FUTURE///DESIGN//SYDNEY

Blog Updates

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Mon, 25 May 2009 12:51:00 +0000

Hi readers,

You may have noticed a couple of small changes to the blog. FDS now has a new logo, I hope you like it! The other update is the new twitter button on the right menu bar. FDS is now on twitter! Click the "Follow me @ t" button to go to the FDS twitter page.

Thanks for following!

Sydney Metro - on the move

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 05:48:00 +0000

Development of the CBD Metro is well underway now with the development approval application to NSW Planning and the release of a Preliminary Environmental Assessment of the project.

The agency in charge of gaining approval for the project is Sydney Metro, who have a new website about the project here.

I wrote about the CBD metro, here, after it was announced just prior to the November Mini-Budget. At the time I called the project a white elephant because it provided yet another high speed service to the city to those lucky Pyrmont residents. There are also a few other points that may impact negatively on other planning projects, but I'll get to them later.

In response to the Preliminary EA I have a few additional comments about the project.

White Bay Station
After completion, the construction site at White Bay will be safeguarded as a potential future station which "would provide opportunities for any development that may be planned in the future for this important inner city area."

I suppose this makes sense given the uncertainty surrounding the development of the White Bay area. I mentioned here that the use of White Bay as a construction site for the CBD Metro precludes any other development on the site until at least 2015 when the CBD Metro is due for completion. However, given the lack of any progress or consultation on the entire Bays Precinct, even if a concept plan were developed for the site it would probably be 2015 before planning approval was granted anyway.

I will point out that this is the second White Bay development rolled out by the State Government without any consultation with the community or the Bays Precinct Taskforce. The other being the new cruise ship terminal I discussed here.

Stabling and Maintenance Depot
The use of the Rozelle Marshalling Yard seems to rule out any possibility of a light rail extension to White Bay. Although it looks like it would still be possible to extend it to Dulwich Hill.

Property Acquisition and Development Impact
Sydney Metro is planning to adopt a "flexible approach to property requirements...with a focus on minimising property acquisitions." Under the current preferred option it looks like Sydney Metro is planning to acquire around 30 commercial properties, mostly in the CBD, to facilitate station construction and optimal location of station entrances. The NSW Government is not planning any high-rise development above Rozelle or Pyrmont stations.

Mode changes
Despite my opinion that the metro will be a bit of a white elephant, I have to say it is well integrated into existing transport modes. Metro stations will be connected to existing CityRail stations via underground walkways at Wynyard, Martin Place, Town Hall and Central. A bus/taxi/kiss-and-ride layover will be integrated into the Rozelle terminus and the Central terminus will be used as a main intermodal station. The Government plans to use more of the underutilised train terminus platforms at Central to terminate more suburban services at Central and free up extra capacity on the city circle and other CBD CityRail stations. CityRail commuters will have to terminate at Central and change to the Metro for Town Hall, Martin Place and Wynyard.

Rail Corridors
Last month I blogged about the CBD Metro plans to use the MetroPitt route under the CBD and whether it would rule out any chance of a further heavy rail tunnel through the city. Sydney Metro has taken these alignments into consideration and determined that "the development in the future of the Interim Rail West corridor...would not be precluded by the development of the CBD Metro." At least they're keeping their options open. Although I get the impression that they are freeing up "CityRail CBD capacity" in the hope that they won't need to build another CBD heavy rail tunnel.

Town Hall Square Station
The Town Hall Square station, planned to run parallel to Pitt Street under Park Street, takes into account the City of Sydney's plans to create a square on the site of the Woolworth's Building. It's good to see the intergovernmental acknowledgement and co-operation on these types of projects. A lot of what the City is trying to accomplish can't get done without State dollars and the State can't get their projects right without local consultation.

Rolling Stock

All trains would be automatic and driverless, controlled from an operations centre at Lilyfield. They would also be run through an automated train car wash every three days. Cool! The trains would have a wide central aisle and rows of twin seats on either side of the aisle. The seating would cover around one third of capacity, with the other two thirds standing. There would be plenty of wheelchair and pram space. The carriages would be joined by a wide, open partition (like a bendy bus) with no doors separating cars. Oh, and if you're interested they would be powered by overhead wires like CityRail trains.

Overall, the CBD Metro's real raison d'être is a backbone to the full metro network consisting of a Western Metro, North West Metro, South East Metro and North East Metro. And that's fine. When the State Government conceived the idea for the metro system, they clearly designed a full network. When it was time to put down the money, they staged the network development with the most critical arm - being the North West Metro - at the top of the list. When that became unfeasible, they went with what they could afford - the central spine.

What irks me is the spin doctoring. Firstly, they simply haven't clearly articulated their ideas for the full network, not even in the now defunct SydneyLink website (broken link). Show us what the full plans look like and you'll get some buy-in from the likes of us little people! Secondly, the CBD Metro doesn't have enough merit to exist as a standalone project. It's obviously a network component and nothing more, but they sell it like a brilliant piece of congestion-busting infrastructure in its own right.

