2007-09-14

*Gasp!* NSW Government may build new underground rail line

From the department of even-a-stopped-clock-tells-the-right-time-twice-a-day:
The NSW Government is to consider an east-west underground railway dubbed the Anzac Line, and a radical plan for a western Sydney fast train.

But the construction of a crucial CBD rail link and second harbour crossing - the former centrepiece of the Government's rail expansion plan - is in doubt.

Transport chiefs, including the heads of RailCorp and State Transit, are expected to be told today that the CBD link - which would have included three new city stations and provide badly needed relief for the congested North Shore Line and City Circle - should be postponed. It was to have been built by 2017.

Officials from the Ministry of Transport, led by the acting director of public transport planning, Rod Staples, are expected to set out a vastly different picture of the city's transport future.

Mr Staples's plan advocates an east-west underground metro-style line using single-deck carriages and running between Malabar and West Ryde, under Anzac Parade and Victoria Road.

It would ease congestion along Victoria Road, with stations at the University of NSW, Moore Park, Drummoyne, Gladesville and Ryde, all expected to attract large numbers of commuters.

Public transport travel time from Drummoyne and Maroubra into the city would be cut by one-third. In the city, the line would have stations at Martin Place, Wynyard and St James, where it would intersect with the current heavy rail network.
This outbreak of common sense leads me to wonder... who will actually profit from all this? Call me a cynic, tell me I'm wrong, won't someone please tell me what's going on?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Not going to happen. My mate Matt Mushalik has calculated that by then diesel shortages will be so bad that the tunnels will not be finished. They would be better to whack up trams everywhere above ground, I mean with traffic down 40% in 10 years due to rationing, will we really need an underground tunnel system?

We need to electrify transport ASAP and not dilly dally digging unnecessary tunnels when we have so little time to solve Global Warming and Peak Oil.

(This message brought to you by Greenie Lefty Nutter extremists that only seem extreme because it hasn't happened YET.)

;-)