MEDIA RELEASE
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Lattice Do Something About The Railways - 19th May 2017
The Mayor of Blacktown City, Stephen Bali, is calling on the NSW Government to build two major new rail lines to better connect Western Sydney with the CBD and Sydney’s second airport.
“We need two major north-south rail lines to interconnect with the current east-west heavy rail lines and provide a more logical public transport flow,” Cr Bali said.
“Without an interconnecting ‘latticed’ rail network, there will be even more traffic chaos than there is now.”
A CBD express service from the second airport that stops in Blacktown and Parramatta is also essential, he said.
“It provides an alternative to car travel on the motorway network, will reduce travel times by providing non-stop services from Parramatta to the City and will help resolve overcrowding on the T1 Western Line,” Mayor Bali said.
“The current east-west rail plan is essentially the same as it was in the 1880s, when around 4,000 people lived in Blacktown. Now there are 350,000 and we are heading for more than 500,000 by 2036.
“Failure to do this now is planning to fail in the future,” he said.
“A properly planned and funded transport infrastructure plan for Western Sydney is essential for its success.
He envisages a mid-western link starting at Cudgegong Road Station (on the Sydney Metro Northwest Rail Link), then connecting Blacktown/Mt Druitt “or through Marsden Park”, the future Badgerys Creek airport, and Liverpool to slash times travelling between Sydney’s north west and south west.
He also wants an “outer link that captures Richmond, Penrith, through Badgerys Creek and out to Campbelltown”.
“For Badgerys Creek Airport to be a success it must be supported by an appropriate infrastructure network – a network ready to cater for an additional one million residents, growth in economic activity, and the demands of an international airport from day one,” he said.
“The level of frustration with road congestion as more and more people need to travel across Western Sydney is reaching boiling point.
“For Western Sydney to deliver the proposed social and economic benefits, there must be an integrated rail and road plan; a budget for each item; and a timetabled, funded strategy for delivery.
“We urge the Federal and NSW Governments to plan and deliver the long overdue transport upgrades needed in Western Sydney,” Mayor Bali said
For Badgerys Creek to work, we need a transparent and well-funded plan that grows industry and gets the right infrastructure in place at the right time.
“We don’t want it to become a white elephant like Avalon or the abandoned second airport in Montreal.
“Western Sydney is set to witness considerable growth due to Sydney’s every increasing population.
“New rail services, or upgraded existing services, are required to provide viable public transport services for our residents, notwithstanding the future second airport.
“Work on new and upgraded rail services for Western Sydney must start immediately should not be delayed to provide links to an airport that may or may not be built at a certain date,” he said.
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