Now we get down to the business of planning approval. Right now what we have is a preliminary EA. After the Planning Department provides its statement of needs, Sydney Metro will be able to produce a full Environmental Assessment and put it on exhibition for public comment. The schedule has this down for fourth quarter, 2009, so I'd estimate actual approval in third quarter, 2010 and construction commencing in first quarter 2012. If previous NSW rail projects are any indication we should see full operations commence in the second quarter of never.

Fly to Sydney via Canberra's Fast Rail

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 02:47:00 +0000

Canberra Airport has put forward a proposal to offset the costs of building a second airport in Sydney by investing in the expansion of Canberra airport in conjunction with a high speed rail link between Canberra and Sydney. Read more about it here.

I say go for it! Canberra's previous attempt at international flights ended in failure but it didn't have any kind of financial or infrastructure support that their current proposal has. Plus, a fast train between Canberra and Sydney will be a big boon for Canberra residents and businesses as well as Sydneysiders with links to the bush capital.

Sydney's Public Transport Tipping Point

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:01:00 +0000

The latest numbers from the NSW Transport Data Centre indicates that Sydney's inner and middle-ring commuters are driving to the CBD as much as the unserviced outer-ring suburbanites according to this SMH article.

It made me stop and think of why people don't use Public Transport or PT. Here's my list:

Cars are door to door, while PT includes walks and exposure to the elements at both ends.
Cars are spontaneous and convenient while you have to wait for PT.
It sucks to catch PT while carrying stuff.
You need to study up on the procedures, routes, fares etc for PT while cars are correct-as-you-go.
Car usage costs are no deterrent for the middle-to-high income set.
Sometimes you need to catch two buses/trains to get where you're going. This is annoying, it doubles the cost and - well - it just the principle of the thing!
PT is slower than cars. (Lets' face it - who isn't time-poor these days?)

So that's a lot of points. Let's refine our scope here. When we talk about traffic and PT problems we're really only talking about the daily peak times so it's all about getting morning and afternoon commuters onto PT. Let's also assume the major problems lie in the direct routes to and from the CBD. Statistics show these are the most congested and problematic routes.

So now I can eliminate issues of planning and waiting - this is all factored into the daily routine. The direct routes largely only involve one direct trip without the need to change trains. We could also assume that the majority of commuters aren't carrying groceries or other heavy loads on a majority of days. (Of course there's the weekly grocery shop at Woolies Metro on Tuesday nights, but that still leaves four days out of five unencumbered.)

What issues does that leave?

Cars are door-to-door.
Car costs aren't a deterrent.
PT is slower.

Let's look at each one:

Cars are door-to-door

Sure, if you're fat and lazy. I fully accept that this is a deal-breaker some of the time and for some areas of Sydney, but for the inner city daily commute? You can't walk a bit? Broke your leg? Your bus stop is five kilometres away? Anyone who hasn't got the message about obesity, climate change, pollution and traffic is just selfish. Buy an umbrella and catch a train!

Car costs are no deterrent

This one is interesting. The thrust of the aforementioned SMH article is that inner city people have no excuse to drive but do anyway because they can afford it. Tell that to the Mosman resident whose house price fell 10% in the last 12 months and might lose their job due to the economic crisis. The recession is looking long and deep. Costs will become more and more of a deterrent. Remember last year when everyone was saying the high oil prices were a boon to transport activists because it would be an incentive to switch to PT? I expect a long slow steady build in PT usage as the recession grinds on.

PT is slower
This is where the tipping point referred to in this article title comes in. If all else fails, then people will continue to abandon PT for cars. More cars means slower traffic all round. Check out my earlier post about the average traffic speeds on key routes to the CBD. This problem is self correcting, as cars on the roads continue to increase, private vehicle trips times will increase while overall travel times for trains and buses will reduce at a much slower rate or not at all thanks to segregated tracks, bus lanes, and other bus priority measures - making PT a better option.

This tipping point is inevitable and, if current commuter attitudes are anything to go by, it's almost here. The rush-crush will eventually drive commuters to PT, in turn demanding Governments to improve services. Many idealists believe (rightly but misguidedly) that PT improvement s should come first to lure commuters onto worlds best PT. History has shown that only in a crisis and under pressure do Governments act. The tipping point is coming and it will trigger rapid changes in commuter habits and Government investment in PT.

Get on board!

Barangaroo modification - what they're not telling you

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:51:00 +0000

The planning department has put a new modification to the Barangaroo concept plan on exhibition for public consultation.

The modifications relate specifically to the size and shape of Headland Park - the North Western tip of the peninsula. The park is being redesigned to match the shoreline as it was in 1836.

The Planning Minister's media release describes the modification as "a recreation of the natural headland." The concept plan modification will increase the size of the park and the Northern Cove.

