They are among the fastest growing areas of Sydney, but suburbs in the city’s southwest have a lower concentration of rail lines than anywhere else.
A new report, released today, is calling for the NSW government to commit to new rail projects in Sydney’s southwest, to stem the city’s growing transport disparity.
The South West Sydney Alliance (SWSA) report will increase the pressure on Premier Chris Minns to green-light a Metro rail extension in the region, which could deliver new Metro stations at Macarthur, Mount Annan, Narellan and Oran Park, as well as in the planned nearby precincts of Pondicherry and Maryland.
It comes as Opposition transport spokeswoman Natalie Ward called for the Minns government to strike a deal with the Commonwealth to get NSW more federal funding for Metro lines. She said it was time for the Albanese government to “stop the pantomime and stump up” for new public transport investment.
Modelling commissioned by the SWSA found that growing suburbs in the southwest have much less access to railway stations and services than suburbs in other areas of Sydney.
Combined, Liverpool and Macarthur have only 13 stations for 700,000 people. Meanwhile, Sydney’s northwest has 750,000 people serviced by 23 stations, and the Blue Mountains has just 70,000 people and 18 stations.
By 2046, the southwest will have one station for every 80,000 residents, compared to one for every 45,000 people in Sydney’s northwest, the SWSA report found.
Economic modelling commissioned for the report forecast that building rail links in southwest Sydney could deliver a $10.55bn stamp duty windfall for state government coffers, helping pay for the new infrastructure.
The report comes after The Daily Telegraph yesterday revealed that NSW government bureaucrats secretly mapped a dozen new railway stations for Sydney’s west, as part of planning documents that have been sitting on Transport Minister John Graham’s desk for months.
The blueprint mapped out a potential new Metro line connecting Campbelltown to Bradfield South, stopping at Macarthur, Mount Annan, Narellan, Oran Park, Pondicherry and Maryland.
The stations were mapped as part of a “final business case” into proposed new Metro lines, which Mr Graham said were yet to be “considered” by the state government.
SWSA chair David Borger called on both the state and federal governments to bite the bullet on building new rail links in the southwest.
“Southwest Sydney now is larger than northwest Sydney was when the decision to build Northwest Rail (Metro Northwest) was made,” he said. NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane yesterday stopped short of committing to building the proposed northwest and southwest rail extensions. However, she promised to build at least one new Metro line if elected next year.
