This Blog

The papers back home are all of a flutter as news of another renewed bid to get a European-style metro line or lines up and running in Sydney has been been published. The city is increasingly choking on crowded roads and crippling, dilapidated public transport networks which is getting to the point that other cities both nationally and in the Asia-Pacific region are leaping ahead as multinational companies would rather base themselves elsewhere than in the quagmired, tangled city.

Parramatta Road, otherwise known more aptly as Parramatta Car Park, on a reasonably quiet day

Despite a three-fold increase  in population in the last century, Sydney has barely expanded its aging rail network and as the city – bounded by mountains on three sides and the ocean on the other – is running out of space to expand and as petrol prices rise and air quality deteriorates – the car is finally being questioned as the best method of getting people around. Thank Christ, surely all this was apparently at least 10 – 15 years ago! And, thank goodness people are finally realising that humongous McMansions in the back of Woop Woop are not the best enviornmentally sustainable option.

All this sounds good, you would think. But, not every one is happy as you can see in this article focusing on Leichhardt, which would be transformed if the planned metro line from the city to Parramatta ends up being built going through there; and this article, where residents in Ku-ring-gai – where I was born and raised – would see more sustainable, medium-density developments built along the rail line. Shock horror, will someone please think of the children!

Photo of Roseville, on the north shore in Ku-ring-gai on the left, and what it may look like if strategic urban consolidation occurs along its rail corridor

Rant: You’d think people would be able to rationalise that if you live five kilometres west – in the case of Leichhardt and 12 to 20 kilometres north – in the case of Ku-ring-gai – of the centre of a metropolis of over four million people, you may have to share your suburb with – shock, horror – other people!

The NSW State Government is to wrest a wider scope of control in planning the proposed Metro West rail link and is hoping to be the recipients of $8.1 billion from the Commonwealth Government’s Infrastructure Australia fund in order to do so.  This along with other urban consolidation initiatives are no doubt going to piss off many local councils, residents and NIMBY groups!

And, people wonder why I never followed through with being an urban planner and instead find myself teaching English in a foreign land. There’s nothing more frustrating that seeing things that will benefit many being withdrawn as they will slightly inconvenience a vocal some. Though, I think the chances of this latest proposal getting off the ground is slim, which is a shame as Sydney was once a great city.

Pity is that unless things change and decisions are made and followed through, we’ll be looking at Sydney in forty years and wondering just what went wrong, it used to be a great place that run somewhat efficiently. Meanwhile, South East Asian and East Asian cities of comparable populations – not to mention Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth – will leave it in its dust and Sydney will become the Montevideo of the Asia-Pacific region.