Sydney's future is Light Rail
The air pollution and traffic chaos in Sydney's heart will persist so long as Sydney's public transport is neglected. The Government's monument to bad planning - the Cross City Tunnel - has not eased congestion in the CBD, and if it builds the M4 East it would waste billions of dollars putting even more cars on the road. Light rail is the green solution for Sydney's city
The Greens are strong advocates of extending light rail into the CBD and inner Sydney suburbs, as well as creating greens transport corridors in the inner West. The Greens also propose a metro rail service travelling from the City under Victoria Road to Parramatta. This service would take tens of thousands of cars off the road and reduce travel time to Parramatta to 20 minutes.
In Sydney the Greens plan is for a light rail system that extends across the city. We will expand the bus and light rail timetables to encourage, rather than deter people from taking public transport to late night entertainment venues. The Greens support converting lanes on our existing motorways to light rail and busways to prepare Sydney for peak oil, when global oil demand outstrips the available oil reserves and petrol become unaffordable for the average motorist.
In the 1940s Sydney trams carried upwards of 400 million passengers using one of the largest street-based tramway system in the world. Sydney's bus system carries less than half that number of passengers today. The Greens support a Sydney light rail network to reduce the need for inner suburban residents to own private cars.
We support extending light rail infrastructure to connect Circular Quay with Railway Square in the CBD, and extend the rail from Lilyfield through the inner west and replace other high volume bus corridors with light rail. Light rail would reduce congestion in the CBD and free up hundreds of buses to be reallocated as part of the expansion of western suburbs bus services.
Labor
should formalise light rail plans for Sydney. The city deserves people
and environmentally friendly public transport options and Labor needs
to rebuild its credibility.
In 1998 the then Transport Minister Carl
Scully deferred the extension of light rail into the CBD and Inner West
until after the opening of the Cross City Tunnel. Labor then rejected
a feasibility study showing a disused Marrickville goods line could be
used to extend light rail through Inner West for a mere $50m.
Studies show light rail attracts business and is loved by residents who use it for work, shopping and leisure. The time for ignoring reports that show the viability of light rail is over.
