Sunday 11 September 2016

Sydney Metro West part 2: complementary metro and light rail catchments

The first part looked at one proposal to replace the Parramatta light rail line with a metro.

However, the Parramatta to Olympic corridor, at over 1600 hectares of potential renewal lands, in the geographic heart of Greater Sydney, could easily support both a light rail line and a metro, as shown in the catchment map below (blue circles = light rail stations, purple circles = metro stations).  The metro would have stations at Silverwater and at Pippita as the key intermediate stops between Parramatta and Strathfield.

Note that Olympic Park is not an intermediate stop for the metro, as it actually has very limited value capture opportunities - sufficient for light rail but not for heavy rail... more on this later - first what needs to be explained is the concept of a "continuous walkup catchment".







Sydney Metro West Part 1: detailed scoop on WestLink proposal



The SMH has an "exclusive" story on Sydney West Metro, but was light on detail, apart from speculating it could replace parts of the Parramatta to Strathfield light rail network.

Below is one proposal that gives more "inside" detail on how one proposed West Metro line would work (effectively directly replacing the proposed Parramatta light rail to Strathfield).  This proposal has gone through a few iterations over the past few months, possibly due to feedback given to the private consortium by TfNSW.  The drawings below were taken from the February 2016 iteration, but there have been some subsequent refinements (such as an extension to Maroubra and deletion of the station at North Strathfield).

It is definitely pleasing to see the involvement of land owners and property companies becoming involved in transport planning.  The old "transport first" approach relies too much on Government capital grants and operational subsidies to be viable - as user fares cover only a minority of operating costs - let alone funding capital costs.  The result is that many worthwhile transport projects can't be funded.  It also results in lack of integration between stations and surrounding retail/commercial uses (resulting in dark, poor lit, inactive stations outside of peak hours).  In contrast, land owner led transport planning can create stations with better pedestrian access and more retail and commercial activation and allows the matching of funding with more intensive land use.

However, one controversy is whether this West Metro proposal would undermine the business case for a light rail line also.   Part 2 of this thread will demonstrate this is not the case by looking into an alternative metro alignment which will allow light rail and metro to co-exist in the same corridor (but with complementary value capture catchments).

Note: images below are an iconic interpretation of the West Metro Link only.

For actual maps sourced from the WestLink private consortium,
go to City of Parramatta website at this link: