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All roads lead to the city

Kristina Keneally has taken the axe to the transport blueprint of her predecessor, cancelling the proposed metro network to spend the money on expanding the heavy rail system reports Andrew West in the Sydney Morning Herald of 22 February 2010.

But analysts say the 10-year, $10 billion plan falls short because it does not include key projects that link western Sydney with the booming job centres on the lower north shore. It allocates almost three times more money to roads than to rail transport.

Yesterday Ms Keneally released a glossy, 45-page brochure, one third the length of the 2031 blueprint that Nathan Rees was to launch last December, on the day he was dumped as premier. She insisted her plan was fully funded but revealed it would also include a new $30-a-year levy on vehicle registrations.

Her plan aims to speed up journey times for commuters in western Sydney but experts warn that its design could centralise job growth in the CBD.

Although she dumped the metro plans, Ms Keneally said the government would retain the metro corridors.

She promised a new $4.5 billion, five kilometre tunnel from Eveleigh, near Redfern, to Wynyard, which would allow new express services from western Sydney a faster run in to the city - and help Labor shore up faltering support in some western suburbs seats.

The proposals include $2.9 billion for 1000 new buses, $500 million for a 5.6 kilometre extension of the light rail through the inner west to Dulwich Hill, and a 4.1 kilometre extension to the new Barangaroo development, on the western side of the city, then under the Harbour Bridge to Circular Quay. The government says the light rail could move up to 10,000 people an hour through the city.

Ms Keneally also re-announced - over the objections of the Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal, say government insiders - a $6.7 billion north-west rail link between Epping and Rouse Hill. The project, originally announced in 1998 but deferred at least four times, will not be completed until 2024.

The government is also to pay up to $100 million in compensation to construction companies that had tendered to build the metro system.

''We appreciate some parties may have been adversely affected. We will reimburse all reasonable costs for the CBD [Metro],'' Ms Keneally said yesterday. But she refused to speculate on the amount of the compensation.

The government has already spent more than $200 million on preliminary work for the CBD Metro, including acquiring properties, and will have to hand back $85 million of the $91 million the federal government provided for a feasibility study for the West Metro between Central and Westmead.

Urban planner Garry Glazebrook, who was invited to sit on the government's transport blueprint committee but worked instead as a consultant on the Herald-backed independent public inquiry into Sydney's transport, said the $21 billion in unspecified road funding dwarfed the funds available to expand CityRail.

''If the objective was to improve public transport, that is a poor set of priorities,'' Dr Glazebrook said.

He said the plan was severely limited because it did not fill the ''missing link'' with a rail connection between Parramatta and Epping, making it harder for residents of western Sydney who would not have a direct connection to jobs in the ''global economic arc'' between North Ryde and North Sydney.

While he welcomed the decision to extend the light rail from Haymarket to Barangaroo and Circular Quay, he said axing the proposed loop down George Street would not provide enough relief in the city, which was already congested with buses.

Source: www.smh.com.au/nsw/all-roads-lead-to-the-city-20100221-onz1.html