Lets not forget that the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built by depression labour. Is this another grandiose plan to accompany others on dusty shelves?
Sydney’s next big thing – and it’s bigger than the bridge
Nicole Hasham
April 4, 2012 – 2:23PM
It will use more steel than the Harbour Bridge and comprise the longest and deepest rail tunnels ever built in Australia.
The full enormity of the $9 billion North West Rail Link was revealed this morning when the first environmental impact statements into the plan were released.
The document examines the scope of construction work and outlines impacts on the community such as noise, vibration and local business impacts.

NSW Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian … announced the city’s biggest infrastructure project since the Harbour Bridge. Photo: Janie Barrett
The line will link directly underground into the Epping to Chatswood rail tunnel.
The link comprises 15 kilometres of tunnels between Bella Vista and Epping – the longest and deepest in Australia – and a four-kilometre elevated “Skytrain” between Bella Vista and Rouse Hill.
Construction work includes tunnelling, underground station excavation and above-ground works.
The Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, said today the infrastructure project was the city’s biggest since the Sydney Harbour Bridge almost a century ago.
“This project is just as important to the families and businesses of the North West as the construction of the Harbour Bridge was to the people of the north shore in the 1920s and 1930s,” she said.
About 70,000 tonnes of steel will be used during construction – 20,000 tonnes more than was used for the iconic bridge.
The 23-kilometre link will provide 300,000 people living in north-west Sydney with rail access to destinations such as Epping, North Sydney and the Sydney CBD.
Eight new railway stations are proposed: at Cherrybrook, Castle Hill, Hills Centre, Norwest, Bella Vista, Kellyville, Rouse Hill and Cudgegong Road.
It is expected to cut the number of buses entering the city from the M2 by 66 per cent
The environmental impact statement will be on display for public comment until May 21.
A second statement on the design of railway stations, operational rail infrastructure and signalling systems will be released later this year.
Major tunnelling work is expected to start in 2014.
The government expects trains to be running on the rail link by about 2019.