Parramatta Centric Revisualisation of Rail Network

Parramatta has been made Greater Sydney's dual CBD in the latest Sydney Metro Strategy.

One criticism of the existing Sydney rail network is that it is too Sydney CBD centric and consists mainly of radial lines with poor inter-regional/orbital connectivity.

But this is not so if you revisualise the network (plus officially announced reserved rail corridors and existing rapid bus T-ways) from a Parramatta-centric point of view.  As can be seen in the network diagram below, Sydney's rail network forms a very nicely balanced combination of orbital rail routes and radial rail lines around Parramatta at it's centre.  Surprisingly, these aren't just fantasy "lines on a map".   Already existing (or under construction/reservation) today are a comprehensive and coherent set of inner and outer orbitals plus western, eastern, northern and southern radial lines converging into the vicinity of Parramatta.  The missing links are relatively minor.

The yellow central area is the Central Corridor previously discussed on this blog.

Acknowledgements: the diagram below is my realisation of the network, after the initial conception of a Parramatta-centric rail network came from Bob Meyer at Cox Achitecture.

This type of visualisation should be used by TfNSW so as to change it's mindset and paradigm for future transport planning, as well as to educate the public and importantly, developers/business decision makers, on Sydney's transport geography and Parramatta's central role therein.