The Parramatta Light Rail Problem

[Music] stage one of the Parramatta Light Rail has been under construction since 2018 with its opening finally expected next year in 2024 I'm genuinely quite excited I live only about a five minute drive from the former climate railway station and yet I only ever use the poorly service station once I used it once the carlingford railway line is being converted to light rail which will make it significantly easier for people who live Northeast of Parramatta along the former Railway line to get to Parramatta I made a video all about the carlingford line last year and I'd recommend checking that out before you watch this video but did you know that the Parramatta Light Rail almost looked substantially different it almost followed a very different route this is the story of the version of the Parramatta light rail that never came to be and why I think it should still be built [Music] before I continue massive shout out to my monthly curfew supporters please do consider supporting me over on Kofi if you can also please subscribe if you haven't already and do be sure to check out the rest of my channel your go to YouTube destination for all being City Planning after the video [Music] Parramatta actually used to have trans over 100 years ago there was a tram line that ran from parramatto Castle Hill via Windsor Road and Old Northern Road which closed in 1927 to be converted into the Rogan Hills Railway I said that wrong it's Rogan till I always get that confused but anyways that itself closed in 1932. there was also a tram line that ran for about four kilometers from Parramatta Park along George Street and to Camellia which closed in 1943. this Tramway is actually the reason that there is a Tramway Avenue in East Parramatta which will actually be the name of an upcoming stop on the Parramatta light rail on that note let's look at the root of stage one of the Parramatta Light Rail it starts at Westmead Station makes a rather roundabout trip around Parramatta to give access to the north side of its CBD before heading back down south to interchange with the future Parramatta Square Metro station it then heads East towards Rose Hill where it joins up with the former carlingford Railway line to head north to carlingford the light rail will really help to open up the north and west side of Parramatta CBD to visitors formerly a transfer at the relatively useless Clyde station was required to get to Parramatta from the carlingford line which meant most people along the corridor just took the bus to Parramatta instead but now to put it simply the carlingford line will actually end somewhere important Parramatta Light Rail stage 2 is planned to diverge from stage one at Rose Hill following the north side of the Parramatta River before Crossing back down over the river down south to Wentworth Point and then Sydney Olympic Park where it will interchange with the new Metro station there the north side of the Parramatta River and went with the point are quite devoid of public transport options so I really do approve of the route of stage 2. the light rail will make it so much easier to get to Parramatta from the north but there's a gap that remains to the northeast of carlingford and towards Epping there's no rail either heavy or light between Epping and Parramatta in 1998 plants were put forward to fix this but these were canceled in 2003. so getting the Parramatta from anywhere to the northeast of Parramatta from areas like Macquarie Park North ride Chatswood and Beyond it's quite hard I call this Zone The uncrossable Zone and because of the Parramatta Light Rail doesn't link up with any stations on either the T9 or the Metro Northwest The uncrossable Zone will remain but it wasn't always meant to be this way let's rewind to 2013. this was the year that a feasibility study into the Parramatta Light Rail was prepared by the following engineering Consultants many many different rates were assessed including Parramatta to Castle Hill Macquarie Park Rhodes Burwood and bankstown the feasibility study ultimately chose two routes that would make the most sense to construct guess what routes they ended up choosing drum roll please yup they chose Parramatta to Castle Hill and the Parramatta Macquarie Park via Eastwood wait a second this looks nothing like what they ended up going with let's dive in a bit deeper Parramatta to Castle Hill was predicted to have a patronage of 9000 to 10 200 in morning Peak period which would strengthen the existing public transport corridor it would also allow for a key interchange with the Northwest Rail Link at Castle Hill which was under construction at the time Parramatta to Macquarie Park via Eastwood was predicted to not only provide the most direct alignment between the two centers but also have an estimated patronage of 9 000 to 11 500 during a morning Peak period more importantly it would provide an interchange with the rail network at Eastwood and Macquarie Park the feasibility study then went on to propose a very comprehensive route that the light rail could follow the light rail network proposed around Parramatta and Westmead largely matches what has ultimately been constructed but let's look beyond that towards Castle Hill first the light rail would have followed a widened Windsor Road for about 10 kilometers with stops at such locations at North Rocks Road baulkham Hills and coronation road before going along Victoria Avenue and a widened showground road to Castle Hill so basically it would have followed the former Rogan till Railway now to Macquarie Park the light rail would have largely followed the carnic fit line at first it would have then diverged at Dundas or is it Dundas Dundas whatever it would have followed kissing Point Road before following the never constructed Eastwood County Road Corridor this is going to be a highway that would have been about six lanes and would have cut through Eastwood but it was never built it would have cut through brush Farm Park where they stop at Eastwood then continuing along the unbuilt highway Corridor to marsfield and then the Macquarie University Station all up in this entire proposal there were 30 proposed stops the estimated cost of the whole project was set to be 1.525 billion not accounting for inflation