Read it at The Herald
A STATE of permanent transport gridlock is threatening to choke Sydney as it grows by a forecast 1.1 million people over the next 20 years.
The Iemma Government has released draft targets for each local government area to house the population boom, promising that $7.5 billion in road and rail infrastructure, bus services, open space, schools and health facilities will follow.
Under the draft plans compiled for the Government’s Metropolitan Strategy, 600,000 new dwellings will be built by 2031. The City of Sydney heads the list for the number of new dwellings with 55,000. A further 248,000 will be built in nine western Sydney council areas.
A number of prominent community leaders warn that the figures raise serious concerns about the ability of Sydney’s road and public transport network to cope.
The president of the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, Tony Hay, said the city needed additional rail lines and bus corridors, and a substantial increase in service frequencies, if it were not to descend into transport gridlock.
"While over 100 kilometres of motorway, mostly in the form of toll roads, have been built in western Sydney, the rail systems coverage is still much the same as it was in the steam era," he said.
"The result is a region that is heavily car-dependent – a problem that will only get worse as the population both increases and ages.
"In response the State Government has built two bus transitways and announced plans for the construction of the urgently needed north-west and south-west rail links. However, the north-west rail link is under threat from an unholy coalition of inner-city metro enthusiasts, road advocates and cost-cutting treasury officials."
Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the development was welcome but warned it must be accompanied by investment in community facilities and infrastructure.
"The State Government must provide the transport, hospitals and schools to support the increase [when needed], not 10 years later," she said.
NRMA president Alan Evans said the Government needed to give a commitments to its road network expansion and public transport plans.
"People just want to see action," he said.
A Department of Planning spokesman said the draft 25-year strategy and the Government’s 10-year, $110 billion State Infrastructure Strategy would be updated over time.
"Housing growth in existing areas will in the main be clustered within and nearby existing centres – quarantining 80 per cent of suburban streets from increased density," he said. "Furthermore, the strategy proposes to increase the rate of greenfield land to be released on Sydney’s fringe, in particular in the growth centres."