What the media release doesn't say, but is clearly spelled out in the proposed modification letter is that the changes will also involve the removal of the harbour control tower and development land reserved for tourism and residential developments. This comes after the previous round of plan modifications that increased the floor plan for commercial developments at the southern end of the site.

The harbour control tower was built in the 1970s and has been in constant use ever since as the main control centre for shipping movements in both Sydney Harbour and Port Botany.

The original Barangaroo concept plans retained the tower in the heritage section of the environmental assessment. The new addendum to the heritage impact statement recognises that the tower is listed in the Heritage Act and goes on to state,

"It is recognised that the Control Tower may have some social significance due to its landmark presence in the landscape of Darling Harbour and Walsh Bay. However, this is not an established significance and is not considered to be of such strong importance to exclusively retain the structure within a new naturalised form and generously landscaped Headland Park."

Further drawings of the latest modifications can be found here (I see the new plans remove the tower but cruelly leave its shadow in place.)

Public comments about the modified plans can be made here until 6 March 2009.

Metro Pitt or Metro West?

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:32:00 +0000

It looks like trouble is brewing with CityRail and the NSW Property Council arguing against the NSW Government's plan to build the CBD Metro along the reserved 'Metro-Pitt' alignment under the CBD.

Here's a bit of history. In 2002 the Rail Co-ordinator General, Ron Christie, submitted a proposal for the next 50 years of rail expansion in Sydney. In the report he said that a new rail route through the CBD from Redfern to St Leonards would be required by 2011-2015 when other routes will become saturated.

In 2005 NSW Premier Bob Carr announced the Metropolitan Rail Expansion Program, which, taking into account the Christie Report, described a $8b project to build the South West Rail Link (indefinitely deferred in the November 2008 mini-budget), the North West Rail Link (changed to the North West Metro in May 2008 and indefinitely deferred in the November 2008 mini-budget) and the CBD Rail Link (cancelled in favour of the metro network.)

The CBD Rail Link was basically a new rail tunnel running North-South through the CBD from Redfern and under the harbour to St Leonards or Chatswood. In order to build the tunnel Premier Morris Iemma quarantined two routes under the CBD in February 2006. These protected alignments were known as the MetroWest and the MetroPitt alignments (see picture for indicative routes.)

The recent announcement of the CBD Metro clearly places the metro route along the Metro-Pitt alignment as you can see in the official NSW Government picture attached to the news release.

While Ron Christie's predictions of saturation in the other train lines in the next five years is looking increasingly likely, any chance of relieving the congestion with a CBD Rail Link disappears if the CBD Metro goes ahead.

It will be interesting to see how the Government will respond to this issue. If they reassure the people of Sydney that the CBD expansion of the CityRail network isn't necessary, they're hinting at their intention to move people in large numbers off the CityRail trains and onto the Metro as Sydney's preferred mass transit system. Maybe Les Wielinga, CEO of RailCorp, know this too since he has decided to resign from RailCorp to head up the new Sydney Metro Authority.

If the metro does go ahead and the CBD Rail Link issue becomes moot, time will tell if Ron Christie's predictions were correct and the rail network will hit capacity before 2015. Any relief would only come after completion of the Western Metro and no-one has any illusions that it would be before 2015.

Will Sydney's mass transit system survive the 2015 bottleneck?

Correction: Les Wielinga was CEO of the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority immediately before his current role as CEO of Sydney Metro. He was never CEO of RailCorp.

Laneway-gate

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 05:00:00 +0000

With laneways in the CBD being revitalised as pockets of culture and entertainment, the oldest laneways in Paddington are under siege as the neighbouring business owners - who also own title over the laneways - attempt to gate them off from the public.

More here.

I assume the owners have lodged a development application to Woollhara council for approval of the aforementioned gates. This will be a tricky one from council as they weigh up the proprietary ownership by the land title holder against the interests and voices of the local community.

Surfing the Commute

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 00:15:00 +0000

According to this article in adelaidenow.com.au the South Australian Government is considering fitting its public transport networks with free wireless internet.

Would the same idea attract commuters onto public transport in Sydney? Hillsbus seems to think so. According to the article selected Hillsbus routes already offer the free service on their buses.

At $1500 per bus I doubt we'll see the NSW Government shelling out half a million dollars to fit the 300+ new buses on order.

I'd like to see some stats on the cost effectiveness of this idea. I like the idea of providing these types of amenities on public transport - good service quality joined with a few special features like wi-fi might be the formula that gets people on board. Of course having the buses and trains run on time, uncrowded, clean and reliable needs to be locked in first. Maybe the Sydney transport system needs a bit more work before we 'log in'.