now frankly I just absolutely love this route compared to what eventuated for starters there's a link up north to Castle Hill to me that just makes so much sense since the public transport along this Corridor is abysmal and over-reliant on buses a light rail would help alleviate congestion on the heavily trafficked Windsor Road I love the Macquarie Park alignment even more because with the Macquarie Park light rail alignment the uncrossable zone is completely abolished furthermore this route has interchanges with two heavy Rail stations a truly robust public transport network has more interchangers the more interchanges the better finally by using the Eastwood County Road Corridor which is already owned by the government this route saves itself money that would otherwise be needed for land acquisition very resourceful but then in 2015 everything changed transport for New South Wales announced a very different route to what the feasibility studies had identified for stage one the light rail would go to carlingford instead of Macquarie Park and there'd be nothing towards Castle Hill ultimately it's a bit forgivable that it won't go to Castle Hill not completely just a bit because not as many people live in this Northwest Corridor as this North East Corridor people in Epping Macquarie Eastwood Chatswood and beyond all will still have trouble getting the Parramatta The uncrossable Zone largely remains yes they have fixed the carlingford line on its southern end but it still ends in pretty much the middle of nowhere on its northern end so what exactly went wrong why wasn't this route to Macquarie chosen well I mean it's pretty clear When comparing which one is going to be cheaper to build plus the government really wanted to close the carlingford line at the time and it wouldn't make sense to only convert it up to Dundas I fear politics and funding were a large part of the decision okay but why not just extend it from carlingford to the nearby Epping I hear you ask I mean it's pretty nearby it's certainly a shorter route than done this to Macquarie okay well let's explore it to get up this Steep Hill at the end of the Light Rail and to carlingford Road would likely require a tunnel which would be pretty costly then we get to carlingford road which isn't just congested it's also too narrow as far as I can tell I'm really not convinced a light rail would fit along car Langford Road without demolishing some houses or sacrificing traffic Lanes I've also looked at side streets and I just can't find a logical corridor but anyways if assuming we somehow managed to get around all that once you get to beecroft Road you'll have to somehow find a way over what is a very very busy Road intersection and over the railway so yeah it won't be easy to get to Epping it's no wonder then that this report from May 2016 justifying the choice to send the light rail to carlingford acknowledges the massive engineering challenges past carlingford hell that's why they chose to end David carlingford compare this to a line from Dundas to Macquarie which not only has much wider Road corridors but even has reserved land for it to follow a light rail will fit so much more easily here so truly I have no idea why it wasn't chosen the aforementioned 2016 report claims that the route has a lower transport demand and less urban renewal potential but it does so without any evidence and as a local I have a very hard time believing that low transport demand the 545 bus route which runs from Macquarie to Parramatta via Eastwood runs every 10 to 15 minutes in peak hour it's not the busiest Corridor in Sydney but it's definitely not low demand if you add the 550 in there's almost 30 buses that run between Macquarie and Parramatta in the morning Peak this is a busy Corridor and it'll only get busier as Parramatta takes off something it needs to be done so what are the options here how do we try and dismantle The uncrossable Zone okay let's get technical we could have a branch line branching off from Dundas but what makes this tough is the future Branch to the Olympic Park we'll call this The L4 this dl5 and this dl6 let's propose four minute peak hour frequencies which are currently seen in the CBD on the L2 and the L3 combined every second train will go along the L6 meaning eight minute frequencies along this section then every third train can go along The L4 meaning 24 minute frequencies to carlingford and 16 minute frequencies to Macquarie uh that's not good enough this is why Branch lines are far from ideal they're too hard to schedule around so there's a few ways to go from here we could increase frequencies even further but that has its limits we could find some way to extend the line from carlingford to Epping as tough as I've proven that to be or we could stubbornly try to find another way what I'm about to propose is very bold and would have a Visionary 20-year time frame but I think it's far from impossible I propose we built a completely new alignment from Parramatta to Dundas starting at the bus Bay at Parramatta station the route would go north along Smith Street and wild Avenue before turning East along Victoria Road bus lanes exist on all these roads that can be easily sacrificed in favor of light rail then going along the likely traffic to pennant Street it can join up with the very wide kissing Point Road it will interchange with the Dundas Light Rail stop before continuing along the proposed 2013 route to Macquarie therefore Dundas to Macquarie won't be a branch anymore which will make scheduling so much easier so that's my proposal that's the way I suggest we finally dismantle The uncrossable Zone once and for all now as for other extensions of the Parramatta Light Rail the 2013 feasibility study recommended one to Castle Hill as I already mentioned but it also a recommended one to roads and to bankstown I think these are both good options and I do hope they are explored as potential extensions over the years to come for now we'll simply await the opening of the Parramatta Light Rail next year in 2024 thank you for watching [Music]

Channel: Building Beautifully

Views: 39,953

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Id: vLjCER3euU4

Length: 14min 8sec (848 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 04 2023