• 33km extension of M4 to airport
• Buses in CBD to go underground
• Light rail from Central to University of NSW
• No light rail in city
• No second rail crossing
• Tale of two plans
• Reaction to the plan

The O’Farrell government said today it would set aside $1.8 billion for the WestConnex motorway to run from Parramatta to Sydney Airport.

The 33-kilometre extension of the M4 in Sydney’s west, which will connect with another M5 East tunnel, were the major projects in a $30 billion infrastructure plan for the state released this morning.

This afternoon, the NSW Premier, Barry O’Farrell, said he would back the project.

“Even though times are tough, we recognise the need to invest in economic infrastructure to help boost productivity and create jobs,” Mr O’Farrell said.

“We said we would start work on one of Sydney’s missing motorway links in this term of government and WestConnex is that project,” he said.

“Today I can announce the next important phase in this project – the immediate establishment of the Sydney Motorways Project Office, within Roads and Maritime Services, which will be responsible for the detailed work required to make this road a reality.

The Infrastructure NSW plan, called “First Things First”, also proposes a motorway connection between the F3 and M2 motorways in northern Sydney to be built in the next five years.

The plan, released by Infrastructure NSW chairman Nick Greiner and chief executive Paul Broad at a press conference this morning, would require $20 billion in government funding in the next 20 years. Another $10 billion can be raised in tolls, the plan suggests.

The combined M4 and M5 extensions, dubbed WestConnex, are said to cost $10 billion, with just $2.5 billion in government funding.

The plan also proposes pushing buses underground in Sydney’s CBD to clear road space.

This would hinge on new underground interchanges at Wynyard and Town Hall stations, to be built within five to 10 years.

The plan rejects the idea of a second rail crossing for Sydney Harbour, as proposed in a separate plan developed by Transport for NSW.

The report recommends light rail from Central to the University of NSW, but not in the city centre.

It says the next train line to be built could be an extension of the eastern suburbs line to Randwick and Maroubra.

The chairman of Infrastructure NSW said he hoped the community would regard the report as “independent of the politics of both sides, of the bureaucracy and of the various interest groups”.

Mr Greiner said he hoped people would see the plan as “coherent” and “practical”.

“The last thing the average person in NSW [wants] is another theoretical exercise that has no likelihood of being achieved.”

He said that he hoped that “people see it as a step towards good things happening in infrastructure in NSW.”

The Infrastructure NSW plan proposes that $10 billion of the estimated $30 billion cost of the projects be funded through user charges.

The project proposes tolling on motorways but only on new and upgraded roads.

It also supports the idea of “value capture” to impose new taxes on properties that will benefit by being close to newly built infrastructure.

The report also proposes the government consider public private partnerships, including so-called “availability PPPs” where the risk is carried by the taxpayer, not the private sector.

Tale of two plans

The Infrastructure NSW report departs, in a number of respects, from a separate master plan released last month by Transport for NSW.

The Infrastructure NSW report is meant to be independent advice, which the government is free to accept or reject.

It remains unclear how the O’Farrell government will weigh the differences in the two reports.

The major difference between the two documents is that the Transport for NSW report argues that a second rail crossing for Sydney Harbour is needed within the next 20 years to add capacity to the city’s train system.

But the Infrastructure NSW report argues this project would deliver little benefit for great expense.

Instead, it says Sydney’s train capacity could be increased by converting to single-deck trains.

The two reports also depart on the question of light rail in the CBD. Transport for NSW is pushing the project, but today’s report warns against it.

Mr Greiner said it could constipate the city and that light rail had a dubious record as a mass transport option.

The report says: “A high capacity light rail service on George Street is likely to be incompatible with a high quality pedestration boulevard, and the negative impacts on bus passengers from inner suburbs may be considerable.”

– with Sean Nicholls

The Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, has dismissed concerns raised by her own department that Chatswood station will not be able to cope with an influx of passengers transferring off the north-west rail link.

The Herald this morning revealed analysis showing almost half of passengers in the morning peak hour would not fit on connecting services to the city because of the need to change off the north-west rail link at Chatswood.

The analysis was conducted by consultants from the engineering firm Arup, at the request of the Transport Projects Division within Ms Berejiklian’s Transport for NSW.

Crowd concern … rail passengers at Chatswood station. Photo: James Brickwood

But speaking on 702 ABC Sydney this morning, Ms Berejiklian said the analysis was based on incomplete information.

“It did not take into consideration all the operational changes that will happen on the rail line between now and then,” the minister said.

“It didn’t take into consideration that we will be increasing the number of services from the north shore to the city to 24 an hour; currently we are getting about 17 or 18 across, so that will increase substantially by the time the rail line is open.”

However, Ms Berejiklian has not explained in detail how she will be able to add another six services an hour to the North Shore Line.

