Finally, the hopeless, incompetent NSW government realises it has to upgrade Sydney’s train system, and it’s a good start – a $12b metro line from St James (CBD) to Rouse Hill in the Northwest. Over 32km of new tunnel – because they didn’t reserve land years ago, like they should have – and 17 new stations, including one at Epping, which will connect to Chatswood. Major construction to start next year. Metro-style single deck trains, probably driverless – good shit.
(warning – 2.5MB PDF)
This is so long overdue it’s not funny, but it’s a good start. Now we need only another 5 or so of these lines. With the Greater Sydney Metro Region over 5 million now – almost a quarter of the whole country lives here – the lack of investment in Rail infrastructure has long been the single worst thing about the NSW government – pouring billions into roads but nothing into rail! Don’t get me wrong, I love roads, but for commuters trains are many times more efficient.
I am not exactly a true believer in the current Greenhouse Effect scare campaign but that doesn’t mean I think it’s a good idea to burn away millions of litres of increasingly precious oil, and fill the atmosphere with megatons of CO2, while commuters sit one per car in gridlocked traffic. If fear of Global Warming leads to more investment in public transport, maybe I’ll jump on that bandwagon after all!
