Interchange with Strathfield would be crucial to the efficiency of the eastern end of the light rail line, so how could it work? First, let's look at existing Strathfield council plans for bus interchange at Strathfield station. Buses essentially will enter into an underground complex, with buses comprising the middle level of the complex (an underground concourse connecting the station to Strathfield Plaza is situated above and a commuter park and ride is situated below):
Could the light rail also enter the interchange at the same level as the buses? Probably not. The bus interchange is located on the southern side of Strathfield station whereas light rail will approach from the north (and may not even get as far as the station). At the northern side of the station, Leicester Ave is the major road and unfortunately there is significant conflict between pedestrian access to the station and through-traffic. Leicester Ave comes to a round-about which occupies a valley which permits Leicester Ave to thread beneath the railway line. I've previously envisaged a pedestrian only green open space being built over this roundabout, to separate out pedestrians walking to the station from cars driving through:
However, it makes sense that the light rail (the yellow line in the map below) could also be routed onto the pedestrian/green space (the green rectangle), and then end in a platform that provides cross platform connection with express trains heading into Central on the main west line (the yellow rectangle below). Trains heading into platform 1 could provide this cross platform interchange through a new platform connected to the light rail platform, with the train opening doors on both sides to allow access from both the old platform 1 and the new platform:
No comments:
Post a Comment