective. Jamie Parker said expanding the existing light rail to Dulwich Hill at one end and to Circular Quay at the other would do a better job and cost only millions, not billions. ‘They should save the rest and spend it in western Sydney,’ he said.

He told of a meeting with the transport ministry where he tabled figures that showed the projected inner city bike network ‘ now passed over by Infrastructure Australia ‘ had a cost-benefit of $2.80 for every dollar spent. The Iron Cove Bridge duplication would return only 94 cents for every dollar.

Despite the evidence, the ministry just kept repeating: ‘But the RTA don’t support it’, he said. ‘It was like listening to a broken record.’

He suggested there was no hope of getting any transport sense out of the government and proposed a broad-based statewide campaign to pressure them in the lead-up to the next election.

‘We need an over-arching transport authority to neutralise the self-interest of the existing transport agencies and to break the resistance of the government to these key transport initiatives,’ he said.

State Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell has also proposed a similar authority.

Mr Parker saw the extension of light rail to Dulwich Hill as a core objective. ‘They are scared that one viable light rail line would make it go viral all over Sydney,’ he said. He had written to several councils including City of Sydney, Marrickville and Ashfield to gain support for the campaign.