SUMMARY

Introduction

This report focuses on:

The Inner Sydney Transport Challenge

Sydney is Australia's global city. At its core lie the City of Sydney and the inner suburbs. This area has the nation's highest concentration of jobs, population and tourist attractions. It is estimated that the City of Sydney alone generates economic activity of $60 billion annually, 8% of the nation's GDP.

Sydney is also Australia's oldest city. Originally built around an extensive tramway and railway network, many of its inner areas were never designed for the car. While its narrow streets and harbour-side setting add to its charm, they also create traffic bottlenecks.

Sydney is also a fast growing city. In the 1990s the City of Sydney added 60,000 jobs, and had the highest population growth rate of any local government area.

The inner suburbs are also growing strongly with the rise of apartment living. International visitors, almost half of whom arrive in Sydney, doubled during the 90s, and the City has three-quarters of all hotel accommodation in the Sydney region.

As a result, the city's transport systems are at capacity. Despite addition of new roads such as the Eastern Distributor, traffic on remaining roads in the inner suburbs grew by 20% in the 1990s. Bus and rail patronage also rose strongly in the last decade, and there are now 7,400 State Transit bus movements, plus growing numbers of private buses and tourist coaches, traversing the CBD daily. Despite the addition of bus lanes, buses typically average less than 10 kph in the city centre. Hundreds of buses travel slowly nose to tail in long queues between Central and Circular Quay every morning and evening. Space for buses to layover between runs is at a premium, with significant congestion in several streets used for bus layovers.

These transport and traffic problems will get worse. Both population and employment in inner Sydney are expected to grow by 20% by 2021, more if there is intensified development along Parramatta Road and in the southern corridor to the airport. The demand for travel within the CBD is estimated to rise by 32% by 2021, while the demand for travel to and from the CBD will rise by 22%. Longer term, the medium migration forecasts suggest Sydney as a whole will grow by 44% to 5.9 million by mid-century.

At the same time, there is rising concern at the environmental and health impacts of transport. Mobile sources account for 80% of Sydney's emissions of nitrogen oxides, almost 50% of volatile organic compounds, and 20% of particulates. Diesel-powered vehicles are a major source of particulates and NOx, as well air toxics, such as toluene and benzene.

Walking has been in decline in Sydney for some time, whilst cycling plays a very minor role for most people. Growing obesity levels and their health effects are one side effect of the lack of regular exercise by large numbers of people. Cars are a major cause of this whereas half of all walking trips are part of a public transport journey, cars tend to substitute for walking. In addition the growing volume of traffic makes cycling all but impossible except for the few cycle paths available in the inner suburbs.

Continuing to rely on current surface transit options, in particular on cars and buses, will become increasingly inefficient and unworkable. This will erode the amenity of the city and undermine its economic potential.

Inner Sydney needs a world-class transport system if Sydney is to remain a world-class city.

Goals and Objectives of the Strategy

A new integrated transport strategy is needed to achieve a world class transport system. Key goals for this strategy are to: Specific objectives to achieve these goals are:

Key Elements

Key elements of a strategy to tackle these objectives include:

Routes and Staging

The five proposed mass transit corridors were developed by analysing current patronage volumes, ease of implementation, future growth potential and the existence of competing heavy rail systems. Within the CBD, three potential alignments have been identified: George Street (2- way); Castlereagh Street (2-way); and Pitt and Castlereagh (Figure 8). Eventually both the George Street route and one of the other two routes will be needed for capacity reasons. The formal choice of routes and the staging of construction are subject to discussion with State and Local Governments and other key stake-holders and further analysis of traffic and other issues.

Benefits from the Strategy

The proposed strategy will:

Rationale for Mode Choice

Continuing to rely on the current bus based system into the future is not considered sustainable or desirable: Options for improving the quality and capacity of mass transit in the CBD and inner suburbs include: These alternatives have been evaluated in various studies. For example: Overseas experience clearly backs light rail as the preferred mode for these types of applications: Light Rail has therefore been identified as the key element of the strategy to boost the capacity and quality of the mass transit system for the inner suburbs and CBD: