Bays Precinct an opportunity to right the wrongs of Barangaroo

Mike Harris in his comparison of the planning of Barangaroo to other global megaprojects reports the following:

"In the case of Barangaroo transparency, participation and accountability have all been heavily criticised from academia, government, professional and popular media quarters... 

Technical vagueness has been exhibited in the transport planning for Barangaroo. 23,000 people are expected to live and work at Barangaroo and another 33,000 are expected to visit daily. In 2011, four years after the approval of the Barangaroo Concept Plan - acting as the statutory master planning instrument - the transport planning was described as little more than vague ideas (Withnell, 2011). This is despite the publicised goal that 96% of employees during peak will travel by public transport, bicycle or foot (Barangaroo Delivery Authority, 2013). The number of employees anticipated to travel during peak is not provided but in a worst case scenario (they all do) 96% is 22,000 people. To consider this by transport mode capacity that would mean 368 busses, 73 trams or 18.5 double decker heavy rail trains. The question that this raises is how was such major development (“Sydney’s largest redevelopment project this century”, by BDA’s own admission) approved and progressed without a well defined transport strategy, including commitment for investment in new or upgraded public transport infrastructure. In September 2012 the Barangaroo Integrated Transport Plan was released. The plan primarily proposes “viability investigations” and “feasibility studies” for increasing capacity on existing infrastructure. 

By global megaproject standards transport infrastructure provision at Barangaroo could be considered very poor. The Ørestad and Nordhavn megaprojects in Copenhagen, Hudson Yards in New York, HafenCity in Hamburg, Zuidas in Amsterdam and Kop van Zuid in Rotterdam included commitments for new rail lines and stations as part of the early planning phase. In the case of Ørestad the metro line was constructed first, funded by the future sale of the public land (Book, Eskilsson, & Khan, 2010). This strategy of funding a new metro line with the revenue raised from selling public land is now being implemented at Copenhagen’s next megaproject Nordhavn."

Bays Precinct is an opportunity to right these wrongs.  I have proposed using the Rozelle Railyards as a heavy rail corridor to connect Barangaroo into the Western Sydney commuter rail network.  However, even if there is no agreement on the exact rail transport plans, it is important that a corridor for heavy rail as well as light rail be preserved in the Rozelle Railyards - not just light rail.