Traffic Trends

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 02:28:00 +0000

The NSW Audit Office has released the following data about the average speeds for seven major routes between Sydney and the greater metropolitan area for the last five years for the morning and afternoon peaks. I've graphed the data for easy analysis:

The overall trend is fairly clear and expected - the morning peak shows a general reduction in average speeds, indicating increasing congestion. The afternoon peaks have generally shown an increase in average speeds. There is significant improvement along the M2 and, to a lesser extent, the Pacific Highway since the opening of the Lane Cove Tunnel in 2007.

Some other points of interest I noticed:

Victoria Road is the slowest in both peaks. I guess this is why the NSW Government is pushing its Victoria Road project through the pipeline so rapidly, especially since the cancellation of the North West Metro.

Victoria Rd congestion has remained steady in both peaks despite the afternoon being 10km/h faster. My guess is the number of people using Victoria Road in the morning and afternoon has remained steady but the afternoon peak is more spread out allowing faster average speeds.

The only route to show a recognisable decrease in average speeds during the afternoon peak is the M5/Eastern Distributor route. This route has been criticised because it was built too narrow (only two lanes in each direction) and completely underestimated demand. This still doesn't explain the decline over the last four years because the M5 East opened in late 2001. Despite its decline, it's still one of the fastest afternoon routes.

The Princes Highway sits pretty low on both graphs but we don't seem to hear the same complaints from commuters coming from the south.

Since the cancellation of the North West Metro, the Government has promised to supply the North West with 100 new buses. If they will be on routes with no significant bus lanes they will end up sharing the road space with private cars and degrading the morning peak speeds even further. These stats will really show whether or not the RTA's efforts to alleviate congestion at key 'pinch points' will make any difference.

Infrastructure Australia shortlist

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 08:15:00 +0000

Last week Infrastructure Australia released a report to COAG. The report waffles for four chapters on their decision making methodology and satisfies other governance requirements with odd descriptions like transparency, probity and fairness.

Then it gets to the good stuff.

The report contains a list of 'projects for further analysis'. This isn't the final National Priority List commissioned by Government - that's due out in first quarter 2009. It's the shortlist of projects that have merit. Looking at the list I immediately noticed a couple of points - first, after receiving hundreds of submissions from industry groups, private companies and private individuals very few, if any seem to have made the list with the vast majority of projects being state government submissions.

Of the 94 projects on the list, 80 of them were submitted by state governments. That's 85% of the short list. Of the 14 remaining projects, four come from Brisbane City Council, three from other councils, four from the Australian Rail Track Corporation (a federal government owned company), one from the federal Department of Infrastructure one from Darwin Airport and one from Worley Parsons (a multinational resource and energy company.)

This clearly shows Infrastructure Australia's commitment to build infrastructure for the community - focusing on tiers of government to roll out services rather than private projects.

The shortlisted NSW projects are:

Northern Sydney freight Rail Corridor
Sydney CBD Metro
Sydney West Metro
F3-M2 Link
M4 Extension
M5 Expansion
F3 to Branxton Link
Pacific Highway upgrades
Princes Highway upgrades
Regional Water Reform initiatives
Aboriginal Community Water Supply and Sewerage Program

Sydney does well with six of the 11 projects. All of these projects were spelled out in the November mini-budget as being submitted to IA for consideration.

It being suggested that the Feds advised Rees not to submit the North West Metro for consideration, he's done well to have gotten the two current metro projects through the first hurdle. If NSW receives the $8.1b for the West metro and the $4.8b for the CBD Metro he will be well on the way to announcing the extension of the CBD Metro to Macquarie Park, effectively delivering stage 1 of the North West Metro.

IA have made it clear that the spending of the Building Australia Fund is a decades-long process but the first projects off the rank will have all the advantages to see them through to the end.

Barangaroo Delivery Authority board announced

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 13:10:00 +0000

The NSW Planning Minister has announced the board of the newly formed Barangaroo Delivery Authority.

In November 2008 Planning Minister, Kristina Keneally, announced that the design and construction of the Barangaroo site would be managed by a new dedicated agency called the Barangaroo Delivery Authority. Up until now it had been managed by the Sydney harbour Foreshore Authority. It seems that since the Planning Department was reclaiming the SHFA powers for approving foreshore development proposals they may as well take Barangaroo too. While Keneally says the SHFA "has done a very good job on the initial planning phase" I wonder why she feels she needs to take the project off their hands.

Five days ago Ms Keneally announced the names of the board members for the BDA. The board will be chaired by Michael Collins, who is also Chairman of the SHFA. This provides a strong continuity between the phases of the project and ensures a smooth handover from the SHFA to the BDA. The other key strategic member of the five-person board is Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney, ensuring a strong connection between Barangaroo's development and its integration with the current and future plans for the CBD.

The other three board members are Peter Holmes a Court, Chairman of White Bull Holdings, Brendan Crotty, Chairman of the Western Sydney Parklands Trust and Gabrielle Trainor, Partner, John Connolly and Partners and SHFA board member.