She has said there will be a new, simpler timetable, and technology upgrades on the existing rail system.

“I have every single confidence that, once the north-west rail line opens, commuters everywhere else in Sydney will be saying ‘Can I have that in my area because it will be world class.’ “

The opposition transport spokeswoman, Penny Sharpe, said: “Commuters will come last under the Hills to Chatswood shuttle.”

“[Premier] Barry O’Farrell promised a fully integrated direct rail link between the north-west and the CBD, but, instead, commuters will get a service slower than the bus and will be standing all the way to the city with no chance of a seat,” she said.

The Greens transport spokeswoman, Cate Faehrmann, said the plans for the rail link would be a disaster.

“The government’s obsession with building and privatising the link will come at the expense of improving services across the network,” Ms Faehrmann said.

“A shuttle service to Chatswood simply won’t provide residents in the north-west with a genuine alternative to driving,” she said.

“Apart from the fact that commuters will be forced to travel long distances standing, Sydney’s rail system needs a boost to capacity that can only be provided by integration with a heavy rail second harbour crossing.”

At Chatswood station this morning, commuters were divided about whether the station could handle the impact of more interchange.

“It’s already overcrowded; it doesn’t surprise me that it could become more overcrowded in the future,” one commuter, Caroline Bathje, said.

Another, Kevin Adams, said: “I think this is a brilliant station. I can’t see any major issue with people disembarking … the station is big enough. Just as long as we get this new link done, that’s all that matters. I think the government are very, very proactive in finally getting things done.”

EXCLUSIVE

Broken promises … Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian at Chatswood train station, where thousands of disembarking commuters will be unable to get on city-bound trains already operating at capacity. Photo: Janie Barrett

RUSH hour commuters will be forced to wait for at least two crowded trains to go through Chatswood station before being able to continue their journey to the city, under the O’Farrell government’s centrepiece $9 billion transport project.

The government’s decision to build the north-west rail link as a shuttle between Epping and Chatswood, breaking its promise to allow trains to run all the way to the city, will lead to potential chaos for many north shore and Hills district commuters.

Thousands of commuters disembarking at Chatswood will be unable to get on city-bound trains already operating at capacity. And passengers getting off the north-west trains may struggle to fit on the crowded platform at Chatswood.

With an ”optimised” timetable for the north-west rail link, more than 40 per cent of peak-hour passengers transferring to the city at Chatswood will be unable to get on the next service because it will be too crowded, according to analysis commissioned by Transport for NSW and obtained by the Herald.

Further, more than 15 per cent of them will be unable to fit on the next two citybound trains on the north shore line.

The analysis was commissioned and done just before the Premier, Barry O’Farrell, and the Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, announced the new model for the north-west rail link on June 20.

Last night Ms Berejiklian said one of two environmental impact statements required for the link has received planning approval.

Under the model, the line will be built and run by a private operator rather than RailCorp. Transport for NSW hired consultants from the engineering firm Arup to look at whether Chatswood Station could cope with the passengers transferring to citybound trains.

Arup modelled what would happen if one peak-hour train on the north shore line was cancelled which, on RailCorp’s record, would happen about once a fortnight. In this case, 62 per cent of north-west rail link passengers would not fit on the first train to the city. Almost 40 per cent would not fit on the second train. More than 20 per cent of passengers – about 1900 people – would have to wait for a fourth, fifth or sixth train. In this scenario there would be ”extreme difficulties to alight and to enter the platform from stair”, a summary of the analysis says.

”Patrons entering the station have difficulty moving away from the stair and patrons coming off NWRL services … cannot exit carriages due to congestion,” the summary says.

Even with a good running service, queueing levels would exceed good practice. ”Modelling doesn’t take into consideration the frustration and anxiety of missing trains,” it says.

The modelling assumes 8880 people will get off the north-west rail link at Chatswood to transfer to the lower north shore or city.

Using freedom-of-information laws, the Herald requested the analysis in July. The response from Transport for NSW redacted all substantial analysis, in part because it said releasing it could jeopardise procurement for the line. The department said the analysis was only preliminary because it was based on assumptions still being developed.

The Herald obtained sections of the analysis independently.

A spokesman for Transport for NSW said the modelling obtained by the Herald assumed 20 trains an hour on the north shore line in the morning peak.

”We are undertaking work to determine what improvements need to be made to the network to run 24 trains an hour,” he said.

Ms Berejiklian said: ”The government is working to make this a world best-practice interchange and we are confident we will deliver that.

“Everything that has been presented to me by Transport for NSW leaves me in no doubt that Sydney’s rail future has been well thought through.”

The government’s infrastructure adviser, Infrastructure NSW, will release its plan for new tollroads through the inner west and south of Sydney tomorrow.

It will also recommend building an airport at Badgerys Creek, a move that is not supported by the O’Farrell government.