Monday 13 October 2014

Stations for Sydney University vs Waterloo

This is reported by SMH:

"Jockeying over train stations to be built south of a second harbour rail crossing has already begun, with the University of Sydney lobbying for a campus station and the government's property development arm pushing for one at a redeveloped Waterloo."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/jockeying-begins-over-new-train-stations-for-sydney-university-or-waterloo-20141009-10roaj.html#ixzz3FwGJWEiq

One assertion I found interesting was this:

"But Mr Turnbull questioned why a new line was needed through the Waterloo area, when the existing Airport Line travels under that area. It is understood, however, that installing a new station on the Airport Line could require closing that line for months during construction."



In relation to minimising disruption, one idea would be that given Urban Growth NSW wants to redevelop the properties around the proposed Waterloo station anyway, why not use this as an opportunity to construct a new loop alongside (ie: a few metres away from) the existing rail line, and construct the station on this new loop.  Then bring this new loop and station "live" by connecting ends of the loop into the existing track.  This all depends on the depth below the surface of the Airport line - data which I have not previously seen.  Unfortunately, this won't avoid disruption entirely, as joining of the loop will still need to take place.

However, it might be worth the trouble if the plan is eventually to add a branch to the Airport line.  In my earlier proposal, I suggested the Revesby/Airport/City Circle/Inner West be converted to 30tph metro as part of the introduction (using the Rozelle Railyards) of a 4th Western line track pair (so that express services from South line can be separated from all stops inner west services):



Metro conversion will allow 30 trains per hour rather than the current double deck limit of under 20 trains per hour.  Although the predicted patronage of the Revesby line will also go a long way to filling up this capacity, to fully utilise the 30tph capacity of a metro will probably also require branching of the Airport and Inner west lines.... or at least will be good to have stub branches in place for this option.

The other advantage for metro conversion of Revesby/Airport/CC/Inner West is that it complements the SRT approach very nicely.  SRT will free up capacity at Wynyard and Town Hall stations by building entirely new CBD stations.  Then the freed up capacity at Wynard/Town Hall can be reallocated towards City Circle metro conversion (the current latent/underused capacity of St James & Museum can likewise be better utilised).  To do this metro conversion however requires an additional pair of tracks on the Western lines - hence my interest in the Bays Precinct Rozelle Railyards.

This recent news however does add to my point of view in a prior post about UrbanGrowth NSW, that they should consider taking up the HK MTR Corporation model, where both rail infrastructure and property development are done simultaneously by one company.  This would help counter accusations that UrbanGrowth NSW are a tool of private developers, and don't prioritise interests of wider Sydney citizens by ensuring adequate infrastructure accompanies development.

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