The other significant announcement coming out of Keneally's news release is that Darling Harbour Wharf 8 Cruise Terminal is being permanently relocated. It will be temporarily located at White Bay for a minimum of five years before a new permanent site is identified.

White Bay is currently part of the working harbour and hosts ships for various purposes including vegetable oil imports, servicing ferries and special events such as the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza open day in June 2008. While the operations in and around White Bay are slowly winding down, the NSW Government has been quick to make use of the land before it could be snatched away by developers. The White Bay precinct will now be used as a new cruise ship terminal, while the adjacent Glebe Island will be used as a construction site for the CBD Metro line, currently under development and awaiting funding. Residential developers and even the Sydney Fish Markets, who are hoping to relocate to Glebe Island, will just have to wait.

NSW Infrastructure Budget reviewed

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 23:31:00 +0000

Last week the NSW Treasurer released the NSW 2008-09 Half-yearly Budget Review. The half-yearly review is released each year around mid December to revise budget figures based on actual expenditure and financial indicators over the first half of the financial year.

This year the review is particularly interesting because it takes into account the November Mini-Budget and updates the 2007-08 State Infrastructure Strategy (SIS) to incorporate the large changes to the capital works program outlined in the Mini-Budget.

It also incorporates some major financial changes that have occurred since the Mini-Budget. Specifically:

The Commonwealth government's decision to front-end a large portion of NSW funding at the COAG meeting in late November in which $477m of the Commonwealth funding earmarked for 2009-10 to 2011-12 will be handed out this financial year.

$500m of debt in the housing and rail sectors will be paid off this year instead of spreading the payments across the next four years.

The further deterioration of the world financial markets.

The effect of these changes is to reduce this year's estimated deficit from $917m to $712m. It also reduces the estimated 2011-12 surplus from $900m to $813m. In NSW's current financial situation any decision that reduces short-term deficits by eroding longer-term surpluses is the responsible thing to do, especially when the money is used to reduce debt.

The review also updates the SIS based on major changes announced in November.

On the transport side, they will save $7 billion by converting the North West metro project into the CBD Metro. Savings from the deferment of the South West Rail Link will be absorbed by additional outer suburban train cars and increased Clearways costs.

On the electricity side, they will save an additional $1 billion by selling off their electricity retail businesses but due to their failure to successfully sell off the electricity generation businesses they have earmarked an additional $4 billion in baseload power generation investment.

These changes represent a $4 billion overall saving in the SIS, adjusting the total 10-year expenditure estimates to $139b down from $143b.

The Government has insulated itself as well as it can by back-loading the $4b in electricity investment into the latter six years of the 10-year SIS. They are hoping not to use this money if they can avoid it. In summarising the State's electricity expenditure, the review states,

"$3.4 billion...to invest in base load generation in the event the private sector fails to commit to developing adequate capacity."

Obviously if they can get the power generation assets sold off by 2012 the $4b comes back to them for reinvestment along with the $15b in proceeds from the sale, investment that will probably go straight back into the transport capital works program to complete the North West and Western Metros (as implied by the dotted ends of the CBD Metro.)

The most likely scenario is that they'll lose the 2011 election and the Liberals will sell off the power generation businesses, build the metros and slam the Labor opposition for not caring enough about North-West Sydney.

The half-yearly budget review can be found here.

Sydney councils win planning awards

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:32:00 +0000

Last month the Planning Institute of Australia (NSW) held its Awards for Excellence in Planning evening where a number of Sydney councils received awards and commendations for various urban planning projects.

Randwick City Council received a commendation in the Environmental Planning category for their Design Ideas for Rejuvenating Residential Flat Buildings. They also received a commendation in the Social & Community-Based Planning category for their Affordable Housing Strategy & Rental Housing Programme.

Waverly Council also received a commendation for in the Social & Community-Based Planning category for their Waverly Affordable Housing Program.

In the Urban Planning Achievement category City of Sydney received an award for their Sustainable Sydney 2030 vision as well as a commendation for their Late Night Trading Premises DCP 2007.

Willoughby City Council received a commendation in the same category for their Chatswood Civic Place vision.

Tenders for a sustainable Sydney

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:37:00 +0000

Today the City of Sydney called for expressions of interest for two projects to help with their goal of reducing council greenhouse emissions.

The first is a project to convert all street lighting to LEDs that consume far less power than other forms of lighting.

The second project will develop plans for Alternate Waste Technologies, specifically a methane gas extraction system that will allow the city's waste to contribute resources to the city's new, gas-powered green transformers.

These initiatives are part of Lord Mayor Clover Moore's Sustainable Sydney 2030 city vision. Since her re-election earlier this year she promised this term would be a term of action. it looks like she's putting those words into practice. While the city council is already carbon neutral, these initiatives will help achieve city emission targets set out in the 2030 vision.

Metro or not metro?

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:15:00 +0000

Given the fact that it doesn't actually exist, Sydney's extensive metro rail network is getting a lot of news coverage.

Yesterday the Sydney Morning Herald revealed that a report from metro rail experts commissioned by the NSW Government supports the building of the CBD Metro, the North West Metro and the Western Metro.

The report goes on to say that if NSW can put up the $4.8 billion for the CBD metro and the Federal Government's Infrastructure Australia puts up another $4 billion the entire $20 billion, three-line metro network can be built with the remaining money coming from the private sector.

The Herald also revealed that the report was finished well before the November mini-budget, that saw the indefinite deferment of the North West Metro, but was not delivered to Government until after the mini-budget was announced due to delays in the Premier's office.

Infrastructure Australia is the Federal Government agency set up to decide which infrastructure projects should be funded from the $20 billion Building Australia Fund. The Federal Government expects Infrastructure Australia will be able to hand down an interim priority list of projects in the next few weeks.

Walk Score

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:08:00 +0000

Here's a nifty little tool called Walkscore what lets you calculate your neigbourhood's walkability. It calculates it based on your distance from cafes, schools, parks, supermarkets etc based on local listings.

My home's walkscore is 69 out of 100 - Somewhat Walkable. Can you beat it?

Free city loop bus

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 03:24:00 +0000

The long sought after free city loop has finally arrived. Not in the form of free rail trips on the city circle or a light rail loop but in the form of the CBD shuttle - eight green buses that will run every ten minutes in both directions around a loop that runs along George and Elizabeth streets from Circular Quay to Central Station.

The shuttle, designated route 555, will run every day of the year (except Christmas) from 9.30am to 3.30pm weekdays and 9.30am to 6pm weekends and public holidays. Interestingly, it will also run right through the afternoon peak on Thursdays up until 9pm.

The shuttle is targeted at city workers, tourists and shoppers. Sydney is one of the last major cities in Australia to get a free city loop, something locals and businesses have been demanding for decades.

Sydney Lord Mayor welcomes the initiative but says it is inferior to her plans to build a light rail loop along a similar route claiming light rail would be cleaner and more efficient due to existing congestion along George and Elizabeth. I wonder how she can make this claim since light rail also competes for space with road traffic. Perhaps she feels her planned light rail loop along Sussex Street and Hickson Road will have less traffic impact. Either way, I think six additional off-peak buses on the road won't hurt the city too much.

It will definitely reduce short car and taxi trips into and around the CBD but whether that will actually reduce the amount of taxis in the CBD is unclear. It has also been suggested that the southbound trips may become overcrowded with people planning to ride the shuttle from Circular Quay to Central then change buses to save a couple of sections worth of bus fare.

Overall, this is a good service for the CBD for the relatively low price tag of $1.3m. It achieves the basic principle of getting bums on public transport seats. It also contributes to one of my three key transport improvements, which are:

1. Mass transit to public transport voids (e.g. North-West Sydney and the Northern Beaches)

2. More non-radial connections (not every train line needs to run to the CBD. We need mass transit connecting Parramatta, Liverpool, Penrith and Campbelltown)

3. Clear the CBD (this means more public transport and fewer cars in the CBD)

A free city bus loop is a big help to getting the CBD untangled and liveable.

City of Sydney moves ahead with cycleways

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:03:00 +0000

The City of Sydney has moved into the implementation phase of its plan to build 55km of separated cycleways across the council area and eventually link to a 200km cycle network across fifteen city councils.

Yesterday the City of Sydney announced it would be moving ahead with five major separated cycleway projects as well as the construction of 35km of separated cycleways on local streets and a study into a city-wide bicycle hire service.

The five major new cycleway projects are:

King Street, Sydney

A dedicated cycleway on King St between Sussex and Kent is currently under construction in the CBD. This will form an East-West connection between the Pyrmont Bridge and Clarence Street, which is planned to become the major North-South cycle route through the CBD. The bottom end of the Clarence Street cycleway will connect with Druitt and continue East along Park.

Bourke Street

The Bourke Street cycleway is the main north-south cycleway connecting William Street, Darlinghurst to the new major centre to be developed at Green Square. Plans for comment on this development will be made available on the City of Sydney website tomorrow.

Missenden Road

A separated cycleway will be built along the Eastern side of Missenden from Parramatta Road to King St, Newtown. The Southern end will connect with existing cycle paths on Bucknell and Wilson Streets while the Northern end is planned to connect to future cycleways along Pyrmont Bridge Road and on to Glebe. Construction on this cycleway is expected to commence in mid 2009. The proposed plan is currently online here and the public have been invited to discuss the route with planners at the Ridges Hotel, 9 Missenden Road, Camperdown at 6.30pm on Wednesday 10 December.

College Street, Sydney

The footpath along College Street alongside the park will be widened to allow a pedestrians and cyclists access to a new shared path along the route. The widening of the footpath will absorb the parking lane along the western side of College Street. Plans can be viewed here and comments will be sought when the development application goes to the Planning Department.

Union Street, Pyrmont

This cycleway will connect to the Anzac Bridge via Miller Street in the West and with the Pyrmont Bridge in the East and connect with the King Street CBD route. This plan is currently on exhibition and submission for comment close tomorrow. The plans can be viewed here.

Sydney Visionaries

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:59:00 +0000

The Museum of Sydney is currently showing an exhibition called "Sydney Visionaries" about ten visionary people who helped shape Sydney's urban environment.

Michael Duffy, of the Herald's Urban Jungle blog, has posted a short bio article of the ten people.

Single deck train jumble

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:56:00 +0000

NSW Transport Minister David Campbell wants to spend billions of dollars converting the inner city trains to single deck carriages.

Why? Because single deck carriages have a lower passenger-to-door-space ratio and can interchange at stations a lot quicker, reducing dwell times and speeding up the network by increasing the train car throughput on the system. Following me?

This makes the entire network a lot less robust as more trains trundling along the tracks means more chances of a breakdown affecting more services on the network.

Luckily the NSW Government is half way through a project called Rail Clearways designed to minimise cross-network disruptions. Unfortunately many of the Clearways projects were cut in last week's mini-budget.

Remind me again why single deck carriages are a good idea for Sydney.

To raise rail fares or not to raise rail fares

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:53:00 +0000

I blogged here last week about the plan to increase rail fares in line with the IPART review.

Well now it seems the Transport Minister is challenging these findings by assuring outer city commuters that rail fares increases will be limited to no more than 60c over the next year and $1.40 over the next four. In comparison, the IPART review recommends increases of $1 next year and $5 over the next four.

Growth Centres Commission decommissioned

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:09:00 +0000

On 29 October Planning Minister Kristina Keneally announced the Growth Centres Commission would be merged with her department. In a news release from her office she said,

“The Growth Centres Commission has been useful in kick-starting planning and development in Sydney’s north west and south west, but it’s only helping to provide 28% of Sydney’s land supply.”

The Commission was established in 2005 to speed up the zoning and development process for new land within the Growth Centres identified in the newly released Sydney Metropolitan Strategy.

The North West and South West Growth Centres were planned as areas of high population and jobs growth to help meet the city's planned growth targets set out in the Metropolitan Strategy. The North West Centre was designed around the planned major centre of Rouse Hill while the South West Centre spread out from the planned Leppington major retail centre.

The commission was also set up to liaise with other state agencies and local councils to coordinate the planning and infrastructure of the growth centres. Part of the goal of fast and efficient zoning revolved around a new planning system called Precinct Planning. In this system, the Growth Centres are subdivided into large precincts which are designed to maximise efficient population growth, water and power usage and full access for all new residents to shopping, amenities and transport. Most importantly, is the precinct plan eliminates a lot of the development red-tape.

A usual development application must adequately address local environmental and heritage concerns before it can be approved. In the Growth Centres, these issues would be addressed once as part of the precinct plan. Once the precinct plan is approved developments within the precinct don't need to address these issues in their application. According to the Commission, this will make developments fast and efficient and can cut the rezoning process from 10 years down to two or three.

The Planning Minister is hoping that by merging the Commission with the Planning Department the Commission's expertise can be more usefully spread across broader development regions across Sydney and NSW. She said in her news release,

“The Department of Planning will be restructured to have a stronger focus on the state-wide accelerated release of land in Greenfield areas and the redevelopment of existing urban areas.”

This acceleration may be in response to analysts who have recently said population growth in Sydney is accelerating faster than previously modelled. Housing and jobs growth planned for 2031 in the Sydney Metropolitan Strategy may not adequately cover the latest population growth estimates.

The Growth Commission has put out a statement confirming the Planning Minister's intention to merge the Commission with the Planning Department. It goes on to address the issue of cancelled transport links to the new centres. In order to provide mass transit connections to the Growth Centres, the NSW Government rolled out the South West Rail Link and the North West Rail Link that later became the North West Metro. When both these projects were cancelled earlier this month the Commission responded by sating that neither the restructure nor the cancelled transport projects would change the planned rollout of Growth Centre precincts and that transport access would be addressed.

Mini-budget reactions

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:40:00 +0000

So the NSW mini-budget came out yesterday. It's not a mid-year review or an update. No, it's a mini-budget - pay it no heed. However you call it, it has some maxi consequences for the future design of Sydney.

Having looked through the mini-budget paper and the Treasurer's speech I noted a few interesting points that will have a significant effect on Sydney's urban development and transport. And here they are in no particular order:

The State Infrastructure Strategy (SIS) will be revised later this month to bring it in line with NSW's new economic outlook and mini-budget forward estimates. Changes to major plans like the electricity sell-off and the North West Metro threw the entire SIS out of whack and it needs to be reprioritised. The money made available for other transport projects is cancelled out by the need to maintain investment in electricity generation.

