It would be a major failure of urban planning if zoning for additional housing doesn't go alongside such a huge capacity increment. We have already seen how urban planning and rail infrastructure go hand-in-hand along the Epping-Chatswood line:
* North Ryde station has become an
* Macquarie Park station remains "commercial core" and off limits to residential development, but plans for commercial office blocks of up to 17 storeys have been approved.
* Macquarie University Station has significant development anticipated through the Macquarie University masterplan, Macquarie Centre retail redevelopment, and Herring road urban activation/residential development.
* Epping station is an urban activation precinct, for which mixed use developments of up to 22 storeys is anticipated.
* Numerous stations along the northwest rail-link extension of the Epping-Chatswood line have been rezoned, with 29000 additional dwellings anticipated along the corridor.
* Chatswood, St Leonards and North Sydney have continued to have numerous additional residential towers proposed, approved and under construction.
To date, north shore line stations beyond Chatswood (from Roseville to Wahronga) have "escaped" residential development of the same scale (they did get a number of 5 storey apartments, which as we will see below was not enough, yet used up much precious & scarce station catchment land). In the absence of a second harbour crossing, this was understandable as the Bradfield-era single existing rail track pair on the Harbour bridge would not be able to cope with the combined passenger load coming from the Epping-Chatswood, Northwest and North Shore lines. However, once the second harbour crossing is in place, this bottle neck no longer applies, and there will be enormous spare capacity along the upper north shore line.