Action for Public Transport (N.S.W.)

Current and forthcoming issues in Sydney transport

• Whether the revolving-door appointments of a string of NSW Treasurers will ever lead to a new era of finance in which Treasury boffins who can't see any value in deficit budgeting will be over-ruled, permitting essential development of transport services to proceed.
• Why Sydney's population has to keep increasing at about one thousand per week when there are serious limitations on essential infrastructure including water supply and public transport. Perhaps the federal government is using immigrants to help mask the effects that the large number of mature people who will soon retire will have on the economy.
• The proposed road tunnel from Beecroft to Wahroonga under Pennant Hills Road linking the M2 and F3.
• April 2004 Citytalk on new urbanism.
• The proposed M4-East, which the RTA wants to construct linking the Western Distributor in the Leichhardt/Haberfield area with the M4 at Concord. Three candidate routes have been proposed. Read APT's submission.
• The Parry inquiry into public transport funding. See http://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/ministerial-inquiry/. Also see APT comments and submissions at http://www.aptnsw.org.au/cgi-bin/items.cgi.
• The Unsworth inquiry into bus services in N. S. W. See http://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/busreview/. The new contracts offered to bus companies following this review are said to be much more complicated than the old. Regardless of complexity, Harris Park Buses has decided not to renew its contract and Westbus has been placed under adminstration so perhaps the contracts should be made more profitable for the sake of continuing services.
• A contract has been let to ERG to introduce integrated ticketing to Sydney public transport. So far there has been no public consultation on the matter. See the official Tcard site. Will the system have any benefits for passengers, or only for the operators? APT have some guidelines for commuter consultation.
• The transitway network being built in western and north-western areas. Will it attract a worthwhile number of passengers from cars?
• The road tunnel. which some people want bypassing the Spit area.
• The decision to widen the Spit Bridge. At the time of writing (September 2006) some councillors on each side and the member for North Shore think the decision a bad one because of the extra traffic that will be induced through Mosman. However the member for Manly and the Government prevail. Also see our news item.
• A possible light rail loop in the CBD. This should not be thought of as an extension of the Central-Lilyfield line but rather as a base for other services.

  Shopkeepers in the Pitt Street mall oppose the proposed City loop because it will make them share with other shops the pre-eminent status held by them because of their easily-reached position. And it is opposed by e.g. the NRMA because it will allegedly cause unacceptable disruption to road traffic. Opponents conceded it could go ahead once the cross-city tunnel was built yet it seems to have disappeared from plans.

  The route was once planned to be mainly Pitt and Castlereagh streets, but other routes are being evaluated. Unfortunately, if any route other than Pitt/Castlereagh is used, the northbound and southbound tracks will be so far apart that they will have different catchment areas, spoiling the service.

• The M5 East tunnel under Turrella is visibly smokey inside at most times; will community concern about drivers breathing bad air be enough to make the RTA boost the ventilation and provide more powerful ventilation in subsequent tunnels?
• Mitigating the traffic congestion which opening the M2 motorway has caused in Lane Cove. A 5- and 6-lane self-financed road tunnel is nearing completion, which means motorists from the north-west will need to pay three tolls each way on a return trip to the airport or face bad congestion on a narrowed Epping Road.
• The cross-city road tunnel. Incredibly, an editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald on 24th October 1999 stated the tunnel would fix the CBD'S gridlock. Well, it didn't.
• The "western Sydney orbital" or, more accurately, extensions to a north-western and a south-western radial motorways and a connection between their outer ends. It has opened; time will be needed to assess its effect on the structure of western Sydney.
• The campaign which led to the latest reprieve of the Newcastle railway. See the Dunbar Report (http://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/pubs_legal/ and click on Lower Hunter Transport Working Group First Report - 874964 bytes). Also see http://saveourrail.org.au/.
• Fighting the NSW government's thinly-veiled plan to cut country railway lines and the Countrylink services that use them. Indefinite suspension of services (not closure) of the Murwillumbah branch was announced on 6th April 2004. See Trains on Our Tracks. Other targets are the Northern Tablelands line beyond Tamworth to Armidale, the Broken Hill service, and some of the recently three now only two daily return Canberra services (confusingly, they're at different times on different days).

Further reading

• Radio National Science Show 15 January 2005 Beyond Gridlock: An Impossible Dream? about traffic congestion in cities.
• For children: http://www.thelittledriver.com/.
• Book Back on Track: Rethinking transport policy in Australia and New Zealand by Philip Laird, Peter Newman, Mark Bachels and Jeffrey Kenworthy. Published in 2001 by UNSW Press. Available from http://www.aussiecycling.com.au/books/productlist/3656/3656.html with updates at http://www.math.uow.edu.au/people/backontrk.pdf.
• The writings of George Monbiot, especially on transport.
• Book Divorce your Car! by Katie Alvord, available from New Society Publishers
• http://www.bestransport.org/cadrebest.html about sustainable transport in Europe.

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