The 15-minute Manly Jetcat service has been cancelled. Roll on the 30-minute Manly ferry service.

The parking levy has been increased from $950 to $2,000 in the CBD, North Sydney and Milsons Point and from $470 to $710 in Parramatta, Bondi Junction, St Leonards and Chatswood. The levy, a fee for maintaining commercial parking spots in these suburbs, will be passed on directly to shoppers and commuters in the form of casual and permanent parking rate increases.

In addition to other measures, RailCorp will be saving $9m over the next four years by "reducing bussing costs during planned maintenance by aligning services with need." This sounds like less rail buses come upgrade season. Unfortunately, it's always upgrade season.

The $181m upgrade to convention facilities at the Sydney Showgrounds at Homebush has been cancelled. This upgrade was designed to expand the capacity of the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour and bring more events to Sydney. I will be interested to see if this affects plans to build a business park on the grounds.

Rail fares will increase. When you're looking at a billion dollar deficit and the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal recommends increasing rail fares, you do it.

Harbour Bridge and tunnel tolls will go fully electronic. Tolls will increase during peak and decrease at night. This has been one of the most controversial decisions in the mini-budget. Widely mistaken for a congestion tax, the changes are designed to be a peak travel deterrent. Many commentators and northern residents have asked, quite rightly, why this change has only been applied to the bridge and tunnel, effectively making it a tax on north shore residents. The Government's reply is that the program may be expanded to all toll roads in the near future. Many have argued that this decision is politically motivated with the Government protecting their marginal seats along the M4 and M5 routes and penalising the Liberal voting suburbs in the north.

From 1 July 2009 the First Home Owner's Scheme (FHOS) will be applicable only to homes under $750,000. Hmm... interesting. I don't know how this one will affect the housing sector. My guess is it may discourage a few first home buyers from over-reaching.

The Victoria Road/Iron Cove Bridge upgrade has not been affected. This is probably a good thing since the new tolls on the bridge will probably drive additional cars onto Victoria Road. Ouch.

A small change to the time-honoured M4/M5 Cashback scheme - valid Cashback claims will now be limited to travel undertaken in the last 12 months. How many commuters were putting in bulk claims from the last three years, I wonder?

The North West Metro has been replaced with a CBD metro. I joked here that the Rozelle end of the CBD Metro would have a car park so commuters from Rouse Hill could drive to Rozelle and catch the Metro from there. Well, it looks like they will be building a bus-metro interchange at Rozelle instead.

A $3000 FHOS bonus to newly constructed first homes, in addition to the Federal Government's increases. This is clearly designed to apply upward pressure on the flagging housing construction sector. Unfortunately it will be completely absorbed in the downward pressure applied by increased land taxes.

The M4 extension, M5 expansion, Western Metro and North Sydney Freight line projects are officially on hold until at least 2012 unless the Commonwealth ponies up the cash.

There has been a general negative reaction to the mini-budget. Most of it coming from north-west residents who argue that the entire mini-budget is skewed against them. With the lack of transparency in the decision to replace the NW Metro with buses, increase tolling on the Harbour Bridge and tunnel and increasing rail fares I can see their point. Criticism also comes from analysts and economists who claim that every move to invigorate the housing sector is cancelled out in one way or another and that an economic downturn is the wrong time to be increasing taxes and reducing capital investment.

A lot of people have criticised the Government's focus on maintaining their AAA credit rating. The Government claims a downgrading of their rating would deter investors, increase interest payments, reduce business confidence and represent a reduction in fiscal discipline. Unfortunately the experts say this is exactly the time to increase debt, invest and provide an economic surge rather than save to maintain a high rating.

NSW Labor is looking down the political and economic barrel. My advice is be bold, think big and do it now! Bring in congestion taxes, trains, buses, variable tolling! The only way to win an election is through vision and action. Hearts and minds! If you're still confused try a one-on-one coaching session with Clover Moore.

Just bloody build something other than a tollway!

Sydney's Growth Areas to be reconsidered

noreply@blogger.com (ADAM///ROSALKY) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 04:25:00 +0000

The Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC) has called for the NSW Government to revisit its Metropolitan Strategy in light of their failure to provide transport to the area.

Planning Minister, Kristina Keneally, has said the population growth estimates that form the basis of the Strategy will have to be revisited.

According to the Strategy the largest areas of population and jobs growth will be in two large 'Growth Centres' one in the North West centred on Riverstone and one in the South West centred on Leppington.

With the cancellation of the South West Rail Link and the North West Metro - the two key transport services strategically designed to complement these areas - the Growth Areas won't accommodate anywhere near the expected growth figures estimated in the 2006 Strategy. This doesn't take into account that more recent analysis puts Sydney's growth at around 40% higher